Station: [314] Reformation

Luther’s posting of his theses in 1517 was the trigger for a profound reform movement within the church. Wittenberg became the spiritual centre of the reformation and Saxony the leading protestant state in the empire.

Luther was convinced in his belief that neither the church nor priests should influence a person’s conscience. He represented the opinion that the human being was only righteous through God’s grace, not as a result of his work.

Alongside a comprehensive regeneration of the church, Luther demanded better education for all people so that they could get to grips with the words of God and develop their own conscience. In his nationwide-educational summons he asked, “the very best schools for boys and girls in every place to straighten themselves out.“

Thereupon, new schools were established in many Saxonian towns.

How useful was it, that at that moment a medium was available that literally spread Luther’s reformative doctrine into the farthest corner of the land. Printing helped the reformation break through and made it into a media event from which it also profited in return. Thus it was that the religious war became the first propaganda war with the deployment of a mass media.

If we follow the traces of the reformation through the Saxonian historical narrative we come across men, who with their sharp intellect and drawn sword wanted to convince one another of true faith.

But where were the women? And what did they believe in?

Well, now, we’d like to introduce you to a courageous and articulate egalitarian of the reformation.