The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Francke, August Hermann

FRANCKE, August Hermann, a German preacher, founder of the orphan house at Halle, born in Lübeck, March 23, 1663, died June 8, 1727. He studied at the universities of Erfurt, Kiel, Gotha, and Leipsic, and founded in Leipsic a school for the interpretation of the Scriptures, which attracted a great number of students. Accused of pietism, he was obliged to renounce this employment in 1691, and passed to Halle, where he taught the Greek and oriental languages in the university, and also became pastor of the church of St. George. Here he founded a charitable institution for the educacation of poor children and orphans, which soon became one of the most considerable in Germany. A chemist, whom he had visited on his deathbed, bequeathed to him the recipe for compounding certain medicines, which afterward yielded an annual income of more than $20,000, and made the institution independent. It combines an orphan asylum, a pædagogium, a Latin school, a German school, and a printing press for issuing cheap copies of the Bible. It now contains 800 inmates.