Religious Issues and Church-State Relations in Eastern Germany

Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses on the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany signaled the start of the Protestant Reformation. In anticipation of the 500^th anniversary in 2017, the Lutheran church planned a 10-year Luther Decade, largely centered on sites associated with Luther in eastern Germany. It occasioned massive spending (280 million Euros) by governments and the Church, an unprecedented official German holiday, numerous scholarly conferences, and a large variety of public events, in hopes of accommodating the expected strong public interest, internationally and domestically. But expectations were disappointed—church events were under-attended, tourist crowds were thin, and Pope Francis declined to join the celebration. One leading eastern German pastor, Friedrich Schorlemmer, criticized the “outsized mammoth program” and “grandiose illusions” of the Luther anniversary. A church historian plaintively noted that “anyone who imagined that the Reformation jubilee would make the East Protestant again was naturally disappointed.” ¹