d send money, sick people, and nurses. So we discerned that it was
his will that we should take the burden on our own shoulders, and we
willingly stretched them forth to receive it. Quietly we looked around
for a house for the hospital. Suddenly, the largest and finest house in
Kaiserswerth was offered for sale. My wife begged me to buy it without
delay. It is true it would cost twenty-three hundred thalers, and we had
no money. Yet I bought it with good courage, April 20, 1836. At
Martinmas the money must be paid."

It is not possible to give here in detail the occurrences by which loans
were made, and the money that was needed obtained at the required time.
God gave friends for the cause, and through them provided the means. The
house was furnished with a little second-hand furniture which had been
given him, and October, 1836, was opened as a hospital and training
school for Christian women. Services of praise and thanksgiving
consecrated this deaconess home yet without deaconesses, this hospital
without patients. Both, however, soon became inmates of the building.
The first deaconess was Gertrude Reichardt, the daughter of a physician.
She had assisted her father in the care of the sick, and had become
experienced in looking after the welfare of the poor and the destitute.
She was an invaluable helper in the new enterprise, and shared with the
doctor the duty of giving instruction in nursing and hospital duties.
Fliedner's wife was the superintendent. She had the oversight of the
house, gave the deaconesses practical direction in housekeeping, and in
their early visits to the sick and poor accompanied them from house to
house. Fliedner was the director, and took upon himself the religious
instruction of the sisters. Every effort was taken to make the house a
home in which a cheerful, loving spirit should prevail. Nearly every
evening Fliedner or his wife would go over to the home, and read to the
sisters, or tell them interesting facts outside their lives. When he
went away on his journeys he would write in full every thing pertaining
to the interests of the common cause, and the letters would be read
aloud. This was to be a home in every sense of the word, in which the
members were to feel themselves belonging to one great family, bound
together by the common tie of unselfish devotion to others "for Christ's
sake." The spirit of the founder has permeated the institution even to
the present time. Those who know any t