March 2003 - Nr. 3
New Luther Exhibit Opens in Wittenberg
TWIG - A new exhibition on Protestant leader Martin Luther (1484-1546) opened Thursday (March 6) at Luther Hall, the reformer’s former home in Wittenberg. Organizers hope the display will attract a fresh wave of tourists to the historic building, a UNESCO World Heritage site that reopened in October 2002 after a two-year, 5-million-euro renovation.
The new exhibit on Luther’s life, which replaces one that had been there since 1983, has an entirely different focus. "Many more three-dimensional objects are shown," says Stefan Rhein, director of a foundation for monuments commemorating Luther. "We made a point of making acquisitions in this direction. Our concern was to make Luther’s life and work visible." Among the 1,000 objects on display are articles reflecting religious life in the 15th century, everyday items from the 16th century and souvenirs commemorating Luther from the 19th century. Multimedia tools offer visitors access to documents held by the Luther foundation.
New acquisitions include a portrait of Luther as a young
Augustinian monk by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting was completed when
Luther was about 33, not long after he published his 95 Theses, the document
credited with launching the Protestant Reformation. The foundation purchased
the work from a Munich gallery with funds provided in part by the state of
Saxony-Anhalt. Only two other color portraits of Luther exist from this
period, according to Rhein. One is owned by a private collector in
Switzerland, the other by the German National Museum in Nuremberg.
The exhibition as a whole cost some 2.5 million euros, and was completed
with financial assistance from the European Union, federal and state
governments and the Evangelical Church in Germany.
