Cataloguing, Research, Publications
The Francke Foundations place great emphasis on researching their holdings. Extensive digitisation, indexing and editing projects are being carried out, in part with cooperation partners and within the framework of third-party funding. They serve as a basis for own academic research projects and invite external scholars to study the unique sources. Special importance is attached to the promotion of junior scholars through teaching, internships, supervision of qualification theses and scholarship programmes.
Important partners are the interdisciplinary Centres for Research into Pietism and into European Enlightenment on the campus of the Francke Foundations. Stock-related research is discussed in conferences and workshops and published in the Hallesche Forschungen of the Foundations’ own Department for Publications. Five other publication series, including the Hallesche Quellenpublikationen and Repertorien, integrate the Foundations into the supra-regional and global cultural and academic exchange. Direct worldwide access to sources on Halle Pietism is also offered by the Digital Collections.
On the campus of the Francke Foundations, the network »Editions on Pietism and Enlightenment« has joined to enable a regular exchange of experience and information on the theory and practice of editing, also beyond the campus boundaries, via this platform. One example of such a cooperative editing project is the multi-volume publication of the journals and correspondence of pastors sent from Halle to Pennsylvania, which was implemented from 2013 to 2021 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Mark Häberlein, Bamberg, Prof. Dr. Hermann Wellenreuther, Göttingen, and Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Bahlke, Halle, with the support of the German Research Foundation. Two doctoral theses have also resulted from this project. Another example is the edition of relevant hymnals from the Baroque period and Pietism, which has been the focus of the Hymnological Research Centre at the Francke Foundations for two decades.
Based on its holdings and their indexing, the Francke Foundations develop interdisciplinary academic projects and cooperate with regional, national and international institutions and partners. One project, for example, is concerned with the Francke Foundations as early modern educational architecture. Based on historical source material on school history, it will make a contribution to the research desideratum on educational architecture before 1800. It is connected to a long-term research project on the building and architectural history of the Francke Foundations, which links architectural, cultural and social historical questions in a comparative perspective. The new insights gained in the process have been published in several publications.
Last but not least, the cataloguing and research of the holdings also leads to the annual cultural-historical exhibitions of the Francke Foundations, which also cover a broad range of topics, such as medicine and hygiene in the 18th century and youth in classical modernism. Their scientific results are made visible in elaborately designed catalogues.
The pages of the Study Centre, the Research Centre and the Publication's Department provide information on further indexing, editing and research projects as well as on the publications of the Francke Foundations.
Safeguarding good research practice
The Francke Foundations have joined the initiative of the German Research Foundation and the German Rectors' Conference for safeguarding good research practice. To this end, they have concluded a cooperation agreement with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg regarding its “Statutes on the principles for safeguarding good research practice and dealing with allegations of scientific misconduct” (renewed in October 2024). These and the contact details for the ombuds committees can be found here:
https://www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/KANZLER/ZGST/ABL/2024/24_01_01.pdf
https://www.uni-halle.de/forschung/wiss_fehlverhalten/ombudsgremium/
