WICHERN, Jon. IlEixtuon, superintendent of the Rauhes Haus (q.v.), near Ham burg, and known by his exertions in the affairs of the German home mission, was born at Hamburg on April 21, 1808. He attended the gymnasium of his native town, and then studied theology at Gottingen and Berlin. Shortly after passing his examinations at Hamburg, he directed himself to practical usefulness, visited the poor and the wretched in the courts and lanes of the town, and undertook the direction of a,' free Sunday-school for poor children, in which he soon gathered round him from 400 to 500 scholars, instructed by 40 voluntary male and female teachers. At this time Wichern declined the offer of a charge in the neighborhood of Hamburg, as he already enter tained the idea of an institution such as the Rauhes Haus, which he opened in 1833. From about 1840 Wichern was much engaged with undertakings of a similar kind in Germany, to which his mother institution gave rise. The example was soon followed by France on a great scale (Mettray, near Tours), then by England, Holland, and other countries. It was chiefly through the instigation of Wicherii that at the first Protestant ecclesiastical assembly held at Wittenberg in 1848, for the purpose of concerting united action, a central home mission committee was appointed, under which title Wichern had formed the idea of comprehending all exertions on behalf of the poor, the miserable, and the morally and religiously lost. This home mission has exerted a wide and bene
ficial influence on the n. of Germany, and as a member of the committee, Wichern found in it an extended field for his exertions. Traveling through all parts of Germany, Wichern was the means, by his exhortations, of founding all sorts of institutions and societies for education and the care of the sick, of the poor, and of prisoners. On his return from a visit to England in 1851, the Prussian government commissioned him to Inspect ail the houses of correction and prisons, to the general supervision of which he was appointed in 1858. Prevented by this constant practical usefulness, be has published but little. In his Home Mission of the German Evangelical Church (Hamburg, 1849), he explains his views of Christian charity, and its relation to the ecclesiastical and social questions of the clay. Since 1844 he has published his Fliegende Blotter (Fugitive 'Leaves), which contain parts of his discourses, at the ecclesiastical diets. In 1851 Wichern received from the university of Halle the degree of D.D.