Martin Luther was born on 10th November 1483 in Eisleben and on 11th November he was baptised in the Saints Peter's and Paul's Church. He grow up in nearby Mansfeld, where his father worked as foreman of a mine. Allegedly he had nine siblings. He went to school in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach and started his studies at the Erfurt University in 1501. First he studied the seven liberal arts and after finishing in 1505 he started law studies at his father's request, but when he returned from Mansfeld to Erfurt on 2nd July 1505 there was a big thunderstorm and he pledged to become a monk if he is saved. As he was saved, he joined the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt. In 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood and in 1508 and 1509 he applied himself to the study of theology in Wittenberg. A key moment of his life became his journey to Rome in 1511, where he represented his order in a dispute. There he made a clean breast and preached for the discharge of his dead relatives from the purgatory, but was also terrified of the moral decline in the holy city. Also in 1511 he moved permanently from Erfurt to Wittenberg and there he became Doctor Theologiae and Professor of the Lectura in Biblia. In addition to his teaching activity at the University of Wittenberg he also became Provincial Superior in 1514. This appointment was connected with many journeys to various churches and monasteries in the region. In Wittenberg he also developed his reformatory ideas and posted his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.
After the publishing of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517 Martin Luther's life would never be the same again. The monk and professor was then talked of by everyone. In 1520 Martin Luther published his important works To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and On the Freedom of a Christian. As the conflict with the Pope and the Emperor escalated, Luther was excommunicated in January 1521 and declared an outlaw after the Diet of Worms in April 1521. After spending around a year at the Wartburg, where he translated the New Testament into German, Luther returned to Wittenberg on 1st March 1522. In the following time Martin Luther celebrated the first Lutheran communion and the first germanophone mass. In 1524 he abandoned the lifestyle of a monk and in 1525 he married Katharina von Bora. After the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 the life of Martin Luther calmed down again. In the following years he mainly worked as publicist, chaplain and professor in Wittenberg, but still spoke his mind about important events of the time like the Ottoman Wars. Although he suffered from a heart disease, Martin Luther decided to go to Eisleben in January 1546 to settle a dispute with the Counts of Mansfeld. On 18th February 1546 Martin Luther died in Eisleben, where he was also born 62 years ago.
In 1996 six Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. These include Luther's Birthplace, the house in which he died and the Luther Hall in Wittenberg. Currently more Luther Memorials are on the Tentative List, which would add up the total number to eighteen. These new submissions include the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt and three churches in Eisleben that are connected to Luther.
Philip Schwartzerdt was born in Bretten on 16th February 1497 as oldest child of the superintendent of the princely armoury and the mayor's daughter. His grandfather organised an extensive education for the boy with teachings in Latin and frequent discussions with perambulating scholars. In 1508 his father and grandfather died in quick succession. After their death Philip and one of his brothers moved to Pforzheim. Their he went to a prestigious Latin School and also started to learn Greek. The famous humanist and scholar Johann Reuchlin became his patron and also gave Philip the humanistic name Melanchthon, a Grecization of his name Schwartzerdt. In October 1509 Philip Melanchthon moved to the University of Heidelberg. Due to his previous knowledge the studies were not a problem and in June 1511 he made his baccalaureus artium. Afterwards he went to the University of Tübingen where he studied the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) and also devoted himself to Latin, Greek and Hebrew. In 1514 the magister degree was conferred to Melanchthon. In Tübingen he also worked for the first time as tutor and also released his first own publications. In 1518 he heard Martin Luther during the Heidelberg Disputation and decided to go to Wittenberg.
Also in 1518 Frederick the Wise donated a professorship for Greek language at the University of Wittenberg and after Johann Reuchlin refused, the honour was accorded to Philip Melanchthon. With his inaugural speech he impressed the audience which also included Martin Luther. Hereafter Melanchthon became a very popular professor and with the collaboration of Luther and Melanchthon the University of Wittenberg became one of the most important universities in Europe. He acquired the baccalaureus biblicus in 1519 and was afterwards allowed to deliver theological lectures. In 1520 Melanchthon was unwantedly married, but soon came to appreciate his new life. In 1530 he wrote the Confessio Augustana. Despite offers from other universities Melanchthon stayed in Wittenberg until his death and in 1536 Elector John Frederick I sponsored a house befitting the rank of the professor and his family. The house is now known as Melanchthonhaus and is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1560 Philip Melanchthon died in Wittenberg. Philip Melanchthon is said to have been the intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation and is known as Praeceptor Germaniae (Teacher of Germany), as he was an influential designer of educational systems.
