Wittenberg Church of the Reformation

Hi, I’m Pastor Lutzer. Many of us are on a tour of Germany, and we are visiting some very important sites. But as far as my interests are concerned, I think that there is none greater than this church. This church is the Church of the Reformation. Just outside the wall, that’s where Luther nailed his 95 Theses, and we are within the church where he often preached. Buried in this church is Martin Luther on one side and his assistant, Melanchthon, on the other. And of course, it has a tremendous impact on church history.

But I’m going to talk to you about something else that happened in this church. In 1933, Hitler was installed as Chancellor, and not only Chancellor, but really the dictator of Germany. He wanted to control the churches. How he went about doing that is a longer story. He tried to intimidate them. He said, “It’s okay if you preach, as long as you don’t criticize the Reich. But apart from that,” he says, “you can just preach the gospel.”

Well, he encountered a lot of resistance. He anointed one man, Ludwig Mueller, who would be the Reich Bishop, that is to say, the bishop over all the Protestant churches in Germany. His inauguration took place right here. Now, standing at the back of the church was Bonhoeffer and Niemöller. Bonhoeffer said to a friend standing next to him, “We have just witnessed the death of the church in Germany because it was here that they traded the cross of Christ for the swastika.” Now, Bonhoeffer and Niemöller gave out pamphlets outside, urging people to stand against what was happening here; there were those who nailed them onto trees and put them in various places. And how did the national church react? Well, the official church said, “There are enemies outside who are trying to stop what we want to do.”

There’s a lesson here, I think, for us, and that is that sometimes people who are called enemies are on the side of righteousness and truth. Today, we honor Bonhoeffer, and we consider the destructive work of Ludwig Mueller right here in this church once again, where the swastika was chosen instead of the cross. Powerful lessons for us today.