The theologian who started all this, later called himself‘ Martin Luther’ and became a figure of World History.
It will be exactly 500 years on 31 October this year that it happened, but nobody wanted to wait that long to turn it into another business opportunity. Already since 2009 the Lutheran Church declared a‘ Decade of the Reformation’, and since 2012 a Lady‘ Ambassador’ for the Anniversary has been touring the country; her diary seems to be as full as that of Angela Merkel, and on 31 October last year the Anniversary Year was proclaimed., a year of exhibitions, church services,‘ Kirchentage’, books published and special events; it should culminate again in Wittenberg on the 31 October with an assembly of dignitaries of church and state.
Luther is dear to them, literally, since the budget which the church’ s office in Wittenberg alone can spend amounts to 50 Million Euros, the State of Saxony also is contributing around 100 million, the Ministry of Culture in Berlin is spending more than 40 million for several projects around the anniversary.
In addition to that, there are large projects of infrastructure going on, renovation of historical buildings, railways and roads. The region is considered‘ structurally weak’, attracting also EU funds. The investments of church, state and private donors can run in to half a billion Euros, although no precise account exists. This is all happening since the anniversary is expected to bring a lot of tourism, it should point to Germany as a country to travel to, not only for 2017, but also in future years.
Not only large projects have been planned and already executed by the tourist bureau. The industry has commissioned some rather curious items like a play mobil model of Luther, a small figure which has already sold by the million since last year, although the anniversary year had not yet begun. There were many laughable things produced, not to mention graphic novels or Luther socks.
The anniversary at last is not another event centred on Berlin, there are many places associated with Luther which want to take their share, mostly those in the former DDR which need economic growth, like Thuringia with the Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the Bible, but also his birthplace and place of death, or Worms in Hesse, where he was to appear before the emperor, Coberg Fort in Bavaria, where he had been hiding for a while, and many others.
The‘ epicentre’ of all this is Wittenberg, a small-town half way between Leipzig and Berlin which after the‘ Wende’( 1989) shrunk from 60 000 to
40 000 inhabitants. It wants to build a green belt around the old town, a Garden Show, which is to create a‘ summer’ s tale experience’ for the visitor, but also should eventually host the large gathering at the end of the year. The number of visitors expected for all this runs into millions, too.
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