Day Five: Wittenberg, Germany (Part Two)

On day two in Wittenberg we concentrated on the two churches, Town Church and Castle Church of All Saints, also known as the University Church. We start with the Castle Church and the events that led up to “the big event.”

When John Tetzel was authorized to sell indulgences in a nearby city (Frederick the Wise wouldn’t give him permission to come to Wittenberg), this kind of collection box was used to collect the money.

Luther hated these indulgences which became popular with the rhyme, “As soon as the coin in the coin box rings, another soul from purgatory springs.” This is what an indulgence looked like.

Given Luther’s disappointment with the spiritual shallowness he experienced in Rome, his studies on Romans, his witness of people being taken advantage of, and his bombastic personality, a showdown was inevitable.
   Luther did what any good scholar would do. Give reasons why he thought a practice was not right and open himself up to a debate on the matter. Nailing the 95 thesis to the Castle Church door was not an act of defiance. Rather, it was an invitation to a dialogue.

His hope was that the church would see the error of their ways through scholarly debate and change its practice. It was Melanchthon that recorded Luther nailed it to the door, which was the University church and functioned as a school bulletin board, yet Melanchthon wasn’t at the University yet so he was not an eyewitness. It has not been overlooked that Luther did this on October 31, the eve of All Saints’ Day at All Saints Church, speaking against indulgences and for direct access with God. Luther sent the 95 thesis to Cardinal Albrecht who, unbeknownst to Luther, passed them on to the pope. No one really took them seriously at first.
Then some of Luther’s students translated the document into German, since they were written in the scholarly language of Latin, and printed by the new printing press in town. Distributed far and wide, these theses gained in popularity and a movement began.

Without the printing press, the theses would have remained with the pope and cardinal and a handful of professors in Wittenberg, and nothing of significance would have ever happened.

Luther learned from this experienced and became a master of social media. Writing in the common language of the people, he produced pamphlet after pamphlet telling others with pictures and plain German why his understanding of church and God were better than the Catholic Church’s. He was the first best selling writer and he made good use of this new way to communicate his new ideas.

The door is now bronze, obviously not the original door. It now remains a place more than an artifact.

At Castle Church, Luther and Melanchthon are both buried at the front of the sanctuary.


 Incidentally, a year after Luther’s death, Charles V and his Catholic army conquered Wittenberg. As he walked into the Castle church, he was encouraged to exhume Luther’s body and burn it. But he refused. He said he doesn’t fight against the dead and to leave Luther’s body alone.
Frederick the Wise is also buried in the church.

Remember, this church was only for official University activities and for the Prince Elector himself to use, so the common person never worshipped in this church nor did Luther ever preach here.

A candle sits up front in commemoration of the 500th anniversary

and Danish royalty still come to participate in big events and dedications in the church using this throne.

The tower was 280 steps up (but who’s counting)


and has magnificent view of Wittenberg.

The Town Church is the people’s church.

This is where Luther pastored and preached over 2,000 times. It was here the first German mass was held. It was here Luther was married and where his children were baptized.


 Luther couldn’t help but get in the pulpit again.

Speaking of pulpits, this is Luther’s original pulpit on display in a museum that he preached from over 2,000 times.

The main focal point is the Lucas Cranach altarpiece.

I was so mesmerized by this piece I got the poster of it for my office. There is so much significance to each of the four paintings on the altarpiece and so many great stories. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper is represented as well as preaching Jesus from the Word of God. Melanchthon is baptizing the baby (an event that really happened) even though he is not ordained, emphasizing they priesthood of all believers.

The man at communion with the cup is Martin Luther disguised as Knight George who he became when he was on the run at Wartburg Castle.

The kneeling woman and the boy in the red coat at Luther’s sermon is his wife and son.

 The man holding the keys to the kingdom is Buganhagen who was Luther’s priest and confessor and part of the University. On one side a man gets into heaven and the man on the other side is still handcuffed by his sin.

By the way, red represents they good guys and yellow is the bad guys. Notice Judas is in yellow next to Jesus in the communion scene. Also notice the guy in handcuffs is mostly red except for the bottom of his shorts, which probably means he was mostly a good man but wasn’t so faithful to his wife. And the stories go on!
Oh, here's one more. On the back of the altar, there is a Cranach painting of heaven and hell. When students finish the University, they must inscribe their names on the painting, heaven if they were successful, hell if they weren't. No pressure! Guess whose name is in hell? Hans Luther, Martin Luther's son. He failed theology, so he went into law, just the opposite of his father, who studied law and then went to theology. Hans fulfilled his grandfather's wishes for his son, Martin!


   Lucas Cranach, the painter, was another person in Luther’s life that made the Reformation possible.
(I hope you are getting the idea by now that the Reformation was not just about one man. All these people had to be in his life in order for him to be as successful as he was.) Cranach was the only one allowed to paint Luther. Here is Luther as a monk, in his later years, and as Knight George.


He illustrated all of Luther’s pamphlets and books, and given that 95% of the people were illiterate, more people “read” Cranach than read Luther’s words.

Cranach is legendary and ran a painters school where 30 or more apprentices worked at a given time. He was not only a dear friend, but also an extremely talented person who helped Luther tremendously in his ministry.
Finally, we get to town hall,

where they courtyard is the only place made of the stones that were part of Luther’s Wittenberg. He actually could have stepped on these stones!

The town hall boasts a statue of Luther and Melanchthon. Luther’s statue is the first statue ever that was made of someone not of noble birth.



Then of course there is the small cat door who were let in at night to take care of others mice in town hall.

Finally, the well near the town hall is linked to the brewery and offers beer to passersby. It used to be free but alas, we now have to pay for it.

After a full day of learning about Luther, we took advantage of the annual Festival of Lights and did a little shopping and enjoyed the light show. Whew!