martin luther travel

Trace Martin Luther’s Footsteps Through Germany

It’s 500 years since the start of the Protestant Reformation—here’s what you can still see today

Jennifer Billock

Travel Correspondent

In 1517, Augustinian monk Martin Luther was so fed up with the Catholic Church that he ( allegedly ) nailed a list of 95 observations, called the 95 Theses , to the door of a church in Germany. He was frustrated by the greed and corruption he saw in the church, particularly by reports that some in positions of power were taking large sums of money in exchange for absolving sinners of their mistakes. His treatise included questions and ideas for debate, largely centering on two topics: that the Bible, rather than priests or the Church, should be the religious authority and that people can only achieve salvation through internal spiritual repentance, not by sacramental confession or indulgences.

Luther only intended for his theses to spur debate, which was common at the time—scholars posted talking points on doors frequently so people could read them. But soon his ideas were mass-produced on a printing press and spread throughout Germany. This sparked a grassroots movement called the Reformation, which divided the Western church in two, leading to the founding of Protestantism and transforming the way generations of people thought about their relationship to God.

After Luther posted his Theses, he was called to defend his ideas in front of an assembly. There was no agreement, so Luther went home. From 1518 to 1520, the Pope spoke out against Luther's writings and ordered an investigation into his teachings—that ended in 1521 with Luther being excommunicated from the Catholic church. That same year, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered Luther's writings destroyed and branded him an outlaw. Luther then went into hiding, though his work had already sparked a revolution. For the remaining years of his life, he was protected by his friends, powerful German princes who made sure he lived a safe life. He married and had five children. Luther died in 1546.

Religious or not, these spots in Germany helped shape the world as we know it, and you can still visit them today.

Lutherhaus, Wittenberg

Construction on this present-day Unesco site  began in 1504 , built to be a monastery for the Augustinian order. At that time, it was known as the Black Monastery because of the color habits worn by the monks. Luther moved into the monastery in 1508, and it is here that he wrote his treatise. The monastery was dissolved as a result of the Reformation, but Luther continued living there and was joined by his wife and family in 1525. After Luther's death, the former monastery was taken over by the university and served as a residence for visiting scholars. When visiting the Reformation museum on the grounds now (there’s been a museum there since the late 1800s), don’t miss the exhibits containing his personal manuscripts, books, furniture, and more, including the pulpit he preached from at the Castle Church.

Schlosskirche, Wittenberg

On October 31, 1517, Luther headed here and is said to have  nailed his 95 Theses to the door of this very church. The original doors are sadly no longer there—they burned in 1760 along with a large part of the church—but the theses are inscribed on the 1858 bronze doors that replaced the wooden ones. Luther is buried here as well, with a simple marker above his coffin. The plaque, roughly translated from Latin, says, “Here lies the body of Martin Luther, Doctor of Divinity, who died at Eisleben, his birthplace, on the 12th of the Calends of March, in the year 1546, when he had lived 63 years, 3 months and 10 days.” There’s also a tribute to Luther at the top of the round tower, if you climb the 289 steps to get there.

Wartburg Castle, Eisenach

This Unesco site was Luther’s hiding place, where he stayed  after he was declared an outlaw in 1521 . The Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, brought Luther here to save his life. As an outlaw, he could be killed freely by anyone at any time according to German law. Frederick the Wise staged a fake attack on Luther’s life—with Luther’s consent—in order to take him to Wartburg for protective custody. He lived here for ten months under the alias Knight George—even dressing like a knight to avoid being discovered. He wore a sword, clothes of nobility and donned a fancy hairstyle and beard. While Luther was at Wartburg, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. It reportedly only took him ten weeks. The small cell Luther stayed in, called “Luther’s Room,” can be visited by tourists today, where they can see a desk and chair with a bible and portrait of Luther on display.

Augustinerkloster, Erfurt

In 1505, according to legend, Luther was terrified for his life and shouted up into the severe thunderstorm he thought would kill him these words : “Saint Anna, help me! I will become a monk.” Today, that spot in the Stotternheim district of Erfurt is marked with a commemorative stone, for it was after that declaration that Luther—who had weathered the storm alive—headed to this monastery, began his studies to become a monk, and took his vows the following year. He was ordained here in 1507. Today, the monastery is  still a working Lutheran church , but with some extra amenities: a historical library, lodging for visitors, a café and a conference center.

