Historical Networks

In the Baltic region of the 18th century, there was an influential German minority, most of whom were Lutheran. Pietistic piety took hold early on, and many German Balts endeavoured to spread Pietism among Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians and to promote the national languages for this purpose. Eberhard Gutsleff (c. 1691–1749), for example, who had been an ardent supporter of Francke since his student days in Halle, published an Estonian hymn book for home and church use, which was printed in Halle. In Alp (Albu) near Reval (Tallinn), an orphanage based on the Halle model was founded in 1717. The Lithuanian Seminary at the Francke Foundations, founded by Gotthilf August Francke in the summer of 1727, was short-lived. Johann Richter (dates of birth and death unknown) and Friedrich Wilhelm Haack (1706–1754) taught a number of students, and a Lithuanian-German dictionary was published in 1730.

The universalist and educational ideas of the Bohemian Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670) served as a model for August Hermann Francke. Through the Netherlands, he came into possession of part of Comenius' estate and posthumously published one of his works. When parts of the Protestant population were expelled from Bohemia around 1700, they found refuge in Brandenburg-Prussia. Francke took up their cause. Religious books were now printed in Czech in Halle, including translations of the works of A.H. Francke and Freylinghausen. The publication of a Czech Bible in 1722 was the culmination of this development. Heinrich Milde (1676–1739), a colleague of A.H. Francke, was responsible for the Halle orphanage's contacts with Eastern Europe and looked after Bohemian exile communities in Barby on the Elbe and in Lusatia. He bequeathed his private book collection, which included numerous Czech prints, to the orphanage's library.

The Comenius manuscripts that Francke had received were only rediscovered in 1935 by Dmitrij I. Tschižewskij (1894–1977) in the library of the Francke Foundations. They are now kept in the National Library in Prague, after the GDR presented them to the then CSSR as an official gift during a state visit in 1957. Shortly before his death, Werner Koorthase (1937–2008) bequeathed a copy of the manuscripts to the Francke Foundations.

An astonishing, albeit unsuccessful, plan determined the Francke Foundations' contacts with Greece. Conceived by diplomat and linguist Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf (1655–1712), a Collegium Graecum for young Greeks was to be established in Halle. Educated here, they were to influence the Greek Orthodox Church in the spirit of Protestantism. To implement the plan, two young theologians were sent to Constantinople (Istanbul) and Adrianople (Edirne) in 1700. Their task was to recruit Greeks to study in Halle, which they succeeded in doing in 1702 after the founding of the Collegium orientale theologicum. However, the narrow-mindedness of the Pietist circles and the lack of scholarships soon prompted them to return home. The only lasting success of the venture was the ancient Greek-modern Greek parallel edition of the New Testament. Today, it is considered a milestone on the path to Greek national independence in the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Danish King Frederick IV (1671–1730) initiated the first sustainable Lutheran mission in Southeast India. From the outset, Pietists from Halle worked as missionaries in the Danish trading post of Tranquebar. From 1706 onwards, the Danish-Halle Mission strengthened the Francke Foundations' ties with the Danish royal family. A visible expression of this was the orphanage in Copenhagen, built in 1727 on the model of the one in Halle. Christian VI (1699–1746), Frederick's successor to the Danish throne from 1730, strongly promoted Pietist reforms of the church and school system in his lands. He was in close contact with his cousin Count Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1691–1771), probably the most important noble ally of the Halle orphanage in the 18th century. Numerous Pietists travelled to Denmark via the Halle–Wernigerode axis and had a lasting influence on intellectual and cultural life there. This applies, for example, to the theologian Adam Struensee (1708–1791), whose son Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737–1772) was one of the most famous pupils of the Latin School of the Francke Foundations. Johann Friedrich not only became famous for his medical research, but also initiated significant social reforms in Denmark as a leading minister.

Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf was instrumental in establishing links between the Francke Foundations and Great Britain. As secretary to Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708), who later became the husband of Queen Anne (1665–1714), he worked in London from 1686 until his death. He arranged for the Halle Pietist Anton Wilhelm Böhme (1673–1722) to become court preacher and pastor at the German court chapel in St James's (1705), thus laying the foundation for the Halle Pietists' long-standing network. Francke himself became a corresponding member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in June 1700. London established itself as the most important hub in the international network of Halle Pietism during the 18th century. This is where the connections to and from North America and India converged. Böhme paved the way for Francke's ideas in the English-speaking world by translating important writings such as ‘Segensvolle Fußstapfen’ (Blessed Footsteps). He also arranged for English students to be sent to Halle, where an ‘English House’ (now House 26) was built specifically for them with funds from English donors. Böhme's successor, Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen (1694–1776), later became an irreplaceable link between Gotthilf August Francke and the North American Lutheran communities in Pennsylvania and Georgia. It is also largely unknown that in 1836, Georg Müller (1805–1898), a student from Halle, founded five orphanages in Ashley Down, Bristol, based on the Halle model. Today's George Müller Foundation continues this charitable work in England according to modern principles.

