A Luther for Everyone: Irenicism and Memory at the German Reformation Anniversaries of 1817

“A Luther for Everyone” examines the interconfessional celebration of the 1817 anniversaries of the Reformation in Germany. Unlike previous anniversaries of the Reformation in 1617 and 1717, which were solemnly-observed holy days within the Lutheran Church, the 1817 anniversary festivals were secular events attended by German Protestants, Catholics, and even Jews. In the sermons, speeches, histories, and hagiographies produced to commemorate the occasion, irenical German Catholics, Protestants, and some Jews refashioned memories of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation from icons of confessionalism and religious separation into symbols of religious pluralism that were accessible to all Germans.

The principal context for understanding the use and abuse of the memory of Luther at the 1817 anniversaries was the Prussian Union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. Imposed by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III on the occasion of the 1817 Reformation anniversary, this union merged the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Prussia into a single Evangelical Church. In response, both irenical and orthodox Lutherans appealed to memories of Luther and the Reformation to position themselves vis-à-vis the Prussian Union. While still primarily Protestant sites of memory, German Catholics and Jews also participated in the anniversary celebrations, as the secular and public character of the festivals rendered the memories of Luther and the Reformation accessible to even more Germans.  This proliferation of religious memory reflected the emergence of a veritable “Luther for everyone”. It points to the strength of nineteenth-century piety and gently challenges the idea that the century represented a second era of confessionalization. But the 1817 Reformation anniversaries also underscore the enduring “presence” of Luther and the Reformation in modern German history.