After three days of work, on Thursday, June 8, there was a first day of study, which the participants spent partly at their desks in their rooms in the Johanniterhaus and partly in the Reformation Research Library.
From June 9 to 11, the first excursion took the groups in the footsteps of Martin Luther to Eisenach, Erfurt, Bad Frankenhausen, Allstedt, Eisleben, and Mansfeld. In Eisenach, the focus was on the young Luther, who attended the city’s St. George’s School, as well as the reformer who translated the New Testament at Wartburg Castle. Side trips included the Bach House and St. George’s Church, as the composer who translated Luther’s theology into music was born, baptized and religiously educated in Eisenach. In Erfurt, the group visited the Augustinian Monastery and took an extensive walking tour of the city, including the church of Meister Eckhart’s Dominican order, the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Old Synagogue. In Bad Frankenhausen, the group visited Werner Tübke’s monumental Peasants’ War Panorama and learned much about the memory of the Peasants’ War of 1525. A side trip took the group to Allstedt, where Thomas Müntzer was a pastor and preached to the Saxon princes in the castle. In Eisleben, the group had Morning Prayer at St. Anne’s Church on Sunday, then toured the church and the adjacent Augustinian Monastery. They also visited Luther’s birthplace, his baptistery, and the house where he is believed to have died. Finally, the group traveled to Mansfeld to visit Luther’s childhood home, St. George’s Church, where he received his religious education, and Mansfeld Castle.