Martin Luther in my state

This blog could actually be called, "Martha in Martin Luther's state"! Fascinating history abounds in this nation. Martin Luther was all over my state of Thüringen and he was born and buried in the state just north of me, Sachsen- Anhalt.

My friend Kim visited me 2 weeks ago (whom I knew in our singles group in Florida years ago, & who now works in another area in Germany). Her wish was to see the Wartburg Castle where Luther had spent about 10 months under protection, disguising himself to be spared from certain assassination.

This is the courtyard of the fortress.



From this room (below) he translated the New Testament into German-- in just 11 weeks-- and thus made great strides in unifying the German language & peoples. The only original furniture from Luther's time is the whale bone footstool on the right.
While we're talking about the Wartburg, after Luther had come & gone in that place, but still during his lifetime, a humble farmer, Fritz Erbe, came to be imprisoned in an awful dungeon in this south tower of the castle. Going way against the grain of his time, whether Protestant or Catholic, Erbe held to the biblical view of "believer's baptism" --meaning that only a person who decides to follow Christ should be baptised, and that by immersion. When he refused to baptize his newborn child, and also harbored a woman in his home who had been scripturally baptized, he was imprisoned for a total of 15 years until he died. 8 years of this imprisonment (1540-1548) were undergone in this dungeon, located 3 meters under the surface of the grounds there, and the dungeon itself being 10 meters deep. One reached the dungeon through a rope ladder, the entrance to it being called the "fear hole." Erbe used his fingernails to carve his last name into the stone wall.

I heartily suggest renting the inspiring DVD film "Luther" by Canadian director Eric Till and starring such actors as Sir Peter Ustinov and Joseph Fiennes. The college exchange group which came recently from Union Univ. also developed a new appreciation for this amazing figure (in front of his statue in Erfurt, the capital of my state). Erfurt is the location where Martin Luther was ordained an Augustinian monk and then a priest.