August Hermann Francke was well acquainted with the religious and social conditions in the Netherlands at the end of the 17th century through his correspondence with, among others, the theologian Friedrich Breckling (1629–1711), who had fled there. This correspondence also kept him informed about the general openness of the Dutch to Puritan intellectual currents and the special path of reform theology taken by the ‘Nadere Reformatie’ (Further Reformation). In 1705, A.H. Francke also undertook his only trip abroad to the Netherlands. However, the Pietist way of life found few real followers there. Nevertheless, with its symbiosis of spiritual life, economic activity and social engagement, the country was an important model for August Hermann Francke's school town in Halle.

Due to the wealth of its cities at the end of the 17th century, the Netherlands was considered pioneering, especially in the care of orphans. This was also known in Halle. As early as 1697, Francke's closest colleague, Georg Heinrich Neubauer (1666–1726), had travelled to the Netherlands via Hanover. His mission was to inspect existing orphanages in Amsterdam, such as the Burgerweeshuis. Orphan and poor relief in the Netherlands, one of the most progressive states of the time, was to serve as a model for the planned orphanage in Halle. All important information was recorded in a catalogue of approximately 200 individual questions (!). Based on Neubauers findings, Francke laid the organisational and structural foundation for his orphanage in 1698.

But Neubauer's journey was not only exemplary for the construction of the orphanage in Halle. Neubauer himself wrote meticulous notes to help subsequent travellers from the Pietist network prepare for their journeys. Like today's travel guides or travel blogs, the notes contain valuable information about travelling in foreign countries, including an enlightening explanation of what a traveller in the 18th century had to bear in mind when travelling in a schuyte (a flat boat that was pulled through the canals).

From the outset, there was a close connection with the Protestants in the recatholicised Habsburg Silesia. Thus, the Pädagogium Regium, the school established for the nobility and bourgeoisie on the grounds of the Francke Foundations, was attended by a particularly large number of children from Silesia since its establishment in 1695. The teaching of Polish at the Collegium Orientale Theologicum from 1702 onwards and the printing of the Bible in Polish in 1726 mark further years of intensive efforts by the Halle Pietists to support the denominationally oppressed Lutherans in Poland and Silesia. Lutheran children from the region were educated in Francke's schools, and in 1709 an attempt was made to employ two of Francke's closest associates as teachers and pastors at the Gnadenkirche and school in Teschen (Cieszyn). Francke was supported in this endeavour by a group of Pietist-minded nobles who had family connections in Silesia. In Breslau (Wrocław), for example, the Halle emissary Anhard Adelung (died 1745) was active from 1712 to 1745. Orphanages based on the Halle model were established in Sorau (Żary) in 1718, in Züllichau (Sulechów) and Ober-Glauche (Głuchów Górny) in 1719, and in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in 1754. In particular, the orphanage established by Sigismund Steinbart (1677-1739) in Züllichau developed into a sustainably successful offshoot of the Halle model through the establishment of commercial enterprises, the Frommann bookshop and its own educational institution. The Institutum Judaicum et Muhammedicum, founded in 1728 by Francke's student Johann Heinrich Callenberg (1694-1760), also focused on Polish Jewry in its missionary work. The Jewish communities were visited by the travelling staff of the Institutum, whose diaries from 1730/31 testify to a pronounced culture of interreligious debate.

The connections between the Halle Orphanage and Russia were significantly facilitated by the reform policies of Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725). August Hermann Francke corresponded via Russia with the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) and established numerous contacts through the orientalist Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf. Ludolf authored the earliest grammar of the Russian language and, in 1698, offered the first academic instruction in Russian in Halle.

Francke’s staff and students benefited from these networks and language skills, finding employment as private tutors, pastors, civil servants, and physicians in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Siberia. Orphanages modeled on the Halle example were also established in Narva, Astrakhan, and Tobolsk. Even remote regions were reached by the Halle Orphanage’s extensive trade in books and medicines.

