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Luther's Erfurt & Wartburg Castle
In Erfurt, Martin Luther was an up-and-coming academic and monk; at Wartburg Castle,
he was a man on the run. Luther's path from loyal monk to fugitive began, as legend
has it, in a storm on the road to Erfurt, a booming city in his day, rich from trade
in blue dyes and renowned for its university. Fear drove Luther to make a deal with
St. Anne, "Let me live, and I'll become a monk." True to his word, he entered Erfurt's
Augustinian monastery and stayed until 1511. It's still there on Augustinerstrasse,
where it houses a Luther exhibition and a little white, oak-beamed room called the
Lutherzelle, a reproduction of the cell where the monk slept and prayed.
Ten years later, after the 95 Theses, heresy trials, and ex-communication, Luther's
allies hid him in Wartburg Castle, a medieval fortress high on a hill over the city
of Eisenach. Disguised as "Junker Jörg," he rapidly translated the New Testament
into his folksy German vernacular, while cooped up in a small wooden room that's
the highlight of a visit to castle today.
There isn't much to the Lutherstube—a desk, a green tile oven for heat, a portrait
on the wall of Luther in disguise. What isn't there is an ink spot on the wall,
evidence of a legend that Luther threw his ink pot at the devil. Until a few decades
ago, the keepers of the castle added the spot with their own ink. Legend or not,
they didn't want to disappoint the tourists.
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