Martin Luther reception

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The Martin Luther reception encompasses the appropriation and interpretation of the theology and the person of the reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) over the centuries. This reception began with his national activities from 1517 and has continued unabated to the present. Luther is one of the most quoted, revered and controversial personalities in history.

Frederick the Wise's dream of posting the theses , Reformation woodcut, dated 1591
"Seven-headed Luther", anti-reformatory caricature

Scientific reception, research

Luther's theology has been researched since 1800, systematically since around 1900. Its interpretation has always been closely linked to contemporary history. Important Luther researchers were Theodosius Harnack (denominational Prussian-conservative restoration), Albrecht Ritschl and Wilhelm Herrmann (neo-Kantian individualism), Karl Holl and Erich Seeberg ( Luther Renaissance ); important Luther interpreters were Friedrich Gogarten , Rudolf Bultmann , Gerhard Ebeling (existential interpretation), Walther von Loewenich , Ernst Wolf and Hans Joachim Iwand (socially critical Lutheranism after 1945). In the 1980s Martin Brecht was an important church historian who dealt with Luther and his legacy.

The critical Weimar Complete Edition was created in 1883. By 1920, many Luther manuscripts were discovered (lectures 1509–1518, sermon transcripts, disputation minutes 1522–1546). In 1918 the Luther Society was founded, which is dedicated to researching the life and work of Martin Luther and publishes the Luther magazine and the Luther yearbooks. Since 1945, interdenominational and international congresses for Luther research have been held in various cities around the world every year. A turning point was the 3rd International Congress on Luther Research in Helsinki in 1966; since then Catholic experts have participated in this exchange at all levels.

Numerous studies on certain phases of life or individual questions have appeared. For a long time, the Protestant turnaround was primarily researched on the Protestant side. More recent text finds and interdenominational research projects gradually lightened the differentiated and complex relationship between Luther and the Catholic tradition. The church historian Otto Scheel was the first to establish that Luther had not come into contact with any heretical, humanistic or church-critical currents of his time before he began studying theology. In 1958, the psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson tried to explain Luther's theology on the basis of early childhood deformations of his sexuality and pent-up feelings of guilt and hate against his father. The approach of Joseph Lortz is important for the more recent Catholic Luther research , whose top sentence was: "Luther wrestled a Catholicism down within himself that was not Catholic." What was meant was Occhamism and the lack of familiarity with Thomas Aquinas , during Luther's lifelong reference to Augustine was welcomed as the "Catholic heir" of the reformer von Lortz.

National myth

Hermann Wislicenus (1825–1899): Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521

In the 19th century a national myth emerged in Germany that stylized Luther as the champion of the German language, independence and identity. At the Wartburg Festival on Reformation Day 1817, books were also burned , which followed on from Luther's burning of the papal bull and canon law in 1520.

The nationalistic appropriation of Luther determined the Kulturkampf . For the anniversary year 1883 tens of thousands visited the sites of his work. The historian Heinrich von Treitschke asserted in his lecture Luther and the German Nation a Germanic heritage as a condition for the success of the Reformation and thus summarized his anti-Catholic, anti-republican and implicitly anti-French interpretation of Luther. The Hohenzollerns also worked on this myth.

photos

Martin Luther, woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer , before 1530

Luther is one of the most frequently portrayed people in German history. During his lifetime, the Cranach workshop created around 500 pictures of him, at least 306 of which were portraits. Many of them are based on eleven portraits that Lucas Cranach the Elder and his sons made as court painters to the Saxon Elector and for which Luther was the model. Original pen drawings were also made by Johann Wilhelm Reifenstein , who also created the Luther Rose . In addition, almost all of the important artists of the time painted Luther pictures that were not personally authorized. Only Albrecht Dürer , who adhered to Luther's teachings since 1520 and wished to be allowed to depict him, is missing for unknown reasons. One suspects a high number of lost Luther pictures of all kinds. In addition to death masks that have been copied many times and hand casts, pictures of the dead such as that by Lucas Furtenagel were created .

The Cranach d. Ä. Characterized Luther types were not only copied, but also interpreted over the centuries. Artists claimed Luther either affirmatively or critically for their own historical situation and position. “The history of a nation becomes recognizable in the mirror of the portrait history of an individual.” ( Albrecht Geck ) In a portrait of Gottfried August Gründler (1710–1775) Luther appears z. B. as a mildly smiling pietist. Johann Martin Preissler (1715–1794) portrayed him as an enlightener, Ludwig Emil Grimm (1790–1863) as a romantic genius, Karl Bauer (1868–1942) as a visionary of the Empire, Otto von Kursell (1884–1967) as a 'National Socialist' . Representations from the GDR show him as part of the rulers. Luther uses more recent edits as an advertising medium (BILD newspaper) or as a medium for digital works of art (Matthias Missfeldt). Marc Taschowsky's (born 1973) oil painting, which depicts Luther as a media icon, was created for the Recklinghausen exhibition "Luther in the sights of images" in the anniversary year of the Reformation in 2017.

