Catherine of Bora

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Katharina von Bora (painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder , 1526)

Katharina von Bora , after marrying Katharina Luther (born  January 29, 1499 in Lippendorf ; †  December 20, 1552 in Torgau ), was a Saxon aristocrat and Cistercian . At the age of 26 she married the German reformer Martin Luther . That is why she was later also called the Lutherin .

Life

Coat of arms of the von Bora family

origin

Katharina von Bora, epitaph in the Marienkirche in Torgau
Memorial plaque in the Nimbschen monastery

Katharina von Bora came from a family of the Saxon landed gentry. It is generally believed that she was born on January 29, 1499; this date is not documented. Because of the wide ramifications of her family and the uncertainty regarding the names of Katharina's parents, there are different opinions about her place of birth Lippendorf .

For a long time it was accepted without contradiction that her place of birth was the Gut Lippendorf (district of Neukieritzsch ) near Leipzig. This view is still adhered to in the specialist genealogical literature. Thereafter Katharina was probably the daughter of Johan von Bora auf Lippendorf, who was only safely occupied in 1500 and 1505, and his wife Margarete, who was also only mentioned in 1500 and 1505 and came from an otherwise unknown Lower Silesian family in the Principality of Sagan . Katharina had two sisters and three brothers.

In contrast to this, historical novels and short stories, as well as a document from the Saxon State Archives in Leipzig, state that she was born in Hirschfeld near Nossen and that her parents were Hans von Bora zu Hirschfeld and Anna von Haugwitz . The then 800-year-old Romanesque stone baptismal font from the Hirschfeld Church, which is now in the cloister of Freiberg Cathedral , is associated with her. Hans and Elisabeth Pflugk are accepted as great-grandparents of Katharina von Bora who have not yet been documented.

Youth and education

There is only agreement that at the end of 1504 her father gave her to the Augustinian Choir Women's Monastery of St. Clemens in Brehna to be educated , as in a letter from Laurentius Zoch to Martin Luther on October 30, 1531, the only evidence of Katharina von Boras's stay in Brehnaer Kloster, can be found.

Cistercian

In the Cistercian monastery Marienthron in Nimbschen near Grimma , where her aunt Margarethe von Haubitz, the abbess of the monastery, also lived, it is documented by a list from 1509/1510. There she learned to read, write and sing, which she had probably already started in Brehna, as well as some Latin . There she also got to know the business processes of agriculture. In 1515, at the earliest possible date, she made her vows as a nun .

At the Wartburg wrote Martin Luther Scripture De votis monasticis , an opinion ( iudicium ) on the binding nature of monastery vows. This should offer help to the religious who were considering leaving their monastery. Many monks and nuns left their monasteries for various reasons, whereby Luther's argument as to why the vows were not binding also played a role. With the help of Torgau councilor Leonhard Köppe, Katharina von Bora, Magdalena von Staupitz and seven other Cistercian women left the Marienthron monastery at Easter 1523 and ended up penniless via Torgau to Wittenberg. Because they could not return to their families for various reasons, Luther put the women with his friends in Wittenberg and placed them with “honorable men” as husbands and breadwinners.

Katharina von Bora was first accepted into the house of the town clerk and later mayor (from 1530 to 1543) Philipp Reichenbach and later found accommodation with Lucas Cranach the Elder , from whom the most famous portraits of Katharina and Luther come. When King Christian II of Denmark stayed in the Cranach house in 1523, Katharina von Bora received a gold ring from him. She was also later in close friendship with Barbara and Lucas Cranach. They were each other's godparents.

Marriage to Luther (1525–1546)

After she was not allowed to marry the Wittenberg student Hieronymus Baumgartner from Nuremberg , because his parents did not agree to marry a runaway nun, and Luther's attempt at mediation with Kaspar Glatz had also failed due to the resistance of the young woman, her mediation became difficult. Luther himself had so far remained a bachelor and was initially interested in Ave von Schönfeld . After she had decided to marry Basilius Axt , Luther and Katharina von Bora decided to get married.

The Cranach couple escorted Katharina von Bora to the Black Monastery of Wittenberg on their wedding day on June 13, 1525 . There Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther were married by Johannes Bugenhagen in the presence of their friend Justus Jonas . The wedding ceremony took place on June 27, 1525. The couple settled in this former Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg, which Elector Johann the Steadfast had made available to the reformers. Katharina von Bora administered and cultivated the extensive estates, ran cattle breeding and a beer brewery to feed Luther, his students and guests. In times of the plague , she also ran a hospice where she and other women cared for the sick.

