Wittenberg!

 This morning we took an hour long train to Wittenberg, the home of Martin Luther! Being a medieval town, there was a lot of old buildings. It was a small town, but still a tourist attraction. Winegeart said that Wittenberg was a tourist destination for the communists because they liked Martin Luther. Because Luther's movement somewhat caused the peasant revolt, and their wanting equality, the communists felt their movement was similar. Wittenberg was 8 years away from its 500 year anniversary!

 A view walking down the street toward the Castle Church.

 The Castle Rock church of Wittenberg.

 The actual door that Luther nailed the 95 Theses to!

Inside Castle Rock church. Just beautiful.

 Unfortunately it's hard to get good pictures with the lighting, but the ceiling was so pretty!

 What is interesting is that Luther was buried in this church, even though it is the church he had so many problems with...the one he nailed the 95 Theses on.

 The view of the front of the church. You can see on each side the really nice seats. This is where the nobility would have sat.

 The pulpit with what Winegeart called the bird's nest. The priest would have turned to his right and only preached to the nobility and prince. Completely ignoring the peasants who would have sat in the back.

 These are the seats that the nobility would have sat in.

 And then this is the seat that the prince of the village would have sat in.

ThThe front of the church. 

 Pretty stained glass.

This is the view standing at the front looking back at the church. 

 A statue of Martin Luther inside the Caste Church.

 These seats are where the peasants would have sat. The pulpit was in between these seats and the nobility seats and so when he turned to the right the peasants would not have been able to hear very well. They were treated very unequally.

 The tomb of Luther inside the church.

 I guess the confessional.

 Here are listed the 95 Theses.

 Later in the day we went back to this church to hear an organ concert which was awesome!

 This church was another building that had a staircase that went to the top. Here is me preparing for the trek.

 The last leg of the staircase marathon.

 And finally...the view.

 The view of Wittenberg. The tall building is the church where Luther preached....The city church.

 The bell tower of Castle Church.

 And the spiral staircase back down.

 This is the original city wall of Wittenberg. The church was built into it.

 My lunch for the day. Bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potatoes. Very German, and very good!

 A statue of Martin Luther in the middle of town.

 The City Church.

 The inside of the City Church where Luther preached. This is where the message of the reformation was preached from. You can see it is more simple than the first church, Castle Church.

 The front of the church.

 The organs in the back.

 The pulpit area.

 This painting, according to my professor, depicts a relationship based on faith not works....pretty cool.

In the back room there were a lot of religious paintings. I thought a few of them were pretty moving. I'm not an art major for sure, but I like how the somewhat simple drawing depicted heavy weighted events. 

 Jesus carrying the cross.

The washing of feet.

Jesus as shepherd.

 The serpent in the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

 Noah and the olive branch.

 The church view from the front.

 Church view from the back.

 There was a room on the side with nothing in it but this little stand with a candle...

 It was a quiet place called "Peace be with you"

 This church was right next to the city church and was where Luther was married and where his children were baptized.

 Just a picture that I think gives a feel of the town of Wittenberg. Just very German and small, cute, and pretty.

 A picture of the City Church from the back side.

 I was about to buy this in one of the shops in town....not really Would be a pretty cool souvenir but not for 98 Euro!

 Another thing I loved about Wittenberg was that there were flowers everywhere!

 We also went by Luther's house which is now a museum. This is inside the courtyard.

 And this is the opposite side of the courtyard. There is a statue on the bottom left of Luther's wife.

 So that's what we did today. Hung out at Wittenberg learning about Martin Luther. It was probably one of the best days I've had so far! It was very relaxed and I learned a lot. We got back here about 6pm or so. At 9:30 we had a party for one of the guy's who had his birthday today. Its bedtime now I think. Tomorrow will be an action packed day. We are visiting the BMW plant. I don't think I can take any pictures inside, but I will definitely have a blog post for it! Goodnight everyone.