Martin Luther lived in Mansfeld as a child. There, a modern museum tells the story. However, it is hardly known. Now that is about to change.
Mansfeld (dpa/sa) – A museum next to the reformer’s childhood home in Mansfeld commemorates the first years of Martin Luther’s life (1483-1546). But the museum, which opened in 2014, has comparatively low visitor numbers – that is about to change, so that more guests will come to Mansfeld in the future.
“From January to April 2022, around 660 visitors came,” said the spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt Luther Memorials Foundation, Nina Mütze. In 2019 – before Corona – there were almost twice as many visitors with 1300 people in the same period.
The complex in Mansfeld, consisting of a new building and his parents’ house, is considered to be the first house in the world dating back to Luther’s early years. “We offer cultural education, there are regular lectures on different topics and a group of friends, the Luther AG for children and young people, has been founded,” said the director of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt, Stefan Rhein. “In April 2024, a special exhibition on the Peasants’ War will open in Mansfeld and Eisleben.”
The plan is to design the whole thing as a hands-on exhibition. “The arc should be drawn from then to the present. It’s about historical and political education, for students, adults and families,” said Rhein. Museum educator Nick Schöne explains what visitors can expect: “Children and young people can take part in sword fighting and crossbow shooting, for example.”
According to events manager Kathleen Prescher, the museum has also established the “Museum after work” and “Museum active” series. Among other things, it explains what was served in the Luther house from their own garden. For example, visitors can put together their own herb pot using ingredients from the museum herb garden.
On around 600 square meters, the permanent exhibition shows around 230 objects under the motto “I am a Mansfeld child”. The life and everyday life of the Luther family in the Middle Ages is told in part using multimedia. Jewellery, crockery and toys are archaeological finds. The pieces were discovered during excavations on the museum site in a 500-year-old rubbish pit belonging to the Luther family. Bones from cattle, goats, sheep and pigs as well as songbirds show what was on the menu.
Three marbles made of fired clay, which he is said to have played with, are said to have come from Luther’s childhood days. The reformer lived in a wealthy home from 1484 to 1497. His father was an entrepreneur in the mining region. Luther lived in Wittenberg for around 35 years from 1511 until his death.
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