Founded in 1698 by Lutheran theologian and educator August Herman Francke (1663-1727), the Foundation was first and foremost an orphanage and secondly a progressive school for all social classes. Thus Francke formed the wunderkammer as a teaching tool. Francke was obviously an effective fundraiser for not only did he raise the money to build the substantial Foundation but also induced people worldwide to provide as gifts most of the almost 5000 items of the collection.

A decade after this kindly-looking gentleman’s death, a local artist and naturalist, Gottfried August Grundler (1710-1775), began to reorganize the jumble systematically and create a group of 16 individual cabinets, one for each category, and each one beautifully painted to communicate the theme. The result is a second period systematically organized wunderkammer presented behind the very glass cabinets created for them in the 1730’3 and 1740’s.

Surviving the wars in tact , the wunderkammer was then threatened for a while in the East German era by leaky roofs and other deferred maintenance, thus some restoration was done in the early 1990’s. This was done closely referring to Grundler’s original documents, placing all cabinets in their original position in the orphanage attic. Thus today we have an excellently preserved example of a well-sponsored, middle-class baroque wunderkammer, which one author calls “perhaps the most complete survivor of a cabinet of curiosities” (Mauries,p 25-7) The natural history is concentrated at one end, and the man-made artificialia at the other.

Here the minerals and petrifactions (fossils) are presented in a case the crest of which is painted with a garland of rocks and crystals. This collection was donated in part by an influential father of a student (Bahlke, p4). Other components were sent by fellow Pietists, believers in that form of Lutheranism Francke preached. Nearby (not shown) is a similar cabinet of sea shells.

The plants case, painted with floral garlands and a face composed of plant parts (after Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593) houses exotic seed pods, nuts, dried fruits, branches, roots and leaves.

The animal kingdom cabinet is painted with a garland of frogs, bats and butterflies all of which is surmounted with a grinning leopard.

The animal cabinet houses a number of specimens preserved in spirits such as the eerie group of fetuses, reminiscent of the presentation in Waldenburg (Chapter 5).

There is also an egg collection, some of which was donated by the elector of Brandenburg, straight from his wunderkanmmer.

The artificialia end of the large room contains a case with artifacts from India, painted with a native from that subcontinent, and another case for Borneo. The contents were provided by fellow Pietist missionaries stationed in those remote areas.

Another cabinet was reserved for manuscripts and writing instruments of the world, its crest painted with 25 specimens of different alphabets and scripts. The written word was particularly important to Pietists as the one pure form of communication, versus pictures, paintings, theatre, and music, all of which were a tad too worldly and decadent for their tastes (Bahlke, p19).

Another section is dedicated to a collection of conception models or mechanical models. A nearby cabinet (not shown) holds holy items from other religions, another, fine art, another, clothing of the world, and another, a collection of masks and coins.

The middle of the room contains oversized specimens, including at the natural history end the obligatory crocodile (see photo at the start of this chapter), huge whale bones, python skins, etc, and at the man-made end, an Eskimo kayak, exotic and medieval armor, etc.

Finally the center of the room is dominated by globes, models of the planetary system and universe.

While the classification of this collection feels somewhat modern (after all, its designer Grundler paid for translating Linneus’s Systema Natura into German), the scope of the collection is universal or encyclopedic, consistent with a wunderkammer goal of creating a microcosm of God’s entire universe in one room.

One of the more authentic and untouched wunderkammern, the Halle wonder chamber is definitely worth a visit. Bring a flashlight because the contents of the cases are sometimes shaded by the glass doors. We were lucky enough to receive a fascinating guided tour by Dr. Claus Veltman, the curator. The booklet published by the Francke Foundation noted as a reference below as translated into English also provides a great guide…be sure to ask for one if not available in the bookstore.

An hour and a half is sufficient to see the wunderkammer and I’d also recommend viewing Francke’s nearby library of 35,000 books as well as the Foundation grounds which also serves the local university. The address is Francenplatz 1, 06110 Halle and the web site www.francke-halle.de.

References:

Cabinets of Curiosities, Patrick Mauries, (London,2002)

The Cabinet of Artefacts and Curiosities in the Francke Foundation in Halle, Dr.Thomas Muller-Bahlke, Halle,2004) as translated by Helen Louise Tate