Scholars likewise drew on these international connections, among them the Siberia researcher Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709–1746). He maintained close ties with Laurentius Blumentrost the Younger (1692–1755), who had studied in Halle and later served as the Tsar’s personal physician and founding president of the Academy of Sciences

Pietism also gained a broad following in Hungary and Transylvania, which were largely part of the Catholic Habsburg Empire. András Torkos (1669–1737) is considered the father of Hungarian Pietism. On the advice of Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705), he studied under August Hermann Francke. Among other works, he translated Luther's Small Catechism into Hungarian and had it printed in Halle. As a result, Francke's writings also found their way to Hungary, translated by Hungarian students in Halle. One of the translators, János Szabó (1695–1756), opened an orphanage in Tschobing (Nemescsó) in 1724, modelled on the one in Halle. Among the many Pietists in the Carpathian Basin who worked in their homeland in the spirit of August Hermann Francke, Mátyás Bél (1684–1749) stands out in particular. He studied in Halle from 1704 to 1708 and then worked for many years as a parish priest, school rector and scholar in Pressburg (Bratislava), which was also known as ‘Little Halle’ during his lifetime. Bél entered the intellectual history of his country as the author of Notitia Hungariae historico-geographica, a fundamental work on the history and geography of Hungary.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Danish King Frederick IV (1671–1730) intended to establish a Protestant mission in Tranquebar on the south-east coast of India. The first missionaries to be sent to Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) on the Coromandel Coast were Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719) and Heinrich Plütschau (1677–1752), two students of A.H. Francke. In 1706, they reached the Danish trading colony, where they learned the local languages Tamil and Portuguese, founded schools based on the Halle model, and established close contacts with the local people. Perhaps their greatest achievement was the translation of the Bible into Tamil. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau were the first of 80 missionaries, most of them from Halle, who were sent to India over a period of nearly 150 years – the first permanent Protestant mission ever. Locally and in India as a whole, the Halle missionaries competed with other European Christian missionaries, such as the Jesuits and Herrnhuters, and often enough also had conflicts with the Danish, later English colonial rulers, whose goals did not coincide with those of the mission.

Many objects in the art and natural history chamber, as well as tens of thousands of letters, translations and a large collection of palm leaf manuscripts in the archives of the Francke Foundations, bear witness to the intense engagement with Indian cultures, but also to the exploration of nature. The art and cultural objects, which were acquired through purchase, exchange or donation, as well as the collected natural history specimens later became the core of the foundations' art and natural history collection, which can still be experienced today. The collections served two purposes: on the one hand, they served an educational purpose and symbolised the diversity and greatness of divine creation through the multitude and variety of objects. On the other hand, they also represented a showcase of the mission's achievements and presented its successes and the sought-after progress of the Kingdom of God in the world. These collections, along with diaries and correspondence, were also sources for the first Protestant missionary journal, Hallesche Berichte, which was published from 1710 onwards. Among its famous subscribers was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). In 1919, the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) was founded on the legacy of the Danish-Halle Mission. Since 2017, the Museum for Intercultural Dialogue has been open in the former residence of missionary Ziegenbalg in Tharangambadi. This is a joint project of the Francke Foundations and the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in South India with the help of many partners. The aim is to portray the diversity of historical actors, the non-linear development and the cultural intersections of Indian and European societies.

Following the example of the Danish-Halle Mission of the 18th century, a new missionary endeavour emerged in Borneo in the 19th century, which operated within extensive networks. In cooperation with the Rhenish Mission Society based in Barmen (now Wuppertal), which was also establishing a Protestant mission in South Borneo at the same time, and in close consultation with the Barmen mission inspector Johann Heinrich Richter, foundation director Hermann Agathon Niemeyer sent missionaries Heinrich Julius Berger (1800–1845) and Johann Michael Carl Hupe (1818–1861) to the island in the Malay Archipelago, which was under Dutch colonial rule. Numerous objects that the two collected from various local population groups and sent to Halle, also in the tradition of the earlier Halle mission, are still preserved in the Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities today. The Bethabara mission station in the Pulopetak area of South Borneo, founded by Berger in 1838, was taken over after his death by the closely associated Rhenish Mission Society, which continued the work there.

August Hermann Francke had already taken an interest in the New World and was engaged in scientific and theological correspondence with the Puritan clergyman and scholar Cotton Mather (1663–1728) in Boston. During the tenure of the third director of the Francke Foundations, Gotthilf August Francke, the Halle Pietists' contacts with North America deepened. When, from 1731 onwards, around 20,000 Protestants were expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg because of their faith and sought a new home (the so-called Salzburg emigrants), the orphanage actively participated in providing for these religious refugees. A significant number of the Salzburgers subsequently moved to the newly founded colony of Georgia in what was then British North America. They received support from Halle not only in the form of donations and printed works, but also from Halle pastors who accompanied them to their new home and settled there with them. Shortly afterwards, the German Lutherans in Pennsylvania asked their contact in London, Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen, to find them trained pastors. Ziegenhagen turned to Gotthilf August Francke, who sent Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg (1711–1787) in 1741. Mühlenberg is now considered the ‘patriarch of the Lutheran Church in North America.’ His sons, educated in Halle, were to become influential figures in early American history. Friedrich (Frederick) August (1750–1801) is known as the first Speaker of the House of Representatives and the first signatory of the Bill of Rights, while Johann (John) Peter Gabriel (1746–1807) fought as a brigadier general under George Washington (1731–1799) and is honoured with a memorial on Capitol Hill.