Total real. The discovery of visualisation

At a time characterised by the rise of the natural sciences and increasing mechanisation, the educationalists August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) and Christoph Semler (1669-1740) devised various places of learning, learning structures and teaching materials, which we understand today as the educational cosmos of the Francke Foundations.

The knowledge to be imparted was taught in a realistic and, above all, vivid way using specially produced plastic teaching aids, practical tools, scientific instruments and natural objects from all over the world. In this way, young people were to grow up to become active and God-pleasing members of society.

Francke and Semler were concerned with nothing less than understanding the world. The question of ideas, impulses and challenges that have remained with us from the discovery of visualisation is as real today as it was 300 years ago.