In Memory Of Martin Luther

By Bayo Ogunmupe  

The year 2017 will mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the Christian reform movement when Martin Luther nailed his theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. This Luther decade provides for celebration and reflection.

Wittenberg is a sleepy middle-size town on the borders of Saxony and Brandenburg. Located on one of Germany’s longest rivers – Elbe, Wittenberg has a proud history. There is no shortage of testimonies to the Renaissance in Wittenberg. The reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546) is inseparably linked with Wittenberg, which is why we should really refer to it as Lutherstadt. But they don’t call it so because people think: why all the fuss about a renegade monk called Luther?

*Martin Luther 

Yet at the moment, it looks all this is gradually changing. Luther, who has always lived on the hearts of Protestants, is being brought closer to other inhabitants of the town and its surroundings. Not least because so many tourists, especially from abroad and overseas go there in search of Martin Luther’s trail. After all, the Luther monuments in Saxony-Anhult have been under UNESCO protection as part of the world heritage since 1996. Luther tourism is certainly an economic factor, not only in Wittenberg, but also in Wittenberg’s sister, Eisleben, in Mansfelder district, where Luther was born and also died.

It was at Eisleben that the person the Roman Church outlawed as Junker Jorg lived in hiding, and in 1521 and 1522, worked on his German translation of the Bible. This was a momentous act, of which there can be no doubt. For many people, the Book of Books is as topical as ever. Sadly in Eastern Germany, during more than 40 years of communist rule, the citizens had their faith driven out of them. Indeed, to a degree the communists succeeded in something that the Christian churches of all denominations unanimously lament.

So the imminent jubilee of the Reformation is coming just at the right time. For this jubilee, the Evangelical church in Germany has instituted a position for a prelate, which was filled by the theologian, Stephen Dorgerloh. The Luther Decade refers to the period up to 2017 the year that will mark the 500th anniversary of Luther’s legendary nailing of his theses to the door of Wittenberg Church.

In those 95 theses, Luther denounced the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences. He criticised the conditions that prevailed at the time with pertinent references to the Bible.

The posting of the theses took place on October 31, 1517. Therefore the October 31 is Reformation Day, which is a public holiday in the Protestant central German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.