Fliedner, Theodor tā´ōdôr flēt´nər [key], 1800–1864, German Protestant minister and philanthropist. In 1826 he organized the first prison society of Germany. Ten years later at Kaiserswerth he founded the pioneer deaconess house and hospital for the indigent sick, at which Florence Nightingale worked. Fliedner established schools and orphanages in Europe and from 1849 to 1851 stimulated the organization of mother houses for deaconesses in Europe, America, and Asia.
See biography by C. Winkworth (1867).
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