Various pictorial features characterize certain aspects of his biography: Luther as a monk (with tonsure and monk's robe), theologian (with doctoral hat), Junker Jörg (with full beard), husband (with Katharina von Bora ), preacher or church father (in black robe, with book or scroll), Professor (in a hood with a fur collar).

The swan can often be found as an attribute on Luther pictures, according to a tradition according to which Jan Hus is said to have said before he was cremated at the Council of Constance : “Today you burn a goose (in Czech hus ), but a swan will come in a hundred years hear her sing ".

In the 19th century, mass-produced images of Luther contributed to a national-heroic image of Luther. In many places there were Luther monuments that show him as an indomitable teacher of biblical truth.

Movie

Since the silent film era , Luther's biography has been filmed several times and has been the subject of several documentaries. The so far latest feature film Luther (2003) depicts his life from entering the order 1505 to 1530. Martin Luther - A life between God and the devil , also from 2003, is a well-known documentary.

theatre

Martin Rinckart made Luther the hero of a play ( Der Eißlebische Christian Ritter ) as early as 1617 for the anniversary of the Reformation . Other well-known plays about Luther's life come from, among others, Zacharias Werner ( Martin Luther or the consecration of power , 1806), Otto Devrient ( Luther , 1883), Friedrich Lienhard ( Luther on the Wartburg , 1906), Adolf Bartels ( Der Reformer , 1917 ), John Osborne ( Luther , 1962) and Dieter Forte ( Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The Introduction of Bookkeeping , 1970).

Dieter Wedel brought the play Martin Luther - The attack on stage at the Bad Hersfeld Festival in 2017 .

music

Commemoration

Bust in the Walhalla near Regensburg, sculptor Ernst Rietschel (1831)

In the 19th century, many German cities received a Luther monument . These include the Wittenberg Luther Memorial by Johann Gottfried Schadow (1821) and the Worms Luther Memorial (1868) as the largest of its kind.

Lapel ribbon for the Luther celebration in 1933, Evangelical Church in the Rhineland archive

On the 450th Luther birthday on November 19, 1933, the German Luther Day , the German Christians swore a national continuity between Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther.

On the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth in 1983, the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR each minted a silver commemorative coin. On the same occasion, the postal administration of the Federal Republic of Germany issued a special stamp in 1983 that gave the GDR a total of 5 special motifs in 1982 and 1983 , after having moved his portrait with a doctoral hat into the brand image in 1967 on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Reformation.

In many places streets and squares are named after Luther, for example the Piazza Martin Lutero in Rome since September 16, 2015 .

Many church buildings are called Luther Church . His tombstone has stood in the town church of St. Michael in Jena since 1571. The Evangelical Name Calendar emphasizes his birthday (November 10th), the anniversary of his death (February 18th) and his translation of the New Testament (September 20th), which are also reminiscent of church services. Anglicans and Lutherans celebrate the Reformation annually on October 31st with special services during the church year .

In September 2008, the Lutheran World Federation opened the Luther Decade , which will lead to the 500th anniversary of the posting of the theses in Wittenberg and convey the global significance of the Reformation. A Luther Garden in Wittenberg is being created for this purpose.

In 2012, three windows by the artist Karl-Martin Hartmann with references to Luther were inaugurated in the Marktkirche Wiesbaden on the occasion of the 150th church anniversary . One of the windows shows a red rose in front of green leaves and is supposed to remind of the Luther rose as a symbol for the reformer. Another shows the portrait of Luther in profile in front of a black hole .

A Luther figure, manufactured since February 2015 as a special edition of the Playmobil system toy , was used by the EKD and the German National Tourist Board (DZT) as “Reformation ambassadors” for the 2017 Reformation anniversary . With more than a million figures sold by mid-2017, the Playmobil Luther is the best-selling single figure in the history of Playmobil.

Museums

Birth and death house in Eisleben

Museum of Luther's Parents' House in Mansfeld ( Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt )

Martin Luther's birthplace in Eisleben was destroyed in a fire in 1689. 1693, the city built on the plot a Baroque Luther Memorial and one of the first German museums.

The house at Andreaskirchplatz 7 had been the house where Martin Luther died since 1726. It was acquired by Prussia in 1862 and expanded as another Luther Museum. Both houses were declared a World Heritage Site in 1972 . Today, however, historians assume that the actual house where they died was the city palace, which stood on the Markt 56 site.

