The Pietist Canon of Value

One of the main concerns of the Pietists was the fundamental ethical improvement of society, whose moral neglect they perceived in all social classes. For this reason, the teaching of a specific set of values according to Christian standards was an integral part of the educational efforts of August Hermann Francke’s institutions, and these values were systematically imparted to the many thousands of pupils, who came from all walks of life, and later disseminated by them. This had a lasting effect in Brandenburg-Prussian society and beyond, so that these values are still regarded as ‘Prussian German virtues’ today.

This canon of values has always been the subject of contentious debate. Based on the cornerstones of Christian ethics, it describes in its basic features the framework of every social system and also sets out the constitutive norms of modern industrial society.