Martin Luther Monument - Washington DC
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Don.Morfe
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The Luther Monument is a public artwork located at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., United States. The monument to Martin Luther, the theologian and Protestant Reformer, is a bronze full-length portrait.
Waymark Code: WM15YA7
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 03/22/2022
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From Wikipedia
"The Luther Monument is a public artwork located at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., United States. The monument to Martin Luther, the theologian and Protestant Reformer, is a bronze full-length portrait. It is a copy of the statue created by Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel as part of the 1868 Luther Monument in Worms, Germany. The monument was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1993.
Description
Martin Luther stands dressed in long robes with his proper right leg moving slightly forward. The sculpture, which shows an excommunicated Luther defending himself during his trial before the Diet of Worms in 1521, features Luther resting his proper right hand on top of a large Bible that he holds in his proper left hand. His hair curls around his face and he looks outwards, looking slightly upwards. The sculpture stands on a three-tiered granite base (H 168 in. x W. 138 in.) and is surrounded by sunflowers and overlooks Thomas Circle.
The back of the sculpture, near the base, is engraved:
E. RIETSCHEL FACIT. GEGOSSEN LAUCHHAMMER 1884
In raised letters on the front of the base along with the founder's mark:
MARTIN LUTHER"
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From Wikipedia
"Martin Luther 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author and hymnwriter. A former Augustinian friar, he is best known as the seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation and as the namesake of Lutheranism.
Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.
Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge, and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood. Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans, though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical (German: evangelisch) as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ.
His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.
In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic, violent views towards Jews and called for the burnings of their synagogues and their expulsion. His rhetoric was not directed at Jews alone but also towards Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians. Luther died in 1546 with Pope Leo X's excommunication still in effect."
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