Theodor Fliedner

Fliedner was born in Eppstein in Hesse, Germany. He was the son of a Lutheran minister, and studied theology at the University of Giessen and the University of Göttingen as well as at Herborn Academy, the theological seminary in Herborn. He was, for a time, a house teacher. In 1821 he assumed the pastorate in the poor municipality of Kaiserswerth (now in Düsseldorf). When the town could no longer support church and ministry due to an economic crisis, he undertook journeys to collect donations. Beginning in Westphalia, these travels also took him to the Netherlands and England.

In the Netherlands he became acquainted with the ancient church office of deaconess while spending time among the Moravian Church, which had revived the institution in 1745. In England he met with English social reformer, Elizabeth Fry, who demonstrated her work among her nation's impoverished and imprisoned people. He returned home not only with a large financial collection for his municipality but also with new ideas about social work among the disadvantaged. He began by working among inmates at the Düsseldorf Prison, preaching the Gospel and ministering to spiritual and physical needs. He walked to and from Düsseldorf every other Sunday until a regular prison chaplain was appointed. The German prisons were then in a very bad state; but those interested in their improvement banded together, and in 1826, Fliedner created the Rhenish-Westphalian Prison Society (Rheinisch-Westfälische Gefängnisgesellschaft). Fliedner realized that the first step must be toward looking after the prisoners on their release, and accordingly, in 1833, he opened at Kaiserswerth a refuge for discharged female convicts. To better support and teach Kaiserwerth's children, he founded a school in 1835 which became the venue for a women teachers' seminar (de:Lehrerinnenseminar).

Deaconess Training

In many cities, there were no hospitals at that time. Following somewhat the model of the early Christian Church's diaconate, incorporating ideas learned from Fry and the Mennonites, and applying his own thoughts, Fliedner developed a plan whereby young women would find and care for the needy sick. For this, he needed to create Kaiserswerther Diakonie, an institute where women could learn both theology and nursing skills. He opened the hospital and deaconess training center in Kaiserswerth on 13 October 1836. Deaconesses took vows to care for their poor and sick charges, but they could leave their work and return to outside life if they so chose.

Between 1836 and 1847 Fliedner also opened an infants' school and one for their teachers, a girls' orphanage, and a women's asylum.

Gertrud Reichardt was the first deaconess commissioned by the new school. Florence Nightingale trained there as a nurse in 1850. One of the associated Kaiserwerth professional schools was later named in her honor. Two other noted student were the Swedish Maria Cederschiöld, a pioneer of nursing in her country, and Louise Conring, the first Danish deaconess and founder of Diakonissestiftelsen.

After his wife, Friederike, died in 1842, he found a new life companion (and important employee) in Caroline Bertheau. They opened institutes for the diaconate in 1844 in Dortmund and in 1847 in Berlin with the support of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, and his wife Queen Elizabeth. Fliedner's attention became completely focused on this aspect of the ministry and in 1849 he resigned his pastorate and turned completely to working with the diaconate, including increasing activity abroad, founding "mother houses" across central and Eastern Europe, and as far as Jerusalem. Fliedner's movement has been cited as the model for the Inner Mission movement which Johann Hinrich Wichern developed. In 1855 Fliedner received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Bonn, in recognition of his practical activities.