Response to Reluctant Revolution



Luther's 95 Theses which was
nailed to Wittenburg Church's door.



With being Lutheran, I have grown up with a decent understanding about Martin Luther. I have learned about him through Sunday School, Confirmation, and in a one of my history classes in high school. The Reformation began when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Church door on October 31, 1517. During the time of this occurrence, the Church would exile or sentence people to death if they spoke out about how the Church was being operated. Because of his publication of the 95 Theses to the church door, Martin Luther was able to show himself as a religious, political, and religious figure in German history, along with religious history.



Portrait of Martin Luther



With the Reformation, Luther was able to prove that he was a religious figure. He made the public aware that five of the seven sacraments were made up by the Church leaders. There were only two sacraments that were mentioned in the Bible: to be baptized and to take part in the Lord’s Supper.   Luther was able to make logical arguments against the Church and used insults within his writing, something that was not heard of during that time period.

Luther became a cultural leader throughout his life. Because of his cause, commoners realized that they could have a say with the Church. They saw that they could take religious and political action without having to answer to the Holy Roman Empire. For the first time, Germans had the chance to experience freedom of faith and express their individuality. Several branches of Protestant were created after Luther’s Reformation.  Another amazing act that Luther did during his lifetime was translating the Bible from Latin to German. This allowed commoners that were literate to be able to read and experience the Word of God for themselves instead of taking the Church’s word during services.



Martin Luther on trial before Cardinal Cajetanus in Worms



Along with being a religious and cultural leader, Luther also became a political figure. Luther encouraged the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire to stand up to the Church. Because of this encouragement, he was able to save his life from execution by having the princes turn against the Church at Luther’s trial in Worms. Luther also inspired serfs and common people to rise against their rulers. With this movement, it was the start of the end of the feudal system.  Another important aspect that Luther inspired was the start of public schools and public welfare programs. Luther was a significant leader in German history, changing the ways of Germany and religion in the Modern World.

Assignment #2

While reading Hagen Schulze’s book, Germany: A New History, I came across an event in Chapter 2 that caught my interest. The event was Martin Luther’s Reformation. This epoch making movement of Christianity helped shape the religions found in the modern world. I find this event to be interesting because I have grown up with a Lutheran background, and find it intriguing what Luther did in order to fight for his religious beliefs by changing the Catholic Church. He had no intentions of forming his own religion, but wanted to converge his ideas with Catholicism.   



This picture depicts Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses

 to the Wittenburg Church Door on October 31, 1517.



One part that intrigued me was that Martin Luther was not executed unlike other reformers, such as Jan Hus, that had attempted to break away from the Church in the past. The reason why Martin Luther was not sentenced to death was because many of Luther’s followers were people of high power in Germany, several of those followers being princes. With having the support of princes, Lutheranism began to spread more peacefully. Other supporters that helped spread the peace included city councils that adopted Luther’s ideas and decided to suppress the Catholic Church’s ideas on Christianity. However, switch from Catholicism to Lutheranism was a decision that was not an easy decision. Many Germans had to decide whether or not the wanted to remain in good graces with the Emperor and the Catholic Church, or take a part in the Reformation and take into consideration Luther’s ideas about how religion should be practiced.  The importance of this event is that Luther’s Reformation started the beginning of a new era in Germany in a religious aspect.



This building, The Lutherhaus,  is now a museum devoted to

Reformation history. It used to be an Augustinian Monsastary where 

Luther lived while teaching at Whittenberg University. After the Reformation,

the monastary closed, and the building became Luther's private home.

 It was here where Luther died.



A similar event was seen in the 1600s when English Dissenters separated from the Church of England for religious freedom.  Many of these people left England and traveled to the New World, which is present day United States.  Dissenters arrived at the New World in order to form their own religions and to have the freedom to teach Christianity their own personal way.

Why Did I Choose Germany?

I have always dreamed about traveling abroad to Germany.  I am excited that the opportunity has arisen for me to live out this dream.  This is not my first time traveling outside of the United States. I have traveled to Canada and Mexico, and have been on five cruises to various islands in the Caribbean. However, I am ready for a new experience and the opportunity to embrace a new culture for two and a half weeks. I chose the Germany D-Term trip for many reasons. First, my ancestors are from Germany, so I wanted to go back to the country where my roots are to experience German culture. Second of all, I am a devout Lutheran, and am interested in studying Martin Luther further. I have grown up learning Luther as an important religious figure in the Lutheran religious history, but want to learn and experience more about the man who caused the Reformation from the Catholic Church.  Another reason why I chose Germany is because I took three years of German in high school. I am not fluent in speaking German, but am excited for the opportunity to get to use my knowledge of the language in its native country. I also chose this trip because my parents lived in Germany for three months a few years before I was born. My dad was there for business and my mom went along to experience a different culture. I have grown up hearing about the different places that my parents traveled to in Germany and the different experiences that they encountered while they were there.

I am excited to immerse myself into a different country’s culture. Out of all of my experiences traveling to other countries, I have not gotten the chance to step into another culture and experience the way that the country lives and view its history and current events around the world. I am looking forward to experiencing Germany in a way that I have not been able to before with other foreign countries by learning about its history and get a first-hand experience on German culture.

This D-Term trip to Germany is highly important to me. I have recently been offered an accounting position upon graduation to work at a global agribusiness.  Ironically enough, the company that I will be working for is the same business that my dad worked for when he spent a summer in Germany with my mom. With knowing this background, I hope to someday get to have the same experience of living in Germany.