Luther House in Eisenach

The Lutherhaus in Eisenach from 1956 to 2013

After the house was rebuilt, the Lukaß family (Lucas, Lukass) continued to run the "Lutherkeller" as a restaurant until 1953. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia later rented the house in 1955. It expanded the existing Luther memorial, housed the "Evangelical Rectory Archive" here and opened a memorial site in the Luther House in 1956, which represented a mixture of memorial, collection and museum.

In 1965, the Thuringian regional church received half of the house as a bequest from the Lukaß family. The church acquired the second part in 1997 from the heirs of the Lukaß family.

Even after reunification, the Lutherhaus remained in the possession of the Thuringian regional church and was used as a Reformation site. From 2006 to 2013 the Lutherhaus was operated by Wartburg Verlag GmbH . Despite multiple restorations and renovations (including 1976/77, 1983), the house soon reached its structural limits. The storage conditions for the holdings of the rectory archive also turned out to be unsuitable. One of the last modernization measures was the permanent exhibition “Rediscover Martin Luther”, which was completely redesigned in 1996, was state-of-the-art at the time and served as a model for the modernization of the Luther House in Wittenberg . Over the years, however, the Lutherhaus lost its attractiveness and modernity compared to other Reformation sites.

Extension and renovation work began with the laying of the foundation stone on August 12, 2013

The new Lutherhaus (2013 to today)

In the run-up to the Reformation anniversary in 2017, the Evangelical Church in Central Germany , which was created in 2009 through the merger of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia and the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony , launched the "Lutherhaus Eisenach Foundation" in 2013 with the aim of developing a modern museum that conforms to international museum standards. The holdings of the Evangelical Parsonage Archives, which were previously owned by the Association of Evangelical Pastors in Germany eV , were transferred to the newly established foundation and have since formed the museum's collection base. With Jochen Birkenmeier, the Lutherhaus received a full-time scientific director and curator for the first time, who also conceived and designed the redesign of the museum and the current permanent exhibition "Luther and the Bible".

From 2013 to 2015 the Lutherhaus was extensively renovated and restored. During this time, the museum's educational work and the administration of the Lutherhaus took place in the nearby Creutznacher Haus . On September 26, 2015, the new Lutherhaus was reopened with a large festive service and a subsequent dedication ceremony.

Luther House in Wittenberg

History and use

The original Augustinian monastery became the home of the Luther family. The building and later Luther House was built in 1504 as an Augustinian monastery and known as the "Black Monastery", an allusion to the monks' costume. Martin Luther lived in the monastery as a monk from 1508. In 1532 Luther received the building.

Later, after Luther's death, the University of Leucorea took over the building. A grant house was created. The front building, built in the mid-1580s , was named "Augusteum" in honor of the university's sponsor, August I of Saxony .

Then in 1844 the property was renovated for many years by Friedrich August Stüler. Until 1937 there was a Luther school on the first floor of the house. But as early as 1883 the first rooms were used for museum purposes. The Augusteum of Leucorea serves today as the central location of the Luther Memorials Foundation for the presentation of special exhibitions ( Luther memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg ). The Augusteum and Lutherhaus Wittenberg houses the largest museum of Reformation history in the world. The Lutherhaus Eisenach focuses on its Bible translation and its effects. The Erfurt City Museum has a permanent exhibition on the life and work of Martin Luther.

The former home of Luther became the largest museum of Reformation history, with many exhibits on the life of Martin Luther and the Reformation.