Katharina was a great help to Martin Luther in his personal problems. By accommodating students who wrote down many of his sayings, she prevented economic hardship. Luther also lovingly called his wife my Herr Käthe because of her determined manner . She also looked after the financial part of the printing of the Luther writings and earned respect in witty and quick-witted contributions to table discussions and letters.

Luther bought his wife a widow's residence in Zöllsdorf, not far from Lippendorf . A memorial in the community south of Leipzig reminds of this .

Children (1526–1534)

Katharina and Martin Luther had six children. Her son Johannes (Hans) († October 27, 1575 in Königsberg (Prussia)) was born on June 7, 1526, followed by their daughter Elisabeth on December 10, 1527, who died in early childhood on August 3, 1528 on May 4, 1529 the daughter Magdalena († September 20, 1542 in Wittenberg), on November 7, 1531 son Martin († March 4, 1565 in Wittenberg), on January 28, 1533 Paul († March 8, 1593 in Leipzig) and on December 17, 1534 Margarethe († 1570 in Mühlhausen / East Prussia ).

Household and economy

At first, the Luther couple lived in very modest circumstances, on the verge of real poverty. Then Georg Spalatin campaigned for the elector to ensure that an annual salary of 200 guilders was paid for Luther and also for Philipp Melanchthon from his fund . The Luthers were later able to hire a coachman for the transports, as well as the swineherd Johann, who looked after the cattle. The cook Dorothea was employed in the kitchen. In addition, day laborers came at times. In total there were about ten servants. Some had a bed in the Luther household, others lived in the city. Veit Dietrich was in charge of the student bureau in the Luther household , and the sources document a violent dispute about accounting issues with Katharina von Bora. The responsibility for the common household, which, due to the diverse activities of Katharina Luther, ultimately assumed the size of a medium-sized company, lay with her. Luther left these tasks to his “mistress” and usually only appeared in the household when it came to legal formalities.

Martin Luther's first step was to build a brewery on the garden side of the property for his wife Katharina, brewed with water from their own spring. Luther liked his wife's beer and that beer was also sold for a profit. The beer ( Kovent ) was not brewed very strongly and, as was customary in the late Middle Ages, was served with all meals. Later, the Luther family also took care of their own hops , because they had owned a small garden in front of the Elstertor from around 1543 in which the hops were grown.

After Luther's death (1546)

Plaque at the house where he died in Torgau
Monument to Martin and Katharina Luther in Neukieritzsch
Figure of Katharina von Bora at the "Luther Fountain" by Gernot Rumpf in Ludwigshafen
Plaque for the alleged place of birth of Katharina von Bora in Hirschfeld near Nossen

Luther's death in 1546 put Katharina von Bora in an economically precarious situation. The marriage contract , which he had his best man, the law professor Johann Apel , drawn up in 1525 in favor of his wife as sole heir and which he had confirmed in the Wittenberg Testament in 1542, was initially not recognized because it contradicted the current Sachsenspiegel . Only a word of power from Elector Johann Friedrich I of Saxony secured essential parts of the inheritance and rights. So she could stay in the old monastery building. She was among others by Duke Albrecht of Prussia and King Christian III. financially supported by Denmark .

She fled the Schmalkaldic War with her children to Magdeburg in 1546 and returned to Wittenberg in July 1547. Their buildings and lands were devastated but not destroyed. But she got into economic hardship due to the financial burdens of the reconstruction. Thanks to the support of the princes mentioned, however, it was able to recover economically. In 1552 she had to leave Wittenberg again because of the plague and bad harvests . She fled to Torgau , at whose gates her wagon had an accident. She broke a pelvic bone and died of the consequences three weeks later, on December 20, 1552, in Torgau.

There is a museum dedicated to her in the house where she died. The exact grave site in Torgau's Marienkirche is unknown, but a grave monument reminds of it.

Remembrance day

The following churches commemorate Katharina von Bora on December 20th:

Honors

Churches

Katharina-von-Bora-Church in Neukieritzsch

The churches in Neukieritzsch, a station on the Lutherweg , in Werkleitz (district of Barby ) and in Bayreuth -Meyernberg, a branch church of the Luther Church parish, bear her name. The Katharinenkirche in Dillingen an der Donau is also named after her, as is the chapel in Deitersen .

schools

A primary school in Wittenberg and the secondary school in Torgau bear her name. Since 2013 the Protestant school center Demmin has been named after Katharina von Bora. In the 2017/2018 school year in Haltern am See , the former primary schools Martin Luther and Freiherr von Eichendorff became the Katharina von Bora School.

