Luther (2003)

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Movie
German title Luther
Original title Luther
Country of production Germany ,
United States
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 6
Rod
Director Eric Till
script Camille Thomasson ,
Bart Gavigan
production Dennis A. Clauss ,
Brigitte Rochow ,
Christian P. Stehr ,
Alexander Thies ,
Franz Thies
music Richard Harvey
camera Robert Fraisse
cut Clive Barrett
occupation

Luther is a German-US-American co-production by Eric Till from 2003. The feature film tells the life story of the church reformer Martin Luther .

action

Martin Luther is almost struck by lightning on a stormy autumn evening near Stotternheim and, in his distress, vows to Saint Anne that he wants to become a monk if she can only safely save him from this threatening storm. From now on he feels obliged to keep his vow, even against the will of his father. He goes to the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt .

Only as a priest does he recognize the injustice that is done to people. The Roman Catholic Church operates at the behest of Pope Leo X. a brisk trade in indulgences . A lot of money is squeezed out of the population of the Holy Roman Empire through this sale of indulgences and other taxes that the Church demands .

In Wittenberg , Luther proclaimed his 95 theses against the grievances in the church. He creates enemies, including Johann Tetzel , the infamous indulgence preacher. He also ignores the Church's excommunication and continues his struggle tirelessly without a doubt. This means that Luther has to be brought to safety in the Wartburg until he finally goes back to the people disguised as Junker Jörg .

Finally, with the support of his friends and his wife Katharina von Bora , Luther succeeds in gaining recognition for his movement as a religious community.

background

The film was produced by NFP teleart in collaboration with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Eikon Film.

Some of the film was shot on original locations in Germany , such as the Wartburg, but also in the Czech Republic and Italy . Exterior shots were also shot in the historic old town and in front of the city wall of Seßlach . Within one week, the film generated revenues of the equivalent of 2,344,183 US dollars in Germany . In the US , sales in the first few days were only $ 908,446.

If the film is viewed more as a German production, it can be regarded as one of the most successful German films in the USA .

The role in Luther was the last Peter Ustinov played before he passed away in March 2004.

The cinema release of the film in Germany was on October 30, 2003, the German free TV premiere on October 31, 2005 ( Reformation Day ) at 8:15 p.m. on Das Erste .

criticism

“Despite the relatively modest means of production, an atmospheric, largely differentiated look into a century of spiritual-religious as well as social upheavals that manifest themselves in Luther's teachings. Dramaturgically sometimes a bit bumpy, the solidly photographed, stringently staged and convincingly interpreted film, including the supporting roles, stimulates discussion. "

