Pietismus-Cabinet

What is the power of the word? The word was of central importance for Halle's pietism. In the entrance floor of the Historical Orphanage we show you how the word August Hermann Francke's Reform Movement could carry around the world.
With Halle's Pietism, Francke further developed Martin Luther's central reformatory aims. His approach was as clear as it was revolutionary: Every person should find God through his own Bible reading. But everyone - boys as well as girls - had to learn to read, everyone should be able to afford their own Bible and it should also be printed in their own mother tongue. Francke therefore established schools for all classes, printed millions of German-language folk bibles and created an international network through which the Bible could be translated into many other languages. His educational offensive allowed a broad population to deal with the word. In the Protestant parsonages of the 18th century, the authors of Romanticism and Enlightenment became great. In Pietism a culture of self-reflection spread, which was reflected in diaries and self testimonies and today gives us amazing insights into the soul life of the people of that time. The power of the word is also symbolically shown in the lavishly restored pulpit from the Church of St. Ulrich in Halle, from which Francke preached from 1715 and which you can admire in the exhibition.