Luther and the Reformation: From Eisleben to the Wartburg

Martin Luther was born here in Eisleben on 10 November 1483, the son of Hans and Margarethe, and was baptised the next morning on the feast day of Martin of Tours, which gave him his name. The house you see is not quite the one he knew: the original burned to the ground in 1689 and a replacement opened in 1693. An excavation in 2006 found pottery shards and a clay floor from the old house. Since 1996 it has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visitor guidance: Now a museum; the Death House is a short walk away in the same town.

Caught in a violent thunderstorm near Stotternheim in July 1505, the law student Luther cried out, "Help me, St. Anne, and I will become a monk." He kept the vow and joined St. Augustine's Monastery as a novice friar on 17 July 1505. He said his first mass in its church on 2 May 1507, and on 7 April 1521, on his way to the Diet of Worms, he preached here again. The "Luther Cell" is a reconstruction of one of his cells.

Visitor guidance: The monastery is open to visitors; the Luther Cell is a reconstruction.

On 31 October 1517, the eve of All Saints' Day, Luther is generally believed to have posted his Ninety-five Theses on the doors of the Castle Church, hoping to start a debate on the sale of indulgences. Whether he really did cannot be proved, but the same day he certainly sent his objections to Archbishop Albert of Mainz. The original wooden doors are long gone; bronze doors with the Theses in Latin were fitted in 1858. Luther himself was buried in this church in 1546.

Visitor guidance: The church is open to visitors; the bronze doors carry the Latin text of the Theses.

Summoned to the Diet of Worms in April 1521, Luther arrived on 16 April. Asked on the 17th whether 25 titled books were his and whether he would recant, he begged for time. On 18 April he returned and refused: "my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything." Tradition adds "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise." On 25 May Emperor Charles V issued the Edict of Worms against him. The pin marks Worms Cathedral, whose importance derives from this diet.

Location precision: The sources name the city, not the hall; the pin marks Worms Cathedral as the nearest landmark tied to the diet.

Visitor guidance: The pin marks the cathedral; the hall where the diet met is not marked.

Returning from Worms, Luther was "kidnapped" on purpose: Frederick III sent men to fake a highway attack and spirit him away to Wartburg Castle. Disguised as a knight and known as Junker Jörg, the Knight George, he stayed for nearly a year, from May 1521 to March 1522. There he translated the New Testament from Greek into German in just ten weeks. Legend adds that he threw an inkwell at the Devil.

Visitor guidance: Open to visitors with guided tours; the Lutherstube is among the rooms.

After the Wartburg, Luther returned to Wittenberg, and in 1524 the Electorate of Saxony gave the empty Black Monastery to the Luther family. He lived here until his death. From 1531 he held his Table Talks with students in the house, and he built the carved Katharinenportal as a birthday present for his wife. His living room, the Lutherstube, was left as it was.

Visitor guidance: Now the Lutherhaus museum.

In January 1546 Luther travelled from Halle to Eisleben to settle an inheritance dispute in the House of Mansfeld. He died on 18 February, aged 62. Catholic pamphlets soon alleged that he had drunk himself to death, so how he died mattered to the Reformation. The museum, reopened in 2013 with the exhibition "Luther's last path", has a twist: in 2013 it became clear the town had taken over the wrong house back in 1862.

Visitor guidance: Museum open to visitors; the building turned out not to be the original death house.