Eisleben - birthplace of Luther. The original house (well the rebuilt one, there was a fire, and it was also recently renovated) is one of the oldest museums in the world. I think the guy said it was about 400 years old. The church in which he was baptised is only 200 metres up the hill. The guide took us into the chapel under the tower, the oldest part of the church. "This," he announced boldly, "is where Luther was baptised, one day after his birth." He reminded us that it was in the middle of winter and in those days babies were fully immersed. "It's a real miracle he survived the baptism!" People had already taking photos of this very old looking font. "Come with me now and I'll show you actual font used to baptise Luther." The message was passed on to those lining up for their photo opportunity, "This isn't the font." We marched to the front of a lovely old church that was built just after Luther's birth. People begin to take photos of this font. "Yes, indeed," the guide declares, "this is the actual font... well, no, to be absolutely truthful, not the actual font, it was broken many years ago, but there can be no doubt that pieces of the old font were collected and incorporated in this new one that was built hundreds of years ago. See the pieces imbedded in the surface?"
I'm fascinated by the wooden figures on this 500 year old altar. First we have miners (it's a
mining area, Luther's father owned a mine) instead of shepherds in the manger scene, and in
the central window, it's all women. (I took another photo) The church had better watch out,
the women are taking over! The church of Luther's day didn't seem to have a problem with
that but in the good old LCA it's another story!!
We then taken to the very room where Luther died. It seems he was called back to his home town to help out settling a few disputes, including a new wage deal for the miners of the area. He also established two schools - one for girls (pretty rare ... not the girls, the school for girls) is still in existence. But then with most things achieved he got crook and died. Every detail of his death was carefully recorded, since there were many stories about how he would die - most of them nasty predictions from his enemies - the devil would come and snatch him away, he would recant and so on.
That evening we spent a wonderful night at a Bach concert in the church where Bach himself was music director - as usual, it has been extensively renovated since his day and the original organ replaced many years ago. Wonderful concert. It's the one which near the end includes the tune made up by the letters of Bach's own name - BACH - (Aha just checked out how you can have a H note it's all about German notation. They call B flat A and B natural H. So to get the tune Bach used, play Bflat, A, C, and B) and then ends abruptly, cause he died. A choir then ended with a psalm, which celebrates life in the presence of God. Not bad at all. Very modern music really. Our leader says that the conductor believes that part of this piece is actually the beginning of Jazz and so plays it in that way. I purchased a CD so hopefully it will bring back memories when I eventually get to play it. Which reminds me. I've been in the CD stores here. Couldn't get over the classical selection - absolutely huge even in relatively small towns.
Most of our African brothers and sisters don't like the concert much. Later one told me, "For us a concert means dancing and singing, not just sitting." Our leader (same guy as above) was chucking over one of the African extraverts. "Just before the end of the concert, he seemed to have a nervous breakdown and just left." Perhaps you had to be there or know Zaza or both!!
Hey, I keep talking about "our leader(s)", I haven't told you about them. First there's Philip. (45, father of 3 kids) He's the one officially in charge. Very lovely guy! Totally diplomatic; knowledgeable; open; favourite sayings - "Ja" at then end of almost every sentence and "You are right", and both with a wonderful German accent that also has us grinning at each other when he says things like "wiolence", "willage" and so on.
The other is Jutta. Also very nice. She takes a little more getting used to because she is so straight forward. Right from the start Denise gave back as good as she got and they really get on well.
Last night she managed to get hold of "The life of Brian" for us and about 5 of us including her sat in the little picture theatre they have here, drinking beer and eating pretzel sticks. The Malaysian guy and I bought four different beers from the supermarket just to test them out. We both like the black beer, but the two we choose were absolutely horrible. One of them, we found out later, was a "smoked" beer. Fascinating thing was that you could actually taste the smoke - a sort of bitter burnt taste. Tonight, it's the turn of the Russian beer!!!
Well, let's get back to the trip - Wittenberg and that door where Luther nailed his 95 Theses. Since it was Sunday we worshipped in that church. But of course it isn't the original one, that was burnt down a long time ago. The door is a metal one with the 95 thesis moulded into the door, but it didn't stop everyone taking photos. What became very clear is that it's so true that his act of nailing simply wasn't the dramatic act most people imagine. First, the church was one attached to the castle and the university, and not the town one that's 800 metres away. He was simply looking for an academic discussion on his points. Secondly, it is the church of all Saints, and he nailed them there just before All Saints Day when all the relics were on display and so lots of people would be in attendance. All carefully thought through really.
O yes, must tell you about one of the relics they had - a vial of milk from the virgin mother herself!
Luther's house was interesting. It was under renovations so we couldn't go inside. But it was part of the building where the monks were housed while they attended the Wittenberg University - the best in the land at that time. After Luther, they all left to get married!! Outside, they now have a statue of Katherine, his wife. Quite a lady. I didn't know that if you owned a stone house you had the right to brew beer. This was one of the ways Katherine raised money for the household. Her beer was famous. Also fascinating how one rich guy in the town helped fund the people involved in the reformation. He gave a house to Melanchton so he'd stay at the university, and printed a lot of Luther's books, which helped him become even richer. Luther was also involved in decisions about running the town. He helped set up one of the first welfare systems. It was a box that the rich put money in and from which certain people could take some money.
The final thing worth reporting was a stop over at a little village on the way back called Moedlareuth. This village of less than 500 people was split by the wall between east and west since the official border of two states ran down the middle of the town. One guy had to travel for 6 hours (or 4??, or something) by car, train and car again to see his brother who lived about 200 metres from his home. And he could only travel after he had retired. They have retained part of the wall and have now set up a museum in the town. Lots of interesting things - it was officially forbidden to wave or make any signals from the East to the West, but standing there next to this 3.3 metre thing was amazing.
Well that's about it! The school ended yesterday with a service in the Chapel and today a few of us are planning to go to Nuernberg for a look around. Tomorrow I think I'll have a lazy day and them on Saturday morning, I'm off to Hong Kong.
Keith
Thursday, August 2.