Eisleben played a huge role in Luther’s life—he was born here, baptized here and died here. The town itself dates back to the 10th century, with suburbs from the 12th century. Luther’s baptismal font is at St. Peter and Paul Church. He was baptized on November 11, 1483 , and some of the original remains of the font can still be seen in the middle of the chancel. Baptized one day after his birth, his birthplace is now a museum as well as a Unesco World Heritage Site and has been a destination for pilgrims since the 17th century . Coincidentally, he died in this town while visiting family—and that building, too, is a museum now. At the nearby Andreaskirche , Luther spoke his final sermons. The last line of his last sermon was, “I am able to say many more things about this text, but I feel very weak and sick today. I hope I can do it later.” He died the next week, and his funeral was held at the same church.

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Jennifer Billock is an award-winning writer, bestselling author, and editor. She is currently dreaming of an around-the-world trip with her Boston terrier. Check out her website at jenniferbillock.com .

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Home » Europe » Germany » Walking In the Footsteps of Martin Luther

Walking In the Footsteps of Martin Luther

By Author Lance Longwell

Posted on Last updated: April 28, 2020

In October 1517, a young theologian posted 95 theses on a church door in Germany. His name was Martin Luther and his hammer rang the bell of reform throughout the Christian world. Luther’s theses were the birth of the Protestant Reformation. Today, the Martin Luther pilgrimage sites in Germany draw visitors from around the world – including me.

“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”

My interest in Martin Luther and the German Reformation sites is historical, not religious. The purpose of my visit to Luther Country (as the locals call it) was to walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther. I am not Christian and have no theological calling to his ideas, however, over the years, I’ve been interested in the man, and the historical fallout of his actions. He was a rebel with a cause.

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”

As a man, he was complex. He was not an entirely likable person. He was stubborn. He stood up to gross corruption within the religious establishment, yet supported political corruption. He was convinced of his own righteousness. He was cunning. He was a shrewd political operative. He loved booze. And he was a man who altered the course of history – for both better and worse. Even today, we still struggle with the legacy of Luther.

“He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.”

Martin Luther Country spans the German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Before reunification, this was East Germany. If you were to go any further east, you’d be in the Czech Republic. He moved repeatedly throughout the region (more on that later). I’ve been traveling frequently to Germany since 1995 and have never found a more beautiful corner of the country than Luther Country.

Every story has a beginning. And the story of the Reformation began with his birth on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony. Luther’s parents were traditionalists, but were well off. Luther’s father operated copper mines and Luther’s mother cared for the family. He was the eldest son and his father had high expectations that he was to become a lawyer.

At the age of 14, he was sent to boarding school in the town of Magdeburg, about 50 miles away from home. A year later, he moved away to finish his primary schooling at St. George’s in the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia.

He actually lived in Eisenach five different times in his life and deeply loved the city. This is where I picked up the trail and started walking in the footsteps of Martin Luther.

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.”

Luther’s boyhood home is just steps off the main market square in Eisenach. Unfortunately, during my visit, it was under construction. Almost all of the Luther sites have been undergoing some degree of renovation in anticipation of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. I had to use my imagination to envision what his childhood room looked like.

However, St. George’s church on the main square was available. In this church, he would preach and also participated in the choir.

After graduating primary school, he moved to the nearby cosmopolitan city of Erfurt to study at the University of Erfurt. His family’s relative wealth afforded him a room in very nice student home close to the university. I wandered the small lanes of Erfurt’s old city and could almost hear Luther’s footsteps on the Merchants’ Bridge as he would stop to pick up clothes – dyed in blue (as many of the city’s residents would wear).

Years later, as a monk, he would corner merchants on the narrow staircase leading down to the Gera River and ask for donations (the staircase is known today as the Lutherstiege). But it was also here in Erfurt, with its sad Jewish history , that Luther’s opinions of Judaism were formed (more on that later).

He graduated from University of Erfurt and immediately re-enrolled in the school’s law program. And, he may have been forgotten to history as a bureaucratic lawyer, if it were not for a surprise summer storm in 1505. Luther had only recently begun his law degree.

