“Studying Reformation history and theology in Wittenberg is a rich and exciting opportunity. To explore the Reformation is to enter into the turbulent times and troubled hearts of real people in real places. Being in Wittenberg, on the streets and in the buildings where Martin Luther and his colleagues read, wrote, and preached, brings their world - their words and their questions - to life.”

Prof. Jonathan LinebaughBeeson Divinity School

“The Wittenbergers are on the edge of civilization. If they had settled a little further east [i.e., of the Elbe river], they would have been in the midst of barbarism.”

Dr. Martin LutherUniversity of Wittenberg

“The theological truths at the heart of the Reformation—solus Christus, sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide—play a central role in my ministry as an Anglican priest. And it has been inspirational to study and discuss those truths and the historical context of their formulation in the place where the Reformation first began. The Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies is a gift, both to the academy and the church, and I am immensely grateful for the education that this center makes possible.”

Dr. Jonathan BailesChrist Church, Plano (Texas)

“The foundations of the church were laid, but only to the level of the ground. In the midst of these foundations stood an old chapel built of wood and plastered with clay; it was very dilapidated and had supports on all sides. It was about [...] 30 feet long and 20 feet wide. It had a narrow soiled gallery where twenty people could stand crowded together. On the south wall was a pulpit made of old, unplaned boards […] about two and a half feet above the ground. On the whole, it looked like a scene by painters depicting the stable at Bethlehem where Christ was born. […] In this poor, miserable, wretched chapel, in these last days of the world, God has caused His dear holy Gospel and the dear Child Jesus to be born anew and has caused this Child to be unwrapped, in order to show to all the world what a beautiful, lovely, comforting and blessed Child Jesus is, from whom we all take and receive our blessedness, the payment for sin and eternal life. Of all the minsters, monasteries or places of worship on earth of that time, of which there were many hundreds of thousands, God chose for this purpose [...] only this poor, unsightly little chapel. From this chapel the spirit of the mouth of the Lord has come and blown down the Antichrist. […] It was in this church that Doctor Martinus first preached.”

Friedrich MyconiusContemporary of Luther and historian of the Reformation about the chapel of the Augustinian hermit's friary that stood in the middle of the foundations for the church that was never finished

“Wittenberg is exactly the right place to show that the Reformation is much more than just Wittenberg and much more than only a small section of history: At the Wittenberg Center, Reformation history is pursued with a broad horizon, and in relation to the present. The fact that this is done in international cooperation, with different generations of students, doctoral candidates and researchers working together, and with a view to today's ecclesiastical reality, is exactly the right way to go. I am very happy to contribute my perspective from the German southwest.”

Dr. Matthias A. DeuschleUniversity of Tübingen