Reformation Pilgrimage

with Dr. Ken Sundet Jones and Rev. Jason Micheli

Day 1 (Sunday, June 4)

• Travel to FRA

Day 2 (Monday, June 5)

• Arrive FRA
• Motorcoach to Eisenach
• Eisenach is the Thuringian city where both Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach spent significant time in their childhoods. More famously, Eisenach is the location of the Wartburg Castle.
• Lunch on your own in Eisenach
• Wartburg Castle
• The Wartburg is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is known as the home of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia and especially as the place Martin Luther hid (and did his initial translation of the New Testament) following the Diet of Worms.
• Dinner at hotel
• Overnight in Eisenach

Day 3 (Tuesday, June 6)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Gotha Museum visit: Lucas Cranach’s “Law and Gospel”
• Lucas Cranach can be thought of as the Reformation preacher in images. “Law and Gospel” is the best representation both of his work and also of the teaching of the Wittenberg circle of reformers.
• Buchenwald concentration camp
• Buchenwald, on the outskirts of Weimar, was one of the first Nazi concentration camps. Initially, primarily communists were interned there, but eventually, it became a death camp as well. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was interned there.
• Lunch on your own in Weimar
• Hainich National Park
• The park came into existence after German reunification. Previously it was an East German military site. It features a beautiful old-growth forest and a canopy walk on the tops of the trees.
• Dinner at Lutherstube
• The Lutherstube provides a group dining experience designed after a 16th-century table: shared dishes, wine and ale, and only a knife as a utensil.
• Overnight in Eisenach

Day 4 (Wednesday, June 7)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Travel to Erfurt
• Erfurt grew up as the center of the indigo trade. It is the location of both the medieval university Luther attended and the Augustinian monastery he entered following his “thunderstorm experience.” The “Krämerbrücke” is a bridge on which medieval shops were built. The city square includes the town cathedral.
• Walking tour of Erfurt
• Lunch on your own
• Tour of an Augustinian monastery
• Luther entered the monastic life here in Erfurt. We’ll see how the communal life functioned, visit the chapel where Luther was ordained, and see what his cell was like.
• Travel to Eisleben
• Dinner in hotel
• Overnight in Eisleben

Day 5 (Thursday, June 8)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Motorcoach to Mansfeld
• Mansfeld is the city where Luther’s family took up residence not long after he was born.
• Luther boyhood home
• Lunch on your own in Eisleben
• If you haven’t yet savored a Döner Kebap, this is your chance to eat Germany’s favorite fast food.
• Tours of Luther’s birth and death sites
• It’s an odd coincidence that, after having lived most of his life elsewhere, Luther died just blocks away from the house where he was born. Both sites have excellent museums.
• Dinner at hotel
• Overnight in Eisleben

Day 6 (Friday, June 9)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Travel to Leipzig
• Thomaskirche and Bachhaus
• Leipzig is where Johann Sebastian Bach spent the majority of his career. We’ll visit the church where he served as a cantor and the museum dedicated to his work.
• Lunch on your own in Leipzig
• Here’s a chance to try another of Germany’s best quick eats: currywurst.
• Visit with Pastor Sebastian Führer at Nikolaikirche
• Pastor Führer’s father was pastor of the St. Nickolas Church. The church was the location of massive protests that helped advance the fall of the East German regime in the late 1980s. He will help us understand the role faith played in these protests and how the church became a beacon of hope.
• Travel to Wittenberg
• Wittenberg was the site of one of the castles of the princes of Electoral Saxony. It is where Martin Luther lived as a friar, taught in the newly formed university, and led the Reformation.
• Dinner at hotel
• Enjoy Luther Hochzeitfest
• The Luther wedding festival is Germany’s largest town festival. It offers lots to enjoy: live music, food, and souvenir booths, and reenactors.
• Overnight in Wittenberg

Day 7 (Saturday, June 10)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Walking tour of Wittenberg
• We’ll visit the Castle Church where Luther is said to have posted the Ninety-Five Theses and where he is buried, the Lucas Cranach workshop, the City Church with its Cranach altarpiece, the “Luther Oak” where Luther burned the papal bull of ex-communication, and other notable locations.
• Lunch on your own
• Wittenberg 360
• A massive multi-media interpretation of what the city of Wittenberg was like during the Reformation, Wittenberg 360 is 30 ft. tall and in-the-round. See if you can spot the indulgence sellers, a man dissecting a human head, Luther debating his opponents, and a guy peeing in the street.
• Tour of Lutherhaus
• Luther and his wife Katie took up residence in the emptied-out Augustinian monastery where he had been a friar. Now the best Luther museum in the world, it includes important relics, artworks, and the Luther family dining room.
• Dinner at hotel
• Enjoy Luther Hochzeitfest
• Overnight in Wittenberg

Day 8 (Sunday, June 11)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Sunday morning worship at Stadtkirche
• You’ll get to experience church as the Germans do. Worship will be in German, but you’ll recognize what’s happening even if you don’t know the language.
• Lunch on your own
• Activity options in Wittenberg
• This afternoon is designed to be able to take it easy after a very busy few days.
• Dinner at hotel
• Overnight in Wittenberg

Day 9 (Monday, June 12)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Travel to Berlin
• Berlin is the German capital city that’s become one of the most vibrant places in Europe following the fall of the Berlin wall. Watch for the light-colored cobblestones that mark the path of the wall.
• Brandenburg Gate
• This symbol of Berlin is where Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
• Near the Brandenburg Gate, this memorial is a modern interpretation of the chaos and fear engendered by Nazi anti-Jewish laws and the Holocaust that followed.
• Lunch on your own
• Reichstag
• The Reichstag is the German equivalent of the U.S. Capitol. It was burned during the 7Nazi era and left as a shell until reunification. It now houses the German parliament. We’ll be able to take a winding stroll to the top of the modern dome and have stunning views of the city.
• Dinner at hotel
• Overnight in Berlin

Day 10 (Tuesday, June 13)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Explore the Kurfürstendamm
• Think of the Ku-Damm as the German version of Rodeo Drive in Hollywood. The people-watching is excellent. The 8-story Ka-De-We department store offers a superb selection for lunch on the top story and an amazing selection of merchandise on the other seven.
• Lunch on your own
• Museumsinsel (Pergamon Altar, Ishtar Gate, Nefertiti, etc.)
• The museums on this island in the Spree River are the German equivalent of the Smithsonian Institution.
• Celebratory dinner at the hotel
• Overnight in Berlin

Day 11 (Wednesday, June 14)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Travel to airport
• Return flight to DSM

Optional two-day add-on

• Flight to Copenhagen, Denmark
• Visit sites connected with N.F.S. Grundtvig

Leaders

Ken Sundet Jones, Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, loves teaching undergrads. He was born in Heidelberg, which must be why he likes Luther so much. He was shaped by the Sturgis motorcycle rally in his hometown and by summers at his grandparents’ cattle ranch. His doctoral dissertation covered 16th-century German evangelical funeral preaching. And he knows how to do knitting and Scandinavian flat-plane woodcarving.

Jason Micheli is a United Methodist pastor in Alexandria, Virginia, having earned degrees from the University of Virginia and Princeton Theological Seminary. He writes the Tamed Cynic blog and is the author Cancer is Funny: Keeping Faith in Stage Serious Chemo. He lives in the Washington, DC, area with his wife and two sons.

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