August Hermann Francke
August Hermann Francke (born 12 Märzjul / March 22 1663greg in Lübeck, .. † June 8, 1727 in Halle an der Saale ) was a German Protestant theologian, educator and hymn writer. He was one of the main representatives of pietism and founded in 1698, existing to this day Francke Foundations.
Life
Francke was the son of the lawyer and former general counsel at the cathedral chapter of the congregation and the entire estates of the Principality of Ratzeburg Johann Francke ( † April 30, 1670 ) vis -à-vis born to Lübeck's orphanage. His mother was Anna, the daughter of Lübeck Mayor David Gloxin († February 26, 1671 ) and his wife Anna Schabbel. 1666 was his father Court and Judicial Duke Ernst the Pious, and the family moved to Gotha. Here he received an education from private tutors, attended a Gymnasium Illustre in 1676 and then two more years was privately prepared for a university education.
Easter 1679 he entered the University of Erfurt in Conrad Rudolph Hertz a philosophical foundation course, became familiar with the Greek language and laid the rudiments of a theological study. In the fall of 1679 he continued his studies at the University of Kiel in Christian Kortholt the Elder. continued. In 1682 he spent two months in Hamburg Esdras Edzardus and returned to Gotha. In Gotha, he ran a half years a self-study, studied from Easter 1684 at the University of Leipzig and became a student of Adam Rechenberg, John OLEARIUS and John Cyprian.
After a short stay in 1685 at the University of Wittenberg, he became in the same year in Leipzig with a disputation on the Hebrew grammar the academic degree of Master of Philosophy, habilitated at the University of Leipzig and held first sermons at Leipzig Paulinerkirche. In 1686 he founded with Paul Anton, the Collegium philobiblicum, an association of Magisters to regular exercise in the then highly neglected in the universities exegesis of both the Old and the New Testament. He learned Philipp Jacob Spener know who had put on him significant influence.
Conversion
In 1687, he experienced his crisis of faith and new beginnings associated with conversion. After being at the forefront of pietism, first in Leipzig, then in Erfurt - each accompanied by riots and expulsions - had caused quite a stir, he was at the Theological Faculty of the University of Halle professor of Greek and Oriental languages , for later theology. He was once again his appearance for violent confrontations with the Lutheran orthodoxy. 1692-1715 Francke was pastor of St. George Church in suburban Glaucha Halles. Contacts with relevant personalities (Carl Hildebrand von Canstein, the military, to the Prussian royal house ) finally enabled him in 1715 an appeal to the city where he was from 1715 to 1727 pastor of St. Ulrich 's Church.
Foundations
The reasoning of the Francke Foundations in Halle is his real life's work dar. 1695 Francke began children in his community Glaucha to teach and care for them. On September 18, 1698, the cornerstone was laid for a new orphanage and within 30 years originated school and residential buildings, workshops, gardens and a pharmacy. In a total of 50 years of construction, a university town grew up, in which up to 2,500 people lived and worked on the conception of a Christian -inspired social reform.
Francke was initially dependent on direct donations for his company, but could by literary activity, institution -owned enterprises, fiscal privileges, etc. to increase the income. In his Halle companies Francke saw a beginning of a global " General Reformation ", which he sought to promote in particular by the Danish - Halle Mission and Cansteinsche Bible Institute. At the portal of the main house of his foundations he let Jes aufmeißeln LUT 40.31: " The waiting on the Lord renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles ." In addition there is a picture of two eagles flying up to the sun, which became the pictorial symbol of the Francke Foundations.
Death and effect
August Hermann Francke died on June 8, 1727 at the age of 64 years in Halle. His grave and that of his family are on the Stadtgottesacker in Halle.
The Francke - pupil Johann Julius Hecker founded 1747 in Berlin, the first hands-on junior high school, was the founder in 1748 of the first Prussian teacher seminar and prepared the General Land school regulations dated August 12, 1763 before a major. The regulations formed the basis for the development of the Prussian elementary school system.
August Hermann Niemeyer is to this day called the second founder of the Francke Foundations.
The publisher of the Francke bookshop in Marburg calls August Hermann Francke as its namesake.
Private library
August Hermann Francke was not only users in the " library of the Orphanage ", which represents the major part of today's Library of the Francke Foundations, but had even an extensive private library that has become known only since 2001, more details. A large part of it was as the heir to Francke's son Gotthilf August Francke and was auctioned together with his private library in 1770 in Halle an der Saale.
Family
Francke married on June 4, 1694 Rammelburg Anna Magdalena Wurm ( 1670-1734 ), the daughter of Otto Heinrich Erbherrn on Hoppenrode worm. Her parents were reluctant to link since Francke did not reflect the state of their daughter. Anna Magdalene supported and defended her husband in his religious work. She nursed him devotedly in his last years of illness. From the 33- year marriage a daughter and two sons were born. Of the children is well known:
- August Gottlieb Francke ( † young)
- God Help August Francke was a theologian
- Johanna Sophia Anastasia Francke, married to Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen
Remembrance
8 June at the Protestant calendar name.
Swell
Francke's reform and programmatic work of the Halle Pietism (1704):
- August Hermann Francke's signature on a reform of the educational system as a starting point of a spiritual and social reorganization of the Evangelical Church of the 18th century: the Great Tower. With a source known union introduction. Edited by Otto Podczeck. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1962.