What did Johannes Daniel Falk found?

The Gesellschaft der Freunde in der Not (Society of Friends in Need) after 1813, which placed orphaned and abandoned children into apprenticeships and households. By his death it had released 293 journeymen in sixteen years.

Why did Falk found the society?

After burying four of his own children, in the years after the Napoleonic Wars had left children in Weimar's streets.

What was Falk's relationship with Goethe?

Marked by practical and personal conflicts that never produced a permanent break; Falk took an active part in Goethe's scientific work, especially the colour theory.

What became of Falk's foundation?

In 1829 it became a public institution for neglected children, continuing to carry his name as the Falksche Institut.

Johannes Daniel Falk

1768–1826

German

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Biography

He came to Weimar in 1797 as a satirist and argued with Goethe for the rest of his life. Then, after 1813, having buried four of his own children, he founded a society to take the town's orphaned and abandoned children off the street — and that, not the writing, is what he is.

The Society of Friends in Need, 1813–1826

He called it the Gesellschaft der Freunde in der Not, and it did the plainest possible thing: it found places for children who had none. Girls went into households, boys to masters as apprentices. The older reference work records the result as a number, and it is the number that stays with you — by Falk's death the institution had released 293 journeymen in sixteen years. Two hundred and ninety-three children who came off the street and left with a trade.

Why he started it, 1813

The article gives the cause without ceremony: he founded it after 1813, following the deaths of four of his own children. Classical Weimar is told as a story of letters and premieres; this is the same town in the same years, and the war that had just passed through it had left children in the streets. Falk is what somebody did about that.

Arguing with Goethe, and the institute after him, 1792–1829

He had visited Schiller in Jena and Goethe in Weimar in 1792 before settling here. The NDB describes his dealings with Goethe as marked by conflicts both practical and personal — which never produced a permanent break, and did not stop him taking an active part in Goethe's scientific work, colour theory above all. In 1829 his foundation became a public institution for neglected children and went on carrying his name as the Falksche Institut.

Questions visitors ask

What did Johannes Daniel Falk found?: The Gesellschaft der Freunde in der Not (Society of Friends in Need) after 1813, which placed orphaned and abandoned children into apprenticeships and households. By his death it had released 293 journeymen in sixteen years.
Why did Falk found the society?: After burying four of his own children, in the years after the Napoleonic Wars had left children in Weimar's streets.
What was Falk's relationship with Goethe?: Marked by practical and personal conflicts that never produced a permanent break; Falk took an active part in Goethe's scientific work, especially the colour theory.
What became of Falk's foundation?: In 1829 it became a public institution for neglected children, continuing to carry his name as the Falksche Institut.

Notable Works & Achievements

Gesellschaft der Freunde in der Not (founded after 1813)

Falksches Institut (from 1829)

Historical Context

Weimar Classicism1775–1832

The period's other face: the same decades, the same town, and the children the literature does not mention.

For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.

Quick Facts

Born:

1768

Died:

1826

Nationality: