FLIEDNER, Theodore (1800-1864), a German philanthropist and restorer of the office of deaconess to the Protestant Church of Germany, was born January 21, 1800, at Eppstein, a small village on the frontiers of Hesse and Nassau, where his father was parish clergyman. He early showed a preference for the pastoral office, to qualify himself for which he studied at the universities of Giessen and Göttingen, and at the theological seminary of Herborn. At the age of twenty he passed his final examination; and after a year spent in teaching and preaching, he accepted a call from the Evangelical Church at Kaiserswerth, a little town on the Rhine a few miles below Düsseldorf. His stipend was only £27, and the failure, soon after he was settled, of a large firm of velvet manufacturers, which supplied a large proportion of the members of his congregation, rendered even this small sum no longer secure. To provide an endowment for his church, he undertook journeys through part of Germany, and then to Holland and England. He met with considerable success, and had opportunities of observing what was being done in those countries towards prison reform, a subject which soon attracted his attention. The German prisons were then in a very bad state. The prisoners were huddled together in dirty rooms, were badly fed, and were left in complete idleness. No one dreamed of instructing them or of collecting statistics to form the basis of useful legislation on the subject. Fliedner at first singly undertook the work. He applied for permission to be imprisoned for some time, in order that he might look at prison life from the inside. This petition was refused, but he was allowed to hold fortnightly services in the Düsseldorf prison, and to visit the inmates individually. The work grew. Those ...interested in the subject banded themselves together, and on June 18, 1826, the first Prison Society of Germany was founded. The fact was clearly recognized that if any permanent good was to be done, the prisoners must be looked after on their release; and therefore in 1833 Fliedner opened at Kaiserswerth a refuge for discharged female convicts. His circle of practical philanthropy rapidly increased. The state of the sick poor had for some time excited his interest, and it seemed to him that hospitals might be best served by an organized body of women specially trained and devoted to the work. Accordingly in 1836 he began the first deaconess house, and the hospital at Kaiserswerth. By their ordination vows the deaconesses devoted themselves to the care of the poor, the sick, and the young. They were to be dressed in a plain uniform without distinctive badge, and their engagements were not final—they might leave their work and return to ordinary life if they chose. To these institutions Fliedner added in 1836 an infant school, then a normal school for infant school mistresses, an orphanage ∙ for orphan girls of the middle class (1842), and an asylum for female lunatics (1847). Besides these, he assisted at the foundation and in the management of various similar institutions, not only in Germany, but in different parts of Europe.
In 1849 he resigned his pastoral charge, and from 1849 to 1851 he travelled over a large part of Europe, America, and the East,—the object of his journeys being to found “mother houses,” which might not merely be training schools for deaconesses, but also centres whence other training establishments might arise. He established a deaconess house in Jerusalem, and after his return assisted by counsel and money in the erection of establishments at Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, and Bucharest. Among his later efforts may be mentioned the Christian house of refuge for female servants in Berlin (connected with which other institutions soon arose) and the “house of evening rest” for retired deaconesses at Kaiserswerth. These and similar labours wore out a naturally strong constitution, and in 1856 he visited the East for the sake of his health. He returned worse rather than better, and thereafter was for the most part confined to his room; he continued, however, by correspondence to promote the objects of his life. He died October 4, 1864, leaving behind him over 100 stations attended by 430 deaconesses; and these by 1876 had increased to 150 with an attendance of 600.
In 1855 Fliedner received the degree of doctor in theology from the university of Bonn, in recognition rather of his practical activity than his theological attainments. He scarcely seems indeed to have concerned himself with the great controversies which during his lifetime agitated the German Church, his whole life being devoted to steady, well-directed, and eminently successful efforts to benefit the poor, the weak, and the suffering. His character was marked by prompt decision, clear insight, and great practical sagacity. Nor was it without traits of quaint Teutonic humour which relieved its sterner features.
Fliedner’s writings are almost entirely of a practical character. He edited a periodical, Der Armen und Kranken Freund, which contained information regarding the various institutions, and also the yearly almanac of the Kaiserswerth institution. Besides purely educational and devotional works, he wrote Buch der Märtyrer-, Nachricht über das Diakonissen-Werk in der Christ. Kirche; Die evangel. Märtyrer Ungarns und Siebenbürgens-, and Beschreibung der Reise nach Jerusalem und Constantinopel. All were published at Kaiserswerth. There is a translation of the German life, prepared by the family, by C. Winkworth (London, 1867). On Fliedner and his work see also Kaiserswerth Deaconesses, London, 1857; Dean Howson’s Deaconesses, London, 1862; The Service of the Poor, by E. C. Stephen, London, 1871; Stevenson’s Praying and Working, London, 1865.
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