strong roots – inspiring vision

The Francke Foundations in Halle are visible evidence of the comprehensive social and educational reforms with which August Hermann Francke (1663–1727) initiated social change more than three hundred years ago, changes that had a broad impact even during his lifetime and can still be felt today. The Franckesche Stiftungen's application for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List has led to systematic and very intensive scientific study of its completely preserved 18th-century social and educational architecture, which still constitutes the core ensemble of the foundations in its uniqueness today.
This exhibition catalogue illustrates the new insights gained from the application about the foundations, in particular their architectural history and the ideological and cultural-historical conditions that shaped them. In addition to a detailed introduction to the buildings of the foundations in the context of the period around 1700, short but vividly illustrated chapters provide insights into specific aspects of the architecture of the Francke Foundations: the half-timbered construction, the mansard roofs, the façade of the orphanage, the overall architecture and its inhabitants. Two further short chapters present other significant functional architecture and the influence of the Halle Orphanage, as well as the exemplary nature of the foundations for a stylistic principle in architecture that extends into the modern era – the pronounced functionality of the buildings.
For the first time, this catalogue also contains the complete technical reports that form an essential basis for the foundations' UNESCO application, accompanied by modern architectural photographs of the ensemble by Uwe Gaasch. In addition to architectural history, the reports cover all other outstanding issues relating to the cultural and historical significance of the foundations, thus providing important impetus for further research projects.
The work suggests that the orphanage in Halle and the entire Francke Foundations complex represent a truly unique example of Baroque architecture in both national and international terms, with no previous comparable examples. A new formal language of public representative architecture was developed here, placing fundamental social tasks – social welfare, education, upbringing, piety – in an overall spatial context. In addition, new and complex construction technology and design methods and approaches were used. The exhibition catalogue thus opens up a view of social welfare buildings in the 17th and 18th centuries and attempts to focus more closely on this hitherto little-noticed field of work, which has been overshadowed by Baroque research and early modern social history, and to provide starting points for comparative international research on welfare and educational architecture in the pre-modern era.
The catalogue thus offers both interested lay readers and experienced researchers new and exciting insights into the Francke Foundations.

The catalogue is published in both German and English.