Monday in Wittenberg

Today we hooked up with our tour guide Dieter who showed us three main sites of Wittenberg. We began in Luther Haus, located near the the hotel. The house was gifted to Luther as a place where he could teach, live, and share his life with his beloved wife Katy and his children. Today, the house is a wonderful museum where students of the Reformation and people of faith can be inspired by the paintings of Cranach, an original Luther Bible, and the odd papal bull.



On entering the house, one finds quotes from Luther and his Seal painted on the beams and ceiling.
The courtyard is wide and open to the sun. In the center is a bronze statue of Katharina von Bora, Luther's wife. Katharina was a forceful and faithful woman in a truly man's world. She refused to be cowed by tradition or thoughts of a "woman's place" so common in her time. She ran the house with an iron hand. GIven Luther's lack of interest in business, it was good that his companion was disposed to good management and a willingness to demand payment from Luther's students so that the family could survive! She ordered the door below for Luther's birthday.

The door

Inside the house, one may tour the refectory, or place where students took their meals, Luther's bedroom, his parlor where he sat with his students around a rough table, and a sitting room the door of which Tzar Peter signed the door frame. Luther's little parlor, located near the bedroom sometimes held over 50 students crammed together around this small table drinking beer and arguing theology. Some of those students wrote down what Luther had to say, which later became the "Table Talks" volume of Luther's Works. It is one of my favorite volumes.

Luther's Actual Table

We then walked down the strasse and viewed from the outside Melanchton's house, Cranach's home, and the home of a fairly strange alchemist who did not do much of anything but managed to get a plaque on his house. Our tour guide noted that this plaque in particular gave him hope that some day he too would be similarly venerated.


Kirche St. Marien, or the Town church was next. We stopped first to view a curious cornerstone located high on a corner of the church.


The Judensau

The Judensau depicts a pig with Jews sucking at its teets and a rabbi looking up its arse. Luther, a product of his time, thought the scene appropriate as Jews refused to believe in Christ.


The Holocaust Memorial

Fittingly, a holocaust memorial has been established just below this stone. The St. Marien congregation unveiled the memorial on November 9th, 1988, fifty years after the Third Reich began pogroms against the Jews. It depicts four slabs trying to cover the cross, yet the cross squeezes up between the cracks refusing to be supressed. A cedar tree, visible in the background symbolized peace and growth. The Judensau remains as a monument to a time of terrible violence, and a reminder of how carefully we must proceed into our future.


Baptismal Font and Altar

The interior of the church is quite beautiful. Note the large altar painting(again by Cranach) which features Luther, Melanchton, and Cranach at the last supper. Many thousands of Lutheran Pastors have been ordained at this altar.


We then trooped to the Schlöss Kirche where Luther served as preacher and teacher. It is an imposing edifice.



The large tower with Ein Feste Burg inscribed was added in the 1800s and is not part of the original structure.

The Tower


The original doors upon which Luther was said to have posted the 95 theses were destroyed in a fire. These bronze door with the theses inscribed replaced them.


The large church is still in use today and is quite impressive. Luther's tomb is located just under the pulpit, a fitting resting place for a pastor so engaged in the Word of God and so passionate in his preaching.


On the other side of the aisle, Phillip Melanchton's tomb rests near the lectern. A scholar of Greek, and interpreter of scripture no doubt lies easy where the word is read.



The large stained glass windows are ornate but not overwhelming. A bronze Baptismal font is plenty deep to immerse a baby, Luther's preference for baptism. During summer is was a refreshing dip, but in winter it was so cold that one bishop instructed that heated stones were to be placed in the font to make the experience more comfortable.

The rest of the day was free to shop or just enjoy the beauty of this wonderful city.