Katharina von Bora was born in 1499 as child of a country aristocrat. In 1504 she began to be educated in a monastery and in 1515 she took her vows as a nun. In the monastery she learnt how to read, write and sing and also how to organise agricultural processes. Martin Luther's writings arrived early at Katharina's monastery and a small group of nuns decided to leave the monastic life. They wrote a letter to Luther and in 1523 he sent a chariot, which rescued Katharina together with eight other nuns. In Wittenberg Katharina found refuge in the house of Lucas Cranach.
While the other nuns where soon married off, the first placement of Katharina failed, so Martin Luther and Katharina decided to marry. On 13th June 1525 Katharina and Martin were married by Johannes Bugenhagen and shortly after they moved to their new home in Wittenberg, the Luther Hall. In the following years Katharina played an important part in Luther's life. She managed and farmed their estates, raised cattle, run a brewery and a hospice, provided the guests with meals and took part in intellectual discussions. Katharina and Martin Luther had six children together. Martin Luther's death in 1546 brought her in a bad situation, as Luther's will, which named her as sole heiress, was not accepted. A word of command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony ensured her a big part of the heritage and also other Protestant rulers supported her financially. She fled the Schmalkaldic War to Magdeburg and in 1552 she had to leave Wittenberg again due to the plague and bad harvest. On her way to Torgau she had a coach accident and died three weeks later on 20th December 1552. Today Katharina von Bora is considered to have been one of the most important participants of the Reformation due to her role in helping to define Protestant family life and setting the tone for clergy marriages.
Johannes Bugenhagen was born in 1485 in the Duchy of Pomerania. Between 1502 and 1504 he studied at the University of Greifswald and in 1504 he became the rector of the local school in Treptow an der Rega. In 1509 he was ordained as a priest, although he had not studied theology, and in the following years he became the core of a Humanist circle. At the behest of the Duke of Pomerania Bugenhagen started to write a book about the history of Pomerania in 1517 and so he started an extensive journey around the country. In 1520 he first encountered the ideas of Luther. First he did not like them at all, but then he became a supporter and decided to move to Wittenberg. There he became parish pastor in 1523 and thus pastor and confessor of Martin Luther. In the following years he became also a close friend of Luther and Melanchthon and helped with the translation of the Bible. He also started to lecture at the University of Wittenberg and in 1533 he became one of the first three Protestant doctors of theology. In 1539 he became superintendent of the Lutheran Church in Saxony. Johannes Bugenhagen died in 1558.
Johannes Bugenhagen is especially known as the most important figure in the Protestant Reformation in Northern Germany and Scandinavia, where he took an active role in creating Protestant church orders. In 1528 he wrote the first Protestant church order in the World for Braunschweig. Church orders followed for Hamburg (1528/29), Lübeck (1530–1532), the Duchy of Pomerania (1534/5), East Frisia (1534/5), Denmark-Norway (1537), where he also crowned Christian III, Schleswig-Holstein (1542), Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1543) and Hildesheim (1544). Not only did he create the new rules, he also established them and convinced people to follow them.
Lucas Cranach the Elder was born around 1472 in Kronach. His artistic development was promoted very early and he learnt the art of drawing from his father. Between 1502 and 1504 he lived in Vienna. In 1505 he was attached to the court of Elector Frederick the Wise, who gave him the winged snake as an emblem in 1508. In 1509 Cranach went to the Netherlands, where he painted Emperor Maximilian and the young Emperor Charles V.
During his first years in Wittenberg Cranach worked at the Castle, but in 1512 he moved his painter's workshop to the town. Also in 1512 he married Barbara Brengbier and together they had five children. Later he also owned an apothecary shop and a book shop and became a respected and influential person in the town. In 1519 he became a member of Wittenberg's town council for the first time. While living in Wittenberg he became friends with Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. In the following years Lucas Cranach became the most important painter of the Reformation and one of the most famous painters of the German Renaissance. For example he provided woodcut illustrations for Luther's German translation of the Bible and painted various portraits of the reformers including the four paintings of Luther, Melanchthon, Katharina von Bora and Bugenhagen shown above. In 1524 he met Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg. He remained the court painter of John the Steadfast after Frederick's death in 1525 and of John Frederick I after John's death in 1532. Between 1537 and 1544 he was also multiple times mayor of Wittenberg. After John Frederick I's defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547 and his following imprisonment, Lucas Cranach followed him to Augsburg and later Innsbruck. In 1552 Lucas Cranach also followed John Frederick I to his new residence in Weimar, where he lived together with one of his daughters and where he also died in 1553.
Lucas Cranach the Younger was born in Wittenberg in 1515 as second child of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Barbara Brengbier. Together with his older brother Hans he learnt the art of drawing at their father's painter's workshop. In 1537 he assumed the workshop of his father and in 1544 he also got his houses in Wittenberg. Like his father he became a member of the town council and also worked as mayor. Lucas Cranach the Younger died in 1586. The style of his paintings can be so similar to those of his father that there have been some difficulties in attribution of their works.
