For the world’s roughly 800 million Protestants, a small corner of eastern Germany is their spiritual home – a place that takes on added importance this year, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
Covering an area roughly 240km long, so-called Luther Country is the birthplace and long-time home of religious rebel Martin Luther. Here it was that young Luther was allegedly frightened by a thunderstorm, interpreting a lightning strike as a sign to drop out of law school in favour of seminary. And here it was that the disillusioned theologian famously assailed the Catholic powers that be when he tacked his 95 theses on a church door, on October 31, 1517, setting off the Reformation.
While commemorative concerts and museum exhibitions have been taking place all year long, momentum is building as the clock ticks closer to October 31, 500 years to the day since Luther posted his grievances on Wittenberg’s Castle Church door.
The doors of Castle Church in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther posted his 95 theses that questioned the Catholic Church and helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago this October. Photo: TNS
At the centre of the celebrations – and in the centre of Luther Country, spiritually if not geographically – sits the small university town of Wittenberg. With a population of just under 50,000, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, as the city is officially known, was home to Martin Luther longer than anywhere else.
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Stretching 1.5km between the Castle Church and the monastery that became Luther’s family home, Wittenberg’s Collegienstrasse spanned the gulf between the established church and a new religious ideology. The town’s de facto main street, cobbled Collegienstrasse charms visitors with overflowing flower boxes, a gurgling canal and sidewalk cafes. In between, shops display Reformation-themed souvenirs from the pedagogic to the playful: biographies of Martin Luther and his cohorts; detailed analyses of early Protestantism; Reformation beer, wine and liquor; chocolates and noodles shaped into Luther’s profile; and socks knitted with the words “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise” – Luther’s supposed retort to the powerful officials of the Holy Roman Empire who wanted him to walk back his criticism of the pope and the Catholic Church.
The legacy of Martin Luther, depicted in a 1528 portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder, will be celebrated on October 31. Photo: Handout
At Wartburg Castle, Luther took refuge and translated the New Testament into German.Photo: TNS
Within the honey-coloured walls of the Luther House, the world’s largest Reformation museum, it’s easy to visualise the more intense world of the early 1500s, when heated theology discussions would have taken place at Luther’s popular Table Talks. Faded ocher and blue paint cover the walls, and sunlight streams through circular glass panes. At the centre of the room stands Luther’s battered-looking wooden table, said to be the original.
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Nearby, the house’s cavernous lecture hall was the scene for frequent religious discourses allowing Luther a platform upon which to rail against church corruption and the habit of selling penitential indulgences that simultaneously fed Rome’s growing budget.
