Theodor Fliedner

German Lutheran minister (1800–1864) Theodor Fliedner Theodor Fliedner (21 January 1800 – 4 October 1864) was a German Lutheran minister and founder of Lutheran deaconess training. In 1836, he and Friederike Fliedner founded the Kaiserswerther Diakonie, a hospital and deaconess training center. They and Caroline Bertheau, are regarded as the renewers of the apostolic deaconess ministry. Their work in nursing was pioneering for Florence Nightingale, who spent a few months in Kaiserswerth in 1850 and 1851. Background Fliedner was born in Eppstein in Hesse, Germany. He was the son of a Lutheran minister, and studied theology at the University of Giessen and the University of Göttingen as well as at Herborn Academy, the theological seminary in Herborn. He was, for a time, a house teacher. In 1821 he assumed the pastorate in the poor municipality of Kaiserswerth (now in Düsseldorf). When the town could no longer support church and ministry due to an economic crisis, he undertook journeys to collect donations. Beginning in Westphalia, these travels also took him to the Netherlands and England. Career In the Netherlands he became acquainted with the ancient church office of deacones