Tønder Orphanage

Facts

Piety at heart

By Elsemarie Dam-Jensen, Cand.mag. i musikvidenskab og historie fra Aarhus Universitet,1981. (8 stories)

Tønder Orphanage was built in 1730-33. The orphanage's solid building complex consisted of a two-storey hospital building with turrets alongside the street, a north wing and a south wing. The north wing housed a punishment and work house, and the south wing housed the orphanage itself. It was home for a small flock of orphaned boys. The resident schoolmaster also taught other poor boys from the town. In 1826, the punishment and work house was replaced with an orphanage school. From 1829, the buildings were used as a practice school for the teacher training college. And the buildings were taken over by Tønder Statsseminarium in 1939. The old orphanage now functions as classrooms for evening school, etc.

Partly a public place

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Tønder residents start loving their neighbours

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Story written by Elsemarie Dam-Jensen

Time / Periode 1735

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In the 18th century, a new religious piety began spreading in Tønder, and one aspect of pietism was to help the poor. The new piety was helped along especially by the vicars of the Christian Church. They included the German rural dean Johann Hermann Schrader and the Danish vicar and hymn writer Hans Adolf Brorson. The townspeople had made a tidy fortune from trading in bullocks, grain and lace. Many rich citizens began establishing grants and scholarships to help the poor, widows and orphans. One of those who established a grant was a rich merchant called Peter Struck, whose money funded the building of the orphanage. The children's home also had a printer's workshop and the profits from the sale of books helped cover the cost of making ends meet.