Day 6 – 5/26/22 – Wittenberg and such

First the change in plans.

Today is Ascension Day in Germany – a Bank Holiday and pretty much everything is closed. Our walking tour of Wittenberg is still a go, but the free hour for shopping at it’s conclusion is a bust. So…we’ll leave Wittenberg an hour earlier than planned and they’ve added a stop in Torgau (complete with a previously unscheduled tour of that town). Yay Viking!

We woke at a reasonably civilized hour and breakfasted before meeting our excursion group for a 3 hour stroll thru Wittenberg’s history. Actually it was Martin Luther’s history because according to the town, nothing much other than Luther ever happened.

We started at the Luther house – actually a converted monastery that he shared with the university where he taught.

Luther and his family occupied the bottom three floors to the right of the Spiral staircase. Of note is the door – a birthday gift to Luther from his wife.

Luther’s wife, Katherine Von Bora was a former nun from a poor but noble family. She was an intelligent and resourceful woman who managed the household and family, and participated in her husband’s intellectual pursuits.

Along with teaching at the university and upsetting the Pope and established church, Luther preached at the town church. This is the pulpit he preached from. It seems short. It was customary to preach while kneeling. My knees hurt just thinking about it.

Luther’s break with the established church centered around several concerns. Chief of among them was the sale of ‘indulgences’ – a kind of ‘get out of jail free’ card that could be purchased to have past (or future) sins forgiven. This is one of the collection boxes used to gather indulgence money.

Following his break with the church Luther was in significant danger of ‘retribution’ from religious authorities. As he was returning to Wittenberg from a trial in Worms he was ‘captured’ by ‘highway robbers’ who took him to Warburg castle where the prince elector Fredrick III hid him for several months. During this time he completed a translation of the New Testament into vernacular German. This first translation of Bible text into a vernacular was significant in the development of a unified German language. Following his return to Wittenberg Luther undertook, with the help of other scholars and students, to translate the Old Testament as well.

This copy of Luther’s translation was on display at the Luther house.

Also on display were a small prayer book…

And a song book. One of Luther’s innovations was including the congregation in singing. He wrote several hymns, some of which are still in use today.

This is the table where Luther’s ‘Table Talks’ were spoken (and recorded). To the right of the table is the ‘Katherine Chair’ – the favorite seat of his wife (who was the only woman to be a regular participant in the Table Talk sessions.

These famous portraits of Martin and Katherine were painted by their friend Lucas Cranach the Elder

Following our tour of Luther House we made our way downtown, stopping along the way to view famous or significant sites.

In his play, Shakespeare has Hamlet attending the Wittenberg University. During the date set by the play this corner house was the dormitory for the University students. So it is referred to as Hamlet House.

These open ditches add character to the street, with clean pure water running down them. In form are times what was running down them was neither clean nor pure, nor really even water.

Stadtkirch (town church) of St. Mary’s where Luther often preached

This memorial to Jews murdered in the holicost is located in the church-yard of the Stadtkirche. The inscription reads: God’s real name / the reviled Sham-Ha-Mphoras / whom the Jews held almost unspeakably holy before the Christians / died in six million Jews / under the sign of the cross.

This is the town hall. At one time it was a ‘shopping mall’. Note the (former) doors on the first floor. The balcony was used to preside over executions.

Behind the house of Lucas Cranach the Elder is his workshop and painting studio.

This is what the courtyard looked like at the time of German Reunification. This is a color portrait – note the shade of the grass.

Cranach himself sits, painting, in the corner.

Eventually we came to the Castle and its adjoining church.

And it’s famous doors

These aren’t the original doors. They were wooden. These bronze doors have the 95 Theses carved into them.

We had just a bit of time to look around and take a few pictures in front of the doors before it was time to head to the dock. We were to meet the boat upstream a ways in order to save a bit of time. We arrived just before the boat did and we got to watch the docking operation.

We boarded the boat and headed upstream to Torgau. The afternoon was spent in leisure. I took a nap while Cheryl read. We decamped to the lounge at 3:30 for tea, followed by ‘Where in the world’ trivia. (We recognized many of the displayed images, but had real difficulty putting names to some of them.)

Today, as I mentioned is Ascension day. Or as the Germans call it; ‘father/son go fishing and get drunk day’. All afternoon we saw people camping at beaches, fishing, and/or having a good time.

We also saw a fair number of people kayaking, canoeing, and even skulling on the river.

We docked in Torgau just before 6:00 and set out on an ‘evening stroll’ led by our intrepid Program Director Jamie. Torgau is significant as the seat of Fredrick III – the Prince Elector who had Luther kidnapped and kept him safe from the church.

We toured the prince’s Hartenfels castle. Prince Fredrick was a big fan of anything ‘new’ – which begins to explain why this devout Catholic prince would support a purveyor of new theological ideas. Jamie pointed out that the spiral staircase on the left is one of the first ‘hanging’ staircases (there is no central column) to be built.

And got to peak inside the castle chapel – the first ‘purpose built’ Protestant church.

We saw the bears. Apparently keeping bears in a ‘bear pit’ was a common practice in medieval castles. Knights proved their prowess by fighting the bears. Jamie mentioned that these bears are being removed to proper zoos and the practice of keeping bears at this castle is being abandoned.

Delving farther into the town we viewed examples of uneven restoration following the reunification of Germany. Apparently building authorities are attempting to find the last known relatives of original owners. “So don’t be surprised if you get a nice letter informing you that you are the heir apparent of a building in great need of restoration – along with a bill for back taxes, and instructions for the requirements and processes you will need to abide by as you restore your building.”