What power does the word have? For Halleschen Pietismus, the word was of central importance. On the ground floor of the Historical Orphanage, we show you how August Hermann Francke's reform movement could spread around the world.
Francke developed central reformative goals of Martin Luther's with Halleschen Pietismus. His approach was as clear as it was revolutionary: Every person should find God through their own Bible reading. However, for this to happen, everyone - boys and girls alike - had to learn to read, everyone should be able to afford their own Bible and it should be printed in their own native language. Therefore, Francke established schools for all social classes, printed millions of German-language People's Bibles, and created an international network through which the Bible was translated into many other languages. His educational initiative allowed a broad population to engage with the word. In the 18th-century evangelical parsonages, the authors of the Romantic and Enlightenment periods were highly regarded. A culture of self-reflection spread in Pietism, which was reflected in diaries and personal testimonies, giving us remarkable insights into the spiritual life of people of that time. Symbolically, the power of the word is also evident in the meticulously restored pulpit from the Church of St. Ulrich in Halle, where Francke preached from 1715 and which you can admire in the exhibition.
10:00 am - 5:00 pm