Wartburg Castle and Eisenach

From Rothenburg we drove 2.5 hour to Eisenach - home of the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther was in hiding for 10 months and during which time he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. As a result of his excommunication at Worms, he was proclaimed heretic and outlaw making it illegal for anyone to feed or aid him in any way and making it legal to kill him. His friends/supporters staged a kidnapping of Luther after the Diet of Worms and smuggled him to the Wartburg Castle.


Wartburg Castle overlooking the city of Eisenach.









The first scene in this area was a depiction of Luther's ride after the staged kidnapping by three horsemen (girls dressed as men) when he was taken to the Wartburg Castle - in the background.




The room in Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther spent his 10 months in 1521 working on the translation and other writings. A very historic place within the events of the reformation. Luther's German Bible translation is regarded by many to have become the foundation to the modern German language.



Our final shoot at the Castle was in this ornate Palace hall where the events that took place in the Worms Cathedral were played out. Very cool scene with elaborate costumes for presiding Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (to the right) and other officials of the Church. Liz had been abducted by the wardrobe ladies and had entered the scene here in between takes to adjust the Emperor's socks - hehe. She did good!



After this shoot - the film crew returned to the US while Liz and I continued to Wittenburg for still photos.

An iPhone photo by Liz of me with our Martin Luther actor Mathias and his wife. We had just completed an interview video I had conducted and shot on Sunday (Oct 31 - anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of the 95 thesis on the doors of the Church here) outside Castle Church in Wittenburg.




We spent the balance of our Sunday with Rolf Bauerfeind, His wife Danny and family in Leipzig. Rolf organized the cast and locations in Germany and was just released from a 5 year High Councel position at Stake Conference on Sunday. He was one of the first 10 missionaries to come out of East Germany in 1989 prior to the wall coming down later that year. Danny served a mission on Temple Square in 93 - 94. Both Rolf and Danny were raised in East Germany.


An East German manufactured vehicle called a "Wartburg" built in Eisenach. Same car for 50 years I guess. Rolf was thrilled to see it as we were driving back to their home from Wittenburg.