Streets

Roads that are named after Katharina von Bora, there are in Grimma, Berlin , Freiburg , Buch am Forst , Cuxhaven , Chemnitz , Wittenberg and since 2018 in Buchholz nearby was addition in 2010 in Munich previously under the Protestant Bishop Hans Meiser called Meiserstraße was renamed Katharina-von-Bora-Straße.

Other facilities

Homes, houses and other social and church institutions named after Katharina von Bora can be found in Alfter-Oedekoven, Berg, Berlin-Weißensee, Bochum, Borgentreich, Bruchsal, Dormagen, Dudenhofen, Düsseldorf, Ebersberg, Freiburg-Hochdorf, Fürstenwalde , Groitzsch, Hanover, Kassel, Kusel, Cologne, Langenselbold, Leer, Litzendorf, Lübeck, Markkleeberg, Osnabrück, Vaterstetten, Versmold and Vorst.

Katharina von Bora Prize

The Saxon city of Torgau has been awarding the Katharina von Bora Prize, endowed with 3,000 euros, every year since 2011 in recognition of “outstanding female commitment” in promoting a charitable project. The patron is (as of January 2017) the Federal Minister for Family Affairs Manuela Schwesig .

Special postage stamp

500 years of Katharina von Bora: German commemorative stamp from 1999

In 1999, Deutsche Post dedicated a stamp to Katharina von Boras' 500th birthday to the value of 110 Pfennig after a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä.

literature

Movies

Film documentaries

  • Catherine of Bora. Nun, businesswoman, Luther's wife. Staged documentation by Lew Hohmann and Dirk Otto . With Nicole Janze as the young and Kati Grasse as the older Katharina von Bora. Germany 2009, approx. 45 minutes.
  • Luther and the women. Reportage and documentation about the life and work of Katharina von Bora and her contemporaries. Script and direction: Gabriele Rose. Germany 2017, 30 minutes.

Feature films

Fiction

  • Oswald Rathmann : Gertraud Bernhardi, the first pastor's wife after the Reformation, Katharina von Bora's strange Easter festival, the flight of the nine nuns from the Nimbschen monastery. Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1965.
  • Christine Brückner Are you sure, Martinus? The table speeches of Katharina Luther, née von Bora. In: If you'd talked, Desdemona . Indignant speeches from indignant women. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1983, p. 32ff.
  • Asta Scheib : children of disobedience. The love story of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-12231-5 .
  • Lisbeth Haase: Katharina von Bora, Luther's Morgenstern zu Wittenberg. Christian publishing house, 1999, ISBN 3-7675-1172-X .
  • Wolfgang Liebehenschel: The slow rise of the morning star from Wittenberg. A study and a story about the origins of Katharina von Bora. dr. ziethen verlag, Oschersleben 1999, ISBN 3-932090-59-4 .
  • Eva Zeller : The Lutherin. Searching for traces of Katharina von Bora. Piper Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-492-23736-3 .
  • Ursula Koch : Roses in the snow. Katharina Luther, née von Bora - A woman dares her life. Brunnen-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7655-1860-3 .
  • Ursula Koch: Mocked, respected, loved - the women of the reformers. Neukirchner Verlagsgesellschaft, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7615-6214-7 (print) and ISBN 978-3-7615-6215-4 (e-book)
  • Karin Jäckel : The Reformer's wife. The life of Katharina von Bora. (P. 605); Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 978-3-499-23946-5 .
  • Marianne Wintersteiner: Luther's wife. Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7655-4031-8 .
  • Sylvia Weigelt: Men's pleasure and pleasure. Women around Luther. Wartburg Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-86160-241-5 .
  • Eleonore Dehnerdt : Katharina - The strong woman at Luther's side. Brunnen Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7655-4274-9 .
  • Maria Regina Kaiser : Katharina von Bora & Martin Luther. From the girl in the monastery to the wife of the reformer. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-451-06883-6 .

