Luther more than a match for a bishop

FOR the little east German town Wittenberg, 100 km south west Berlin, next Sunday represents the chance of a lifetime. It sees the of months of celebrations to the 450th anniversary of the Martin Luther, the of Protestantism, who the town his home for 38 years.

President Roman Herzog will at an official commemoration at birthplace in Eisleben on and more than 30 German are claiming a link to the reformer. But Wittenberg expects receive most of the half million ether enthusiasts expected to Germany this year.

We are divided between the need to get involved in tourist marketing and a certain sensitivity as to how far we can go," said Wittenberg's head of public relations, Mr Jorg Bielig.

Our local bishop has said very clearly that he found Luther portraits on boxes of matches tasteless and I personally agree with him. But there are many people who see it differently above all the tourists who buy these things in large numbers."

Luther matchboxes are among the more dignified items on offer at Wittenberg's tourist office, where you can buy a Luther T shirt for £9, a tin of Luther biscuits for £5 and a bottle of Martin Luther wine for £7. Luther is said to have downed six litres of beer a day so it is no surprise that a local brewery is launching "Luther's Beer" to complement the wine and liqueur which already bear his name.

"We are never going to capture the mass market and most people who come here will continue to have a religious interest in Luther. But he was a man full of contradictions and ordinary people can identify with him. Apart from taking on the church theologically, he broke a lot of other taboos in the 16th century, especially when you consider his marriage to a nun, says Mr Bielig.

Luther's marriage in 1525 to Katharina von Bora, a young nun on the run from a Cistercian convent, will provide the centrepiece of Wittenberg's anniversary celebrations. More than 300,000 people are expected to attend a reenactment of the wedding involving 1,000 local people in full costume.

Plans have been toned down following complaints by the church so that neither vows nor rings will be exchanged and there will be no attempt to portray the "public consummation" common during Luther's time.

Mr Bielig says church leaders have been restrained in their complaints about the commercialisation of Luther, not only because Wittenberg has an unemployment rate of 20 per cent but also because they recognise their own failure to take a lead in the anniversary celebrations. "The Protestant Church took up the theme of the Luther year too late. It is no secret that the tourist trade invented Luther Year 96 and it's no surprise that they are determined to keep control it."

Mr Bielig points to a range of" serious events such as exhibitions and seminars exploring Luther's legacy and the place of reform in today's society as evidence that Wittenberg is not trying to trivialise the great reformer. He argues that Luther has offered the people of Wittenberg a new sense of identity following the collapse of the East German state. And he dismisses complaints that, as a vociferous opponent of the commercialisation of the church, Luther would be horrified to see his own face on a T shirt.

"I don't know what he would say if he saw it. But he was a fun loving person and he might have thought it was super. Besides, there are much worse examples of the commercialisation of religion than anything you'll see here. Think of the passion play at Oberammergau. What would Jesus think of that? But I think Catholics have fewer problems with that sort of thing than we Protestants do."