LVZ POST (Germany) Stationery Card 1524 Reformation

 

LVZ POST (Germany) stationery card issued in 2024 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.

Translation of postcard text:

Jena Reformation City of Europe

By 1524, the Reformation had also taken hold in Jena. This was ensured by the town pastor Martin Reinhard and preacher Anton Musa. Dr. Martin Luther was a welcome guest preacher at the Jena town church. Luther visited the Bären on many occasions, staying there eleven times in total. A decisive day for the Reformation was August 22, 1524. On this day, Elector Johann the Steadfast (1468-1532) in Weimar had summoned Luther to Jena in order to bring the Reformation back to the right level. Luther's memorable, decisive encounter with Andreas Bodenstein (known as Karlstadt) and his followers took place in the Schwarzer Bären.

Karlstadt saw the local communities as the most important groups for implementing the Reformation. Luther increasingly relied on the sovereign. Karlstadt had gone too far with his views on the "removal of images" (veneration of saints) and the sacraments (rejection of infant baptism). Karlstadt (who had even been Luther's former doctoral supervisor) was expelled from the country on September 18, 1524.

Martin Luther's original gravestone is located in the city church of St. Michael and Jena is one of the first places where the Luther Bible was printed and this is linked to the beginnings of mechanical engineering in Thuringia.

One result of the Reformation in Jena was the founding of the university (from 1548 as the High School), which was initiated by the Ernestine Elector Johann Friedrich I of Saxony, also known as Friedrich the Magnanimous Hanfried (* 30 June 1503 in Torgau: + 3 March 1554 in Weimar) as compensation for the Saxon University of Wittenberg, which had been lost in the Schmalkaldic War. He was given the nickname "the Magnanimous" for his commitment to the Reformation and as a patron of Martin Luther.

The numerous testimonies of the Reformation enable a unique, lively experience of history in a very small space during a walking tour.