Web links

Commons : Katharina von Bora  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Fischer, v. Stutterheim: On the origin of Katharina v. Bora, wife of Martin Luther. In: AfF 2005, pp. 242-271.
  2. a b Jürgen Wagner: On the presumed origin of Catherina v. Bora. In: Genealogy 2005, pp. 673–703, pp. 730 ff., And 2006, pp. 30–35.
  3. Jürgen Wagner: The relationships of Luther's wife Catherina v. Bora to family v. Mergenthal - Wi (e) the one legend. In: Familienforschung in Mitteldeutschland (FFM) 2006, pp. 342–347.
  4. ^ Albrecht Thoma: Katharina von Bora - Geschichtliches Lebensbild. 1900.
  5. Jürgen Wagner: "Fuit Soror Doctorissae" . In: Genealogy 2014, pp. 243-257; ders .: On the history of the von Bora family and some estates in the Saxon authorities of Borna and Pegau. In: Genealogy 2010, p. 300, chapter Who were Martin Luther's in-laws? See also: (ders. :) Luther's mother-in-law came from Silesia. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung / Delitzsch-Eilenburger Kreiszeitung from January 5, 2015, p. 24.
  6. ^ Sächsisches Staatsarchiv zu Leipzig, German Central Office for Genealogy: Document from the Saxon State Archives on the birthplace of Katharina von Bora. April 28, 1998. Retrieved June 16, 2018 .
  7. The founder of this view is Georg von Hirschfeld: The relationships of Luther and his wife, Katharina von Bora, to the von Hirschfeld family. In: Contributions to the Saxon Church History , 1883, p. 83 ff .; also Wolfgang Liebehenschel: The slow rise of the morning star from Wittenberg. Oschersleben 1999, p. 79; Adapted from Brockhaus Encyclopedia, 21st edition (2005); Peter Anderson: Lutherweg avoids Nossen. In: Döbelner Anzeiger , April 28, 2012.
  8. Important works of art in Freiberg Cathedral [1]
  9. ^ Leaflet from the Hirschfeld parish [2]
  10. Thomas Reibetanz: Freiberg Cathedral: Old treasures come back into light. In: Freie Presse Freiberg , May 6, 2012
  11. Martin Luther's works. Critical complete edition. Correspondence, Volume 6. Weimar 1935, No. 1879, p. 219.
  12. Cf. CDS II 15 No. 455.
  13. There is no archival record of the alleged escape from the monastery from Nimbschen on which the widespread legends could be based. Cf. Jürgen Wagner: Leonhard Köppe, businessman in Torgau, "an arch villain"? Journal for Central German Family History 2016, pp. 290–295.
  14. Sylvia Weigelt: The woman at Cranach's side. Women of the Reformation: Barbara Cranach. In: Faith and Home. Central German church newspaper from August 15, 2010.
  15. Women of the Reformation - Katharina von Bora. ( Memento of November 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  16. ^ Wilhelm Schwendemann (Ed.): Philipp Melanchthon: 1497-1997; the colorful side of the Reformation; the Freiburg Melanchthon project. LIT Verlag, Münster 1997, ISBN 978-3-8258-3501-9 , p. 57
  17. The use of hops was not common at first, rather so-called gruit was used to preserve and flavor the beers . This herbal mixture varied in its composition depending on the region. Mostly it contained yarrow , heather , rosemary , thyme , bay leaf , anise , juniper and coriander . The use of Gruit was tied to a tax, so cities charged a tax, but Catholic monasteries and bishoprics in particular had a monopoly on the herb mixture. The role of beer in the late Middle Ages was more that of a food than a luxury item.
  18. ^ Text of the will
  19. Presumably under the gallery in the south polygon. The tombstone, which was restored in 1617, was moved from the southern to the northern side choir in 1969. Cf. Findeisen, Peter: The monuments of the city of Torgau. Leipzig 1976, p. 291.
  20. ^ Andreas Rothe: History of the town church St. Marien. ( Memento of February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  21. Joachim Schäfer : Article: Katharina von Bora , from the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , accessed on April 4, 2017.
  22. cms.sn.schule.de/mstorgau ( Memento from September 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  23. Find Königsplatz Katharina-von-Bora-Straße
  24. www.katharinatag.de ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  25. Detailed review in: Genealogie 2016, pp. 315–317; Content discussion also with Gabriele Jancke: The reception Katharina von Boras. In: Maria Heidegger et al. (Ed.): Visible invisible. transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-2912-5 , pp. 47-49.
  26. Media portal of the ev. And cath. Medienzentrale Brief description Documentary film
  27. Luther and the women . In: First German Television (ARD) . ( daserste.de [accessed on February 22, 2017]). Luther and the women ( Memento from February 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ^ Start of shooting for "Katharina Luther" (AT) with Karoline Schuch and Devid Striesow in the leading roles | FilmWednesday on the First . In: First German Television (ARD) . ( daserste.de [accessed on January 16, 2017]). Start of shooting for "Katharina Luther" (AT) with Karoline Schuch and Devid Striesow in the leading roles | FilmWednesday in the First ( Memento from January 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ^ Film starts: Katharina Luther. Retrieved January 16, 2017 .