Johann Hinrich Wichern

Wichern became especially known for recruiting and training a corps of "brothers" who helped educate and discipline wayward boys and men and tend to the needs of the poor.

He founded hostels across Germany that were supposed to provide a refuge, free of alcohol and gambling, to journeymen and other travellers.

In his writings and speeches, Wichern promoted the ideal of Christian voluntarism to assist the poor, criminals, and disabled[1] and heal the class and political divides in Germany surrounding the Revolution of 1848 (which he loathed).

[4] In 1844, he founded a monthly periodical, Fliegende Blätter des Rauhen Hauses, which he edited.

In 1851 the Prussian government made him inspector of prisons and houses of correction, and in 1858 member of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council, the executive authority of the Evangelical State Church in Prussia.