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and West Germany was reflected in the 1983 celebrations
marking the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth, which in the
German Democratic Republic triggered a discussion about
incorporating the Lutheran anniversary into the national
heritage.
The Evangelical Church in Germany launched the Luther
Decade in 2008 in preparation for the anniversary in 2017.
This concentration on Luther as an individual has provoked
criticism, particularly within the Protestant ecumenical
movement. Those who object say it disregards other im-
portant aspects of the Reformation, pointing out that this
encompasses a whole variety of reformatory movements
which had their origins in Wittenberg and Zurich and then
spread via Geneva to the whole of Europe and all the way
to the New World.
Taken as a whole, multifaceted global Protestantism sees itself
as a process of incorporating the Reformation's message into
different contexts and phases in time. The Reformation is
therefore by no means a "Ger-
man event", but has a global
dimension and significance.
The anniversary in 2017 will take place in a context defined by
multilateral and pluralist ecumenicalism. Not just the twomain
Churches in Germany will be involved, but also the orthodox
Churches and multifarious Free Church Protestantism. Sensi-
tivity to the European and also global perspectives –manifest
not least in the form of the many migrant Churches – is also
an indispensable aspect.
character. At the same time, in the wake of the Enlightenment
Luther was stylized as a pioneer of reason and religious
freedom. In the 19th century the Lutheran celebrations were
defined by processes of national self-discovery whereby the
Reformation was construed as the formative "German event".
Luther acquired the status of a
national hero who embodied
"German national values" like no
other. He came to be regarded as
the empire's true founding father. His biography and family
life became paradigms of bourgeois culture and existence, to
the extent that, as Hartmut Lehmann phrased it, the celebra-
tions of his 400th birthday in 1883 were the expression of the
"narcissismof the Protestant German national bourgeoisie". In
1917 the anniversary was used to legitimise the war and, with
exhortations to keep up the fight, also exploited for national
Protestant propaganda. Gottfried Maron, a Church historian
from Kiel, talks here of a "material battle on the home front".
In the context of the celebrations, anti-Semitic pamphlets
appeared calling for the separation of "German Christianity"
from "Jewish" influences. In 1933, the year of the National
Socialist "seizure of power", the anniversary of Luther's birth
was monopolised for political ends and a "salvation history"
line was drawn to connect Reformer and dictator. Further
landmarks were the celebrations of 1946 immediately after
the Second World War, and the celebrations of 1967, in the
reformatory phase that followed the ecumenical reorientation
of the Second Vatican Council. The antagonismbetween East
Anniversaries and their
Instrumentalisation
AChance for Ecumenism?
Andrea Strübind in der Oldenburger
evangelisch-lutherischen Lambertikirche.
Andrea Strübind in the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Oldenburg.