The Building and Architectural History of the Francke Foundations in a Comparative Perspective
Uwe Gaasch
The research carried out in recent years on the architecture of the Francke Foundations and their intended effects have made it clear that the »Orphanange« in Halle is a unique Baroque complex. Here a new formal language of public-representative building was developed in order to place fundamental social tasks - piety, upbringing, education, social welfare - in a new spatial context and to shape them through this. The research combines architectural, cultural and socio-historical perspectives. They focus - nationally and internationally comparative - on two interconnected thematic areas: On the one hand, the aim is to generate further concrete knowledge about the foundation's buildings (including technical and architectural history aspects, such as the wooden constructions and mansard roofs), and on the other hand to address the overall context of the building tasks of social welfare and education in the Baroque era, which have so far received little attention.
International conference
From 13 to 15 October 2022, an international and interdisciplinary conference on early modern educational architecture was held at the Francke Foundations. The conference volume Frühneuzeitliche Bildungsarchitekturen. Internationale und interdisziplinäre Perspektiven was published by the Francke Foundations in 2024.
