The Communication Network of the Francke Foundations with London

Beginning in the 1690s massive amounts of information from around the Atlantic began to circulate to August Hermann Francke and his orphanage (the modern Francke Foundations). This information flow signaled the forming of relationships between Halle and London. Recently scholars have analyzed the Halle-London link by looking closely at the well-known and so-called “main actors”, like Anton Wilhelm Böhme and Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen. This approach is based on the idea of communication as monopolar, centered on only a few actors.

This paper argues that Halle and London were connected instead by a multipolar communication network in which Francke, Böhme and Ziegenhagen played an important part but were not the only protagonists. Rather they were joined in their efforts by many others, including Assistant Chaplains of the Royal Lutheran Chapel and secretaries of the Society of the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK). London functioned as a political pietistic centre, where news from all over the Atlantic was collected and sent to Halle. Once in Halle the information was revisioned, published in newspapers and sent to the friends and colleagues of the Francke Foundations.

The communicative links were rooted in letters and news exchange but also involved the flow of financial support and people as well. From London Halle missionaries were sent to India and the emigrating Salzburgers and German chaplains in North America were supervised. This flow of people and goods was not one way, as the English Royal Family established the “Englische Tisch” (English Table) and later an “Englische Haus” (English House) in Halle and English scholars left from London to visit the institutions at Halle. The paper therefore highlights London’s central roles as a hub in the politics and management of transnational Pietism and as Halle’s window to the Atlantic world.