Luther was born and died in Eisleben (left; birth house below), although he never lived there long. You can see the tower of Sts. Peter & Paul Church in the picture at left; Baby Martin was baptized in the font there in 1483 (below right).
As a teenager, Luther studied at the school attached to the Church of St. George in Eisnach, the normal course of education for many boys in medieval Europe. He lived with relatives in this house (right), which has lots of delightful details (two right reliefs).
(above left and right), the Wartburg was really an old hunting lodge, not a castle as we think of them. In a small room (right), Luther translated the Bible into German. Although his was not the first translation, either into German or from the original Greek, Luther's was the first to be widely distributed, and was influential in shaping the written German language. The crowds visiting the Wartburg (below left and right) testify to Luther's enduring influence The earliest grafitti from Luther's room indicates that pilgrims began visiting the site by at least 1603; today, groups book far in advance to visit. The GDR was more successful in wiping out the influence of the twentieth- century church; shortly after reunification, only seven percent of Germans living in the East identified themselves as believers. A couple of our tour guides said that they have had the experience of being the only person in church with the pastor for a scheduled service. When no one else came, they just went home. Christians from other parts of the world bring vitality to the traditional sites, as this detail from a guest book in Eisleben shows (bottom left and right).
Once you visit Wartburg, you know why Frederick the Wise thought it would be a good place in which to hide "Junker Jorg" f rom opponents in the Church after his excommunication and his appearance atthe Diet of Worms. Set high above Eisnach
Luther was taking a risk when he left the well- established university at Erfurt in 1512 to come to the small, upstart University of Wittenberg, a pet project of Frederick the Wise. In Wittenberg, he served as pastor for the town parish, St. Mary's, although he posted his famous 95 Theses(left) on the door of the Castle Church, just up the road (right). Luther considered his days in Wittenberg as happy ones, because he was surrounded there by many colleagues and supporters, and his family. He married runaway nun Katarina von Bora in 1525; together they had six children. Although Luther was in Eisleben mediating a dispute when he died, his body was brought back to Wittenberg, and buried in the floor of the Castle Church (below right).
Above the entrance door to the living room in the Wittenberg home of Luther's closest colleague, Philip Melanchthon(above) is a fresco from which this wonderful snippet of Jonah and the Big Fish (right) is taken.
