Here I Stand

Indeed, my spellchecker keeps correcting me:
Worms are a city on the Rhine  (seen on Facebook)

On the occasion of the Imperial Diet at Worms in 1521, Martin Luther stood in front of Emperor Charles V and the electors at the bishop's court on April 17, at 4 p.m. Martin was hesitant to speak out about his writings and asked for a reflection period.

The decisive scene painted by Anton von Werner in 1877
reproduced on a wall on the way to the exhibition

The following day he refused to revoke and ought to have ended his argumentation with the words, "Here I stand; I can do no other. "The 21-year-old emperor was not impressed by Luther's performance and said, "He doesn't make me a heretic.

This was based on reciprocity. Luther judged young Charles, "He sat like an innocent little lamb between sows and dogs."

As a result of this second hearing - you may read the full story in German - Luther stayed not only banned by the pope but became outlawed by an Imperial Edict. That meant everybody in the Empire could capture Martin and even kill him without punishment.

An exhibition, "Hier stehe ich. Gewissen und Protest – 1521 bis 2021 (Here I Stand. Conscience and Protest - 1521 to 2021)" at the Museum in Worms's Andreasstift commemorates the 500th anniversary of the event regarded as the trigger for the schism in the Church.

The entrance to the exhibition

Luther is all over the place.

With the Reformer in focus, the exhibition concentrates on the question of conscience. Other personalities are commemorated, like Michael Servetus, Wiliam the Silent, Anne Hutchinson, Moses Mendelsohn, Georg Büchner, Sophie Scholl, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

Taking photos at the exhibition was not allowed, so I will present some less-known facts about Luther and his Reformation.

The vast Lutherdenkmal from a distance.
It places Luther in the center but shows his supporters and precursors too.

Worms has the largest Reformation monument in the world. 

The monument was conceived and
partially executed by Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel.
Luther and his wife Käthe take the Lord's supper.
Luther gives the chalice to his wife, Käthe.
The Reformer's wedding.

The Elector of Saxony protects Brother Martin well.

Emperor Charles V had promised Luther's sovereign Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, to grant free passage to Worms to the Doctor from Wittenberg. In his politely worded citation, the Emperor wrote that at the Imperial Diet, learned and highly respectable persons shall interrogate him.

Jan Hus

Luther received the imperial invitation on March 29, 1521, and was warned. Hus was also promised safe conduct, but he was burned at the Council of Constance in 1415.

Girolamo Savonarola

Savonarola had suffered the same fate in Florence 23 years earlier.

Brother Martinus, however, threw all misgivings to the wind, "Let them make a fire that reaches to the clouds between Worms and Wittenberg. I will kick the Behemoth* in his mouth between the teeth and confess Christ."
*Hippopotamus-like animal in the Book Job 40:15

When Luther entered Worms on a horse-drawn cart Luther on the morning of April 16, trumpets sounded from the cathedral's tower as if the people were expecting the new Messiah. When he, accompanied by a cavalcade of Saxon nobles, finally arrived at his domicile, the city's Johanniterhof, he said, "Hus was burned, but not the truth with him. I want to go in, even if as many devils are aiming at me as there are tiles on the roofs."

Throughout German history, Luther was instrumentalized politically.

Against Rome in the past and now

Luther was abused at the beginning of the Second Reich on the occasion of the inauguration of the Hermannsdenkmal. The monument glorifies the fact that the Germanic Prince Arminius had beaten the invading Romans at the Teutoburger woods in 9 AD.

As Arminius stood against the Roman invasion, Luther stood against the Pope in Rome. Remember: the inauguration of this symbol of conservative German nationalism took place at the time of the Kirchenkampf, Bismarck's struggle against the Catholic Church and its Party, the Zentrum (the Catholic Center Party).

Exhortation to hold out
from the third strophe of Mein feste Burg:
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.

And Luther was also abused at the end of the Second Reich on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation when the war was already lost.

On October 31, 1917, the German Protestant Church Committee had the following proclamation read from the pulpits, "Just as our fathers in the faith were worthy of the heroism of the Reformer, so we also want to show ourselves worthy of our lost sons and brothers and confess: Our God is a stronghold*; the Reich must remain with us."
*Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

Hitler's Struggle and Luther's Teaching,
are the German People's Good Defence

Luther's 450th birthday in 1933 fell together with the Machtergreifung (takeover) of the Nazis, an occasion to make Luther one of their own.

*