The little Martin Luther Tour

If I ask tourists from the US whether they have already heard the name Martin Luther, I often get the answer: “Oh, yes, Martin Luther King”.

Actually, there is a connection between both. Martin Luther King’s father was very impressed by the nonviolent reform of the Catholic Church done by the German Martin Luther. He was so enthusiastic that he added the name “Luther” to his name.

I invite you to see three important venues connected to this reformer and the Protestant Lutheran Reformation in Thuringia, my home federal state.

First, I recommend seeing Erfurt, the city of churches and houses built in the 16. Century. Martin Luther passed the seven liberal arts and achieved a bachelor degree at Erfurt University. Initially he had the aim to become a jurist. A thunderstorm let him change his plans; he believed this was a signal that God wanted him to become a monk. He entered in Erfurt’s Augustinian Monastery – today one of Erfurt’s most beautiful places as well as the cathedral where he celebrated his priestly ordination.

In Eisenach Martin Luther attended the Latin school while staying at the home of relatives. This house and the Church of St. Georg nearby commemorate his early years. However, the landmark of Eisenach is the Wartburg Castle. In the meantime, Martin Luther had become an ostracized reformer. He spent several months there incognito and translated the Bible into German language to be readable for everybody who could read. His “Kingdom of the birds” is a very well attended picturesque place high above Eisenach.

Jena should have become a second centre of the Protestant Reformation beside Wittenberg. The first Protestant Sermon with the Lord ’s Supper in both guises (bread and wine for everybody) took place at the same time in Jena and Wittenberg at Christmas 1521.

Later, Andreas Bodenstein, also known as Karlstadt, once the doctoral supervisor and friend of Martin Luther, triggered an important turning point in the Protestant Reformation. His Reformation was far-reaching without enforcing his ideas violently. He finally had to leave the country and no other reformation beside the one of Martin Luther was tolerated anymore.

The Church of St. Michael is worth seeing. Inside you will find the original grave slab of Luther and the pulpit where he stood and preached. Furthermore the hotel/restaurant “Schwarzer Bär” and the Collegium Jenense, (Jena University) which was founded as consequence of the development of the Protestant Reformation. A highlight for all visitors is seeing the Bibliotheca Electoralis of Frederic the Wise. At his time, around 1500, it was one of the most important humanistic book collections in the world.