Worms celebrates a great Luther year – culture –

With more than 80 individual events, including the traditional Nibelungen Festival and a state exhibition, the city of Rhineland-Palatinate, together with the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN), commemorates the refusal to withdraw. As an individual, Luther opposed the most powerful institutions of his time, EKHN President Volker Jung emphasized before the anniversary. This stability still fascinates today. “What happened in Worms back then is one of the best hours in world history,” says Jung.

For the anniversary, Worms has big plans. The celebrations will open on April 16, 2021 with the symbolic entrance of Luther. The following day, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche will become the “largest screen in Europe” in a multimedia staging. The opening weekend will conclude with a festive ecumenical service with EKD Council President Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and Bishop Georg Bätzing, President of the German (Catholic) Episcopal Conference. On July 3, the state exhibition “Here I am. Awareness and protest – 1521 to 2021” (until October 31) opens at the Museum of the Rhine City.

The organizers note that there are commitments for more than 120 exhibitions from all over Germany. It consciously extends the term “conscience and protest” widely and thus also builds a bridge to the present. Among other things, you can see a handwritten letter from Luther to Cranach the Elder dated April 28, 1521 about the interrogation in Worms, but also a dress from Sophie Scholl and the “Mandela’s Bible” from 1976: it contains the schematics a gun. The book was left to Nelson Mandela’s wife during apartheid South Africa as a death threat.

He’s happy with the high-quality commitments, says Olaf Mückain, curator of the exhibition and scientific director of the Worms museums. “Together with 14 media stations and so many theme islands, they allow us to present Luther’s courageous appearance in front of the Reichstag, as well as the theme of” Freedom of conscience and protest “in historical contexts of the last 500 years in a vivid and engaging way for visitors “.

Luther (1483-1546) will also be the focus of the 2021 Nibelungen Festival. The play is written by the Swiss writer Lukas Bärfuss and the director is Ildikó Gáspár from Hungary. “We thought of something spectacular. I work mainly with video, light and music, so my work is often described as a total work of art in reviews,” says Gáspár. The games have been held in front of the cathedral since 2002.

Where Luther is said to have spoken the famous words, there is now a park in Worms. There is nothing left of the bishop’s court in which the reformer refused to revoke his views before the Reichstag. “All the historic buildings were destroyed,” says Volker Gallé, cultural director of the city of Worms. The bronze sculpture “Luther’s Shoes” stands on the historic site of today’s Heylshofpark since 2017. Unlike Wittenberg (Saxony-Anhalt), where Luther nailed his theses to the church portal in 1517, the authentic evidence has disappeared .

In his 95 theses, the Augustinian monk and professor of theology condemned the office of indulgence of the Catholic Church to be able to buy itself free of sins. At Worms he was supposed to revoke his writings, which he rejected. “Therefore, I cannot and will not revoke anything, because doing something against conscience is not safe or healthy. God, help me, amen.” This is how Luther’s words have come to us. According to the experts, it is not possible to prove with certainty whether the phrase “Here I am and I can’t do anything else” was actually used. The Reformation led to the division of the church.