Today (Oct. 31) is "der Reformationstag" (Day of Reformation) and is an official holiday in at least five German federal states: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen. In other federal states, such as Baden-Wüttenberg and Niedersachsen, students are entitled to be excused for a church service.
Christians of the Protestant Churches celebrate this day in commemoration of the Wittenberg Reformation by Martin Luther (1483-1546) . Luther is said to have nailed his 95 theses protesting against corruption in the Roman Catholic Church on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. With the help of the invention of the printing press, his theses had been reprinted in many big cities within a month.
This summer, 800 colorful miniature figures of Martin Luther were on display on the central market square of Wittenberg where he lived and worked. In our course of the German language history, we are currently covering the life of Martin Luther and the contribution of his bible translation to the German language. So, an excursion to Wittenberg was necessary and meaningful, and we went on Thursday, Oct. 28th.
During the time of his involuntary stay at the Wartburg, Luther devoted his time to translating the New Testament from Greek into German. Through this bible, Luther became the creator of the New High German written language.
Luther lived during a very anti-semitic time. Jews were discriminated against. In his 1523 work "Jesus Christ was born Jew" Luther made reference to the origin of Christianity. He wanted to convert the Jews to the belief he found after years of searching. When he was getting older and didn't see the Jews recognize and confess the "true belief," he turned bitter and wrote many antisemitic statements, including "...that one burns their synagogues".
Centuries later, the Nazis used Luther's antisemitic declarations to promote their theories and to justify their actions against Jews.
On Friday, Oct. 29, FU-BEST Program organized a local field trip to the Memorial Site KZ Sachsenhausen.
Sachsenhausen's infamous slogen "Arbeit Macht Frei"
The Konzentrationslager (KZ) Sachsenhausen was not only used to retain and torture Jewish people, but also for international POWs, political prisoners, homosexuals, Romas and retarded people. Although the two field trips had entirely different focuses: one is religious and the other one political, it is nonetheless surprising to see that there is a slight connection of the two historical places. These were indeed two special days in a row!
I never got the appeal or the mythology of martin luther. First he was a cleric only 11 years when he decided he knew what was best. He suffered from mental illness (depression and obsessiveness and possibly hallucinations). He wasn't a theologian at all but a philosophy major. He wrote books such as "The Jews and their Lies" which fostered great anti-semitism in Germany.
ReplyDeleteOn his death bed he pleaded with his followers not to break away from the Catholic Church and his followers fractured the Church and sent many countries into war with many deaths. So what are we to admire about this man? I find him one of the most evil men of history.