- Lexicon of International Films

Historical inaccuracies

  • In the film Luther the division of the Bible into chapters and verses is given. However, this classification was only made in 1551, five years after Luther's death. The French scholar Robert Estienne carried over the system of chapters and verses to his translation of the New Testament in 1551 when he translated it from Greek into Latin . A year later, in 1552, Estienne translated the New Testament into French - again with the subdivision into chapters and verses.
  • When Luther acquired an indulgence in Rome, believers on the steps to the Lateran prayed the Latin Our Father in a wrong form, namely with the directly attached doxology "Quia tuum est regnum ..." . However, this custom only emerged in the Reformation churches through Luther's translation of the Bible. In addition, the Scala Sancta, allegedly the staircase from the palace of Pontius Pilate, is nowhere near as wide.
  • Pope Julius II, riding through the scene in gold-colored armor , is accompanied by a Medici house coat of arms . However, the first Medici Pope was only his successor, Leo X.
  • If Luther had preached between the rows in the castle church in Wittenberg, nobody would have been able to understand him. The pulpit with the sound cover was just invented so that the preachers could make themselves heard in larger rooms. Nor were the people sitting on benches, and they must not all have been attentive to the matter.
  • In the film Luther preaches (from about 20 minutes): “Terrible, unforgiving, that's how I felt about God. He punishes us in this life, hands us over to purgatory after death, condemns sinners to burn in hell for all eternity. But I was wrong. Those who see God as angry do not see his real face. You look at a veil as if dark storm clouds had drawn up in front of its face. If we truly believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, then we have a God of love, and whoever trusts and believes in God our Lord sees his kind heart. And when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: I admit that I deserve death and hell, if so! Because I know someone who has paid for me and taken all the guilt for me. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is, oh yes, I want to be there too! ... “In fact, Luther did not want to deny the reality of God's wrath. Even the angry God was the true God to him. His main concern was to show that access to God is only possible through the work and initiative of Jesus Christ, not through that of man. At the beginning of the quote, the film reflects a modern rather than a Reformation image of God.
  • Immediately before a mystery play in the court of the Elector in Wittenberg, Friedrich III. referred to in the background as Frederick the Wise of Saxony . However, the epithet of the sage was only added later through historiography.
  • Even before the theses were posted (1517), which was not historically guaranteed, a model of St. Peter's Basilica can be seen in the Pope's apartments , which is clearly based on Michelangelo's design, but which was only created a few decades later. Likewise, the antiquarium of the Munich residence, where the encounter between the emperor and the Saxon elector was recorded, did not yet exist at the time of Luther.
  • After Luther has posted the theses, two students take them down and take them to a printer. Although the latter took a printed page of the theses from the press, it was not the theses that were distributed by courier, but Luther's book " From the freedom of a Christian ". However, Luther only wrote this work in 1520, three years after his 95 theses.
  • Johann von Staupitz is depicted with the external attributes of a modest monk. The historical person was considerably higher in rank.
  • In the film, Frederick the Wise has the rose blessed by the Pope put down and, on the occasion, instructs Spalatin to clear away his entire collection of relics. In fact, Friedrich held onto the relics all his life and heard the Catholic mass every morning. Only once, shortly before his death, did he have communion served.
  • The Reichstag in Worms takes place in front of the frescoes in the Wartburg, which were only created by Moritz von Schwind in 1854/55 .
  • According to the film version, Aleander is a cardinal appointed by Leo X from the Diet of Worms in 1521 . However, the historic Aleander was not until 1538 by Pope Paul III. elevated to the rank of cardinal. In addition, Aleander is given an important role in the hearing of Luther. Aleander wasn't even there.
  • The meeting between Friedrich the Wise and Martin Luther has not been historically proven. Nor could Luther have given him the German Bible, because it was not finished until 1545, long after Frederick's death in 1525.
  • The film mixes the Wittenberg riots (based on Andreas Karlstadt ) of 1522 (Luther as Junker Jörg on the Wartburg) with the Peasants 'War of 1525. On a trip from April 16 to May 6, 1525, Luther experienced the effects of the Peasants' War and wrote “ Against the predatory and murderous gang of peasants ” .
  • Hanna and her daughter Grete, who suffers from a disability, are both fictitious. This side story makes Luther seem sympathetic, as he is the only one who does not take advantage of Hanna's concern for Grete. Just like most people at the time, Luther actually spoke very badly of children with disabilities and called them changelings that the devil would have sent.
  • Shortly before the Reichstag in Augsburg, Luther urged the princes personally to remain true to the Reformation faith. At the Reichstag in Augsburg, the princes then oppose the Emperor Charles V by declaring one of the electors that they would “rather have their heads cut off” than betray their Reformation beliefs. Then they kneel and lower their heads. Philipp Melanchthon immediately hands over the Confessio Augustana . - In reality, Luther did not personally swear the princes, nor did the bowing scene take place. Incidentally, many of the electors continued to be Catholic. The “Confessio Augustana” was presented to Emperor Charles V and the electors of the empire who were present on June 25, 1530, but not by Phillip Melanchthon himself. This filmic representation of the events was clearly done for dramaturgical reasons.

Awards

literature

  • Carola Fey: Luther between preformation and 're-formation' . In: Astrid Erll, Stephanie Wodianka (ed.): Film and cultural memory. Plurimedial constellations . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020443-8 , pp. 53-75.
  • Herbert Heinzelmann (Ed.): Luther Filmheft . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2004.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for Luther . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2003 (PDF; test number: 94 452 K).
  2. ^ Age rating for Luther . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Luther's budget and box office results (2003). IMDb , accessed August 4, 2011 .
  4. ↑ IMDB Release Info
  5. ^ Das Erste ( Memento from December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) and Evangelical Church in the Rhineland
  6. ^ Lexicon of International Films
  7. ^ Richard Friedenthal: Luther, his life and his time, TB Munich 1982, 85-87.
  8. ↑ Reuter, Fritz (ed.): The Reichstag in Worms from 1521: Reich policy and Luthersache. Worms 1971. p. 117
  9. ↑ The scene may, however, be traced back to a similar incident in that Reichstag. As spokesman for the Protestants, Margrave Georg von Ansbach-Brandenburg responded to what had already been said and now, at the beginning, he repeated the Protestants' ban on preaching - possibly intended as a point. - See: A collection of articles on the classification of the Confessio Augustana 1530, for example: Immenkötter, Herbert; Wenz, Gunther (ed.): In the shadow of the Confessio Augustana - The religious negotiations of the Augsburg Reichstag in a historical context . Münster, 1997 ISBN 3-402-03798-X

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