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| Begun by the father and finished by the son, the Reformation's Altar at the Town and Parish Church of St Mary's in Wittenberg is said to be one of the most important pieces of art of the Reformation. It arose in close cooperation between the artists and the reformers and was erected in 1547/48. |
Elector Frederick III of Saxony was born in 1463 as oldest son of Elector Ernest of Saxony. In 1486 he became Elector of Saxony and soon he was able to become financially independent. In 1502 he founded the University of Wittenberg. The political aim of the Elector was the strengthening of the territorial princes and the weakening of Emperor and Pope. Thus he became one of the most important supporters of Martin Luther's reformatory ideas, which confronted the excesses of the papacy. His persistence and repulsion against military conflicts later earned him the name Frederick the Wise. In 1519 he rejected the imperial dignity and supported the election of Charles V. Although Frederick the Wise is especially known for his support of Martin Luther, he was deeply held in Catholicism and established the third largest relic collection of its time at the Castle Church in Wittenberg. He also had little personal contact with Luther, but short before his death in 1525 he accepted the communion in Lutheran form.
After Frederick III's death his brother, Johann the Steadfast, became the new Elector of Saxony. Just like his brother he supported Martin Luther, but unlike him he supported also Luther's religious ideas and became a close friend of the reformer. In 1527 he became the bishop of the newly founded Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, in 1529 he was a part of the Protestation at Speyer and in 1531 he became one of the leaders of the Schmalkaldic League. Johann the Steadfest died in 1532.
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| This is not a postcard, but a picture from the Internet. |
Elector John Frederick I of Saxony, also known as Johann the Magnanimous, became the successor of his father. Like him he was one of the leaders of the Schmalkaldic League, but after his defeat in the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 he was imprisoned and lost the electoral dignity. In 1552 he was released from captivity and became Duke of Saxony. John Frederick I died in 1554.
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| This is not a postcard, but a picture from the Internet. |
Philip I was born in 1504 and in 1518 he became Landgrave of Hesse. Until 1523 he expelled Lutheran preachers from his territory, but already in 1524 he started to support Luther's ideas and became a spearhead of the Reformation. Under his rule Hesse became one of the earliest and most powerful Protestant principalities. After the Peasants' War he sought talks with the peasants and suppressed the most of the pilloried injustices. After the Synod of Homberg he officially introduced the Reformation to the Landgraviate. In consequence the monasteries were dissolved and their capital benefited the care of the poor and invalid. In 1527 he founded the University of Marburg, the first Lutheran university in the World. In 1529 he was a part of the Protestation at Speyer and in 1531 he became a leader of the Schmalkaldic League. A second marriage in 1540 led to many difficulties with his allies. After the Schmalkaldic War he was imprisoned and when he returned to Hesse he mainly looked after the administration of his principality. Philip I died in 1567. After his death the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided between his four sons from his first marriage and never regained its former importance.
Justus Jonas was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer. In 1521 he became Professor of Church Law in the University of Wittenberg. He is especially known for his translations of Luther's and Melanchthon's works either from Latin to German or from German to Latin, but also acted as the lawyer of the reformers. Justus Jonas accompanied Martin Luther in his final moments. In 1541 Justus Jonas introduced the Reformation to Halle, when he preached at the Market Church, which was actually built as prestigious church for Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg and as bulwark against the sprawling Lutheran ideas between 1529 and 1554.
Nikolaus von Amsdorf was born in Torgau in 1483. He was a German theologian and one of Martin Luther's most determined supporters. In 1542 he was installed as Bishop of Naumburg-Zeitz and thus became the first Lutheran bishop in Germany, but already in 1546 he had to leave his position. He died in Eisenach in 1565.
Martin Bucer was born in 1491. At the age of 15 he joined the Dominican Order and in 1517 he started his studies at the University in Heidelberg, where he met Martin Luther in 1518. He joined the Reformation and left the Dominican Order in 1521. He was later forced to flee to Strasbourg and helped to introduce the Reformation to the Alsace. In the following years he tried to mediate between the different parties of the Reformation. He took part in the Marburg Colloquy and was one of the authors of the Confessio Tetrapolitana in 1530. In 1536 he was one of the signers of the Wittenberg Concord. With the Ziegenhain Order of Discipline in 1539 he created the basis for the Confirmation in the Lutheran Church. In 1549 he was exiled to England and became Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge. Martin Bucer died in 1551.