See also

Web links

Commons : Martin Luther  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Johanna Risse: Ask again about Luther. The current image of the reformer in Catholic and Protestant theology. October 16, 2013 [2]
  • Klaus Dicke: The Reformation as a European event. Forces of the Reformation for the present in Europe. Lecture at the Representation of the Free State of Thuringia to the European Union, Brussels, June 4, 2013 [3]
  • Heinz Schilling : Luther as the bulky rebel. November 7, 2011 [4]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto Hermann Pesch : Introduction to Luther . Mainz 2004, p. 22 .
  2. ^ Gerhard Ebeling:  Martin Luther . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960, Sp. 495-496.
  3. ^ Otto Scheel: The development of Luther up to the end of the lecture on the letter to the Romans. Leipzig 1910; Documents on Luther's development (until 1519). Tübingen 1911. On this, KD Schmidt, p. 276.
  4. ↑ Erik H. Erikson: The young man Luther. A psychoanalytic and historical study.
  5. ^ Otto Hermann Pesch: Introduction to Luther . Mainz 2004, p. 32 .
  6. ↑ Monika Flacke: The foundation of the nation from the crisis. In: Monika Flacke (Ed.): Myths of Nations. A European panorama. An exhibition of the German Historical Museum under the patronage of Federal Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl. Volume accompanying the exhibition from March 20, 1998 to June 9, 1998. Köhler & Amelang, Munich / Berlin 1998, pp. 111–115.
  7. ↑ Hartmut Lehmann : "He is ourselves: The eternal German". On the long-lasting effect of Heinrich von Treitschke's interpretation of Luther. In: Gerd Krumeich , Hartmut Lehmann (ed.): "God with us". Nation, Religion, and Violence in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, pp. 91-104.
  8. ^ Günter Schuchardt: Cranach, Luther and the portraits. Thuringian theme year "Image and Message" Catalog for the special exhibition at the Wartburg, April 2 to July 19, 2015. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7954-2977-5 , p. 9.
  9. ↑ Albrecht Geck : From Cranach to the BILD newspaper - 500 years of changes in the image of Luther as a mirror of church and cultural history . In: Elisabeth Doerk (Ed.): Reformatio in Nummis. Luther and the Reformation on coins and medals . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2014, p. 78-103 .
  10. ↑ See Albrecht Geck: Luther in the sights of the pictures. Luther portraits from five centuries . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2017.
  11. ↑ Luther in the sights of the pictures: Institute for Church Contemporary History. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  12. ↑ The scarf , it was always worn open at the front, was a common item of clothing in the 16th century, especially until around 1550. As a men's clothing item, it was initially ankle-length, but gradually decreased in length from 1510 and later only reached just over the knees. Sleeveless screws as well as those with arm slits were common. The latter made it to hang down the sleeves below the elbow loose, so that the worn underneath doublet appeared. The shoulder piece was smooth and the fabric was attached to it in folds. The collar was often trimmed with fur and not infrequently reached over the shoulders. Although the scarf was worn over the undergarment, its function was not a cloak to be taken off in the house; rather it was worn as an upper garment, which in combination with the undergarments formed a kind of set.
  13. ↑ Johannes Ficker: The portraits of Luther from the time of his life. In: Luther yearbook. 1934, pp. 103-161.
  14. ↑ Luther pictures with a swan
  15. ↑ The prophecy is quoted very differently. Luther himself referred them to himself ( hamburger-reformation.de ).
  16. ↑ Regine C. Hrosch: The picture as a historical source? Illustrations of the Reformation in history books. Dissertation. University of Oldenburg, 2006.
  17. ↑ Norbert Mecklenburg: The Prophet of the Germans: Martin Luther in the mirror of literature. Springer-Verlag, 2016, p. 56 ff.
  18. ^ Hessenschau.de, Frankfurt, Germany: Luther and Titanic are on the program of the Bad Hersfeld Festival | hessenschau.de | Culture . In: hessenschau.de . November 18, 2016 ( hessenschau.de [accessed December 17, 2016]).
  19. ↑ CD presentation on Spiegel online .
  20. ↑ https://jochenteuffel.com/2017/01/27/der-deutsche-luthertag-1933-und-die-schreckenskammer-der-luther-jubilaeen/
  21. ^ Joachim Frank: A new address: Piazza Martin Lutero. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. 15./16. August 2015, p. 33.
  22. ↑ Martin Luther in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints ; evangelische-liturgie.de .
  23. ↑ [1] Report on the Luther window in the community newspaper of the Marktkirche Wiesbaden, accessed on January 14, 2019
  24. ^ Reformer Luther as a Playmobil figure. In: pro. Christian media magazine. February 6, 2015, accessed October 18, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Heinrich Bedford-Strohm is happy about a million Luther figures. EKD website, June 20, 2017, accessed on October 18, 2017.
  26. ^ Museum of Luther's death house .
  27. ↑ Background: Unesco World Heritage Site. In: Der Spiegel. June 28, 2002.
  28. ^ Museum "Luther's House where he died" in Eisleben. ( Memento from March 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at: luther2017.de .
  29. ↑ Uta Schäfer: The anniversary as an opportunity , in: Glaube + Heimat , October 29, 2010, online at: http://www.glaube-und-heimat.de/2010/10/29/das-jubilaum-als-chance / (accessed December 21, 2015).
  30. ↑ Birkenmeier: Lutherhaus , p. 21f.
  31. ↑ The Luther House in Eisenach is being renovated, rebuilt and expanded Mitteldeutsche-kirchenzeitungen.de on November 30, 2013, accessed on November 12, 2016.
  32. ↑ Heiko Kleinschmidt: Eisenach: The Luther House opened with church service and folk festival , in: Thüringer Allgemeine , September 28, 2015, online at: http://eisenach.thueringer-allgemeine.de/web/eisenach/startseite/detail/-/specific / Eisenach-Mit-Gottesdienst-und-Volksfest-oeffnete-das-Lutherhaus-1892410851 (accessed on December 21, 2015).
  33. ^ Lutherstadt Wittenberg: Luther House .
  34. ↑ Lutherhaus Eisenach .
  35. ↑ "Great Years - On the Threshold of the Reformation". Exhibition, history laboratory and Luther collection in the city museum . Communication from the city of Erfurt, accessed on October 18, 2015.