Buildings for Education

This large red brick building once housed the ‘Girls’ High School’. Today, it is simply called the Rote Schule, the ‘red school’. The building dates from 1896, more than 150 years after Francke died. By the late 19th century, Francke’s Institutions for orphans and the poor had grown to become a ‘school town’. Yet although the individual schools were aligned with the Prussian school system, each school nonetheless retained its own particular ‘Francke’ character. The Girls’ High School, too, was imbued by the spirit of August Hermann Francke.

To the right behind the Rote Schule, you can see a whitewashed building – the Historic Children’s Infirmary. The patients were looked after by medical students supervised by the Orphanage Doctor. In this way, the students gained experience in treating patients. In return, they were given free board and lodging in the Foundations. In that sense, the children’s infirmary was the first teaching hospital in Germany, since it introduced a period of practical medical experience that is today a mandatory part of medical training.

The larger Francke’s Institutions grew, the more difficult it became to provide all the food needed every day for the pupils, teachers and staff. In 1727, for example, the elementary schools had around 1700 pupils. There were nearly another 500 pupils attending the grammar and higher schools. In total, Francke had over 2000 pupils to feed everyday – and most of them ate for free. Francke’s budget was never capable of buying that amount of food on a daily basis.

This school building houses the ‘Latina’ – a classics-based Grammar School. Although the building only dates from 1904 to 1906, the school itself continues the tradition of the old grammar school founded by Francke in 1697. For a long time, the first Francke grammar school was housed in the Historic Orphanage, where our tour started.

Whether elementary school, grammar school, girls’ high school or Pedagogium ‑ all the Francke schools shared one common feature: lessons were never boring. Francke valued clarity in teaching and the use of realia and models in class. Moreover, he constantly ensured that the pupils learnt things they could already apply now and later in life.

Leran more about the education in Francke's schools.

Dieses dreiflügelige Gebäude wurde 1952 errichtet. Es ist nach Hans Ahrbeck benannt, einem berühmten Reformpädagogen, der nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg hier tätig war.

1946, nach Kriegsende, verloren die Stiftungen ihre Selbstständigkeit. Alle Gebäude, Archiv, Bibliothek, alle Sammlungen und das gesamte Stiftungsvermögen wurden der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg unterstellt. Das Erbe Franckes wurde nun unter gänzlich anderen Vorzeichen fortgeführt: Nicht christliche Erziehung mit unterschiedlichen Schultypen, sondern die sozialistische Einheitsschule stand auf dem Plan. Neue Gebäude wie dieses hier veränderten das Aussehen der alten Anlagen, während die historischen Schulgebäude, sofern sie den Krieg unbeschadet überstanden hatten, nicht mehr gepflegt wurden und mehr und mehr verfielen, bis hin zur völligen Verwahrlosung.

Die Scheune gehörte zu den alten Meiereigebäuden aus Franckes Zeiten. Dieser Bauernhof produzierte alles, was man in den Anstalten benötigte: Milch, Eier, Gemüse, Rind- und Schweinefleisch. In der Scheune lagerte man Heu, Stroh, Getreide und anderes Landgut. Heute wird die Meierei von der Universität. dem Familienkompetenzzentrum und dem Sportverein der Franckeschen Stiftungen genutzt. In der Scheune ist auch das internationale Spielehaus Zuhause. Dort kann man Spiele aus aller Welt ausleihen und miteinander spielen.