Lazarus Spengler became a member of Nuremberg's city council in 1516. He was an early supporter of Martin Luther and became the leader of the Reformation in Nuremberg. In 1526 Spengler and Philip Melanchthon opened a Lutheran gymnasium in Nuremberg. In 1530 he attended the Diet of Augsburg. He also helped to design the Luther rose and wrote some popular hymns. Lazarus Spengler died in 1534.
Georg Spalatin was born in Franconia in 1484 and got his early education in Nuremberg. He later studied in Erfurt and became a member of a little band of German humanists. In 1509 he started to work for Frederick the Wise. First he was the tutor for his nephews, his librarian and secretary, but later he became his confidential adviser in all the troubled diplomacy of the earlier years of the Reformation and there is scarcely any fact in the opening history of the Reformation which is not connected in some way with Spalatin's name. He also remained an adviser for Frederick's successors. Georg Spalatin died in 1545.
Johannes Brenz was born in 1499. In 1518 he saw Martin Luther during the Heidelberg Disputation and became a life-long follower. In 1522 he became preacher at the Saint Michael's Church in Schwäbisch Hall and from here he introduced the Reformation to Württemberg. He became one of the most influential reformers and was nicknamed Luther's Man in South Germany. Johannes Brenz died in 1570.
Martin Luther regarded music and hymns in German as important means for the development of faith and himself wrote more than 30 songs. The music became a signature feature of the movement and catchy songs were a powerful weapon for the spread of the Lutheran ideas. Beside Luther also other musicians contributed to the Music of the Reformation. The two most famous of them are probably Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz.
Heinrich Schütz was born on 18th October 1585. His musical talent was discovered in 1599 by Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel and with his support Schütz was able to be trained as a musician. Later he became capellmeister in Dresden and also worked in Copenhagen, Hanover, Wolfenbüttel, Gera, Weimar and Zeitz. In 1617 he helped to arrange musically the events for the 100th anniversary of the Reformation in Dresden. His last years he spent in Weißenfels, where he had already spent his childhood. Heinrich Schütz died on 16th November 1672. He had a big influence on the Music of the Reformation and is considered to have been the most important German composer of the Early Baroque period.
Ebernburg Castle was first mentioned in 1338 and was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times in its history. At the beginning of the 16th century Franz von Sickingen (1481 - 1523) was the lord of the castle. He was an early supporter of the Reformation and offered refuge to Martin Luther after the Diet of Worms. Luther refused, but other reformers (e.g. Martin Bucer and Johannes Oekolampad) took the offer and established a thriving theologian's community at the castle. German-language church services and communions were conducted there. The humanist Ulrich von Hutten therefore coined the term Shelter of Justice for Ebernburg Castle.
Hans Lufft was a printer and publisher. In 1515 he started to work in a printers' shop in Wittenberg and in 1524 he owned his own shop. In the following years he printed many works of Martin Luther and other reformers including Luther's first complete Bible in 1534. From then on he was known as the Bible Printer. In 1542 he became a member of Wittenberg's town council. Hans Lufft died in 1584.
Matthias Flacius was born in 1520 in Istria. At the age of sixteen Flacius went to study in Venice, where he came in contact with the Humanism. He actually wanted to join a monastic order afterwards, but his uncle convinced him to start a university career. So he continued his studies in Basel, Tübingen and Wittenberg. In Wittenberg he also met Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon and in 1544 he became professor of Hebrew at the University of Wittenberg. Soon Flacius was prominent in the theological discussions of the time, although his religious views caused controversies. Also due to his religious views he was not welcome at many places and had to wander around after he had left Wittenberg in 1549. In the following years he spent time in Magdeburg, Jena, Regensburg, Antwerp, Frankfurt and Strasbourg, before he died in Frankfurt in 1575.
Andreas Knöpken was born near Sonnenburg in modern day Poland and was later ordained as a priest. Some day he met Johannes Bugenhagen and probably in late 1520 he joined the Reformation. Later he brought the Reformation to Riga. In 1529 he wrote a church order, which in 1533 would also be used in Tallinn and Tartu. He also wrote a few songs and devoted himself to the creation of school systems. When he died in 1539, the Reformation was firmly established in Riga.
Martynas Mažvydas was born around 1510 and spent his childhood in Vilnius. When the ideas of the Reformation reached Lithuania, he started to support them, but as he met refusal and persecution in his homeland, he followed an invitation of Duke Albert of Prussia to come to Königsberg. In 1546 he began his studies at the University of Königsberg and in 1547 he published there his first book, Catechismusa Prasty Szadei, a Lithuanian version of Luther's Catechism and the first book in the Lithuanian language. Due to this he is considered to be the father of the Lithuanian written language. He was appointed a priest in Ragainė in 1549 and during the rest of his life he published more books in Lithuanian. Martynas Mažvydas died in 1563.
