H
orses’ hooves clang on the cobbled street, part of a procession of more than 300 equines and about 200 people on their way to Coburg, Germany. Just over the horizon, the towers of the castle come into view. As the travelers pass the Spital Gate, Martin Luther says to his friend Philipp Melanchthon, “I just wish I could come with you to Augsburg.” But he can’t. He was declared anathema (cursed by
‘empire of the daws’
Luther and the
German Lutherans offer tours as part of educational ministry Text and photos by Corinna Waltz
ecclesiastical authority) in January 1521 after burning the papal bull. Shortly after, he was placed under the imperial ban. His life in danger, he could be imprisoned or even burned as a heretic. Nevertheless, Luther wants to attend the Diet in Augsburg. His liege lord has prohibited this, demanding that he stay in Coburg. Nearly 500 years later, retired pastor Rainer Axmann explains this scene to tourists. “It was April of 1530 when Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Justus Jonas and the Duke of Saxony with his entourage arrived at Coburg,” Axmann tells his audience. “[Without Luther], the others traveled on to Augsburg to attend the Diet, which had been convened by Charles V. Martin Luther stayed behind and spent six months at the castle.”
Axmann, 79, gives the “Luther and his Stay at the
Veste Coburg” tour to commemorate the 1530 presenta- tion of the Augsburg Confession at the Diet of Augsburg. His tours, a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, are run by the educational institute of the Lutheran churches in the Coburg deanery (www.ebw-
coburg.de). “We want to bring Luther back to mind, especially dur- ing the Luther Decade (
www.luther2017.de/en),” said Dieter Stoesslein, theological adviser at the institute. Besides tours, the institute offers educational material on Luther and the Reformation, projects for schools, and speakers if a congregation wants to organize an evening on the reformer.
In Bavaria, Lutherans will hold major festivi- ties during the Reforma- tion anniversary in 2017 in Augsburg, Nuremberg and Coburg.
Tours mix history, theology
Although Coburg belonged to the Saxon duchy, Luther, a banned outlaw, still had to take precautions. To conceal
his location, Luther used fake place names, as he did when hiding in the Wartburg Castle. He signed his letters “Aus dem Reich der Dohlen” (from the empire of the daws), a reference to the birds flying around Coburg castle. Almost every day, messengers with Luther’s letters in their pockets left the castle to go to Wittenberg, Augsburg and other places. Some 120 of these letters have been pre- served and published.
“Over a hundred letters in just six months. Who could pull that off?” Axmann says while tourists enter the rooms where Luther lived and worked. “It’s unbelievable what Luther did accomplish. Today we probably would call him a workaholic.”
While quartered at the castle, the reformer also con- tinued to translate the Bible into German, focusing on the Psalms. As encouragement, he even painted some verses on the walls of his study. One example is Psalm 118:17: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Today Luther’s apartment has been turned into a museum. Some of his works and original copies of letters are on exhibit in the museum and art gallery. One of the most famous artworks on exhibit is Lucas Cranach’s life- size painting of Luther from 1575. Speaking about the tour, one young participant says, “[Rainer] Axmann has such a compassionate way to talk about Luther. I never thought that history could be so interesting.”
Another admits: “I didn’t know all this, even though I have been living in Coburg all my life.” This is why Axmann says he leads the tours. “There
Waltz, a journalist in Stuttgart, Germany, works in the communications department for an international mission society. 30 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
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