But on July 2, 1505, he was returning to Erfurt from visiting his family and was caught in violent thunderstorm that terrified him. A lightning bolt crashed near him and he called out to God, “Help! Santa Anna, I will become a monk!” He survived the storm, but believed he had made a binding contract directly with God.

Much to his father’s chagrin, he dropped out of law school, walked through a gate with a large black door and entered the local Augustinian Monastery.

“It is neither right nor safe to go against my conscience.”

St. Augustine’s Monastery in Erfurt still exists today. I was able to walk through the gate, just as Luther had done. I entered St. Augustine’s church and was able to see where Luther prayed every day. He would look up at the stained glass window, containing a white rose on a blue field with a red heart center and adorned with a black cross over the heart.

Years later, Luther would think back and select this white rose as his symbol: the Lutheran Rose. Visitors coming to Erfurt can take accommodations at the monastery and sleep in a room like Luther did (although much more modern…and comfortable).

“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”

Two years later, in 1507, Luther was ordained a priest in the grand St. Mary’s Cathedral overlooking the main square in Erfurt. Of all the cathedrals in Germany, this is one of the finest. And the Domplatz square in Erfurt is my absolute favorite. The next year he received a degree in biblical studies.

Four years later, he received his Doctorate in Theology and began teaching at the University of Wittenberg. For the rest of Luther’s life, the cities of Erfurt and Wittenberg would act like poles in his life: Erfurt would be his spiritual home and Wittenberg would be his professional home.

“Many pass for saints on earth whose souls are in hell.”

Yet all was not well in the Catholic Church. The Pope had a scheme to sell indulgences in order to pay for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. This action was representative of the overall corruption in the Catholic Church and it absolutely incensed Luther.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther wrote his “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which he nailed to the church door in Wittenberg. He intended to spark a theological debate. Instead, he started a revolution.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Luther’s ideas spread like wildfire, aided mass productions of his theses by a printing press and translations into other languages. By 1520, it was clear to the Catholic Church that the problem known as Martin Luther wasn’t going away. Luther was order by the Pope to recant. He refused. Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther on January 3, 1521. Yet the Pope really had no power.

The second ax fell a few months later. Having already lost his religious support, Luther lost his secular support. At the Diet of Worms in 1521, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V tried and convicted Luther and issuing a warrant for his arrest. He had secured safe passage to attend the trial, but was a marked man. On his way back to Wittenburg, he disappeared.

His friends had arranged for Luther to be kidnapped and taken to Wartburg Castle overlooking his beloved town of Eisenach. Luther arrived on May 4, 1521 and spent the next 10 months in hiding as a monk under the assumed name of Junker Jörg.

During his time, he translated the New Testament of the Bible from Greek into German (one of his original Bibles is on display at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar ). Unlike current Catholic Church teachings, Luther believed that individuals could have a direct relationship with God and did not need the clergy to act as intermediaries. Having access to the bible proved critical to the success of spreading Lutheranism.

“There never yet have been, nor are there now, too many good books.”

In June 1525, he was married to Katharina von Bora, a nun who was 15 years his junior. Luther had never understood the Catholic Church position on celibacy. He felt having a wife and partner made him stronger. The wedding was attended by Luther’s friend and long-time collaborator, Lucas Cranach the Elder .

Cranach was Luther’s confidant and a painter who ensured we knew exactly how Luther looked at every stage of his life. Nearly every Martin Luther site in Germany has Cranach paintings, but I found a large collection of them in the Cranach Gallery at the Weimar Palace .

Luther was a marked man for the rest of his life, however, that was largely a political designation. He lived remarkably in the open under the protection of Protestant rulers in Germany, including Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. He had counseled Philip I into entering a bigamous marriage, but gravely miscalculated the political risks of such an action. It became the blight on Luther’s legacy.

“Beer is made by men, wine by God.”

I ended my Martin Luther Germany Tour in the very north of Bavaria. Martin Luther briefly lived in the mountaintop castle Veste Coburg in 1530. It was an excellent choice for Luther – there is no finer castle in all of Germany.

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.”

After nearly two weeks of crisscrossing Germany on my own Martin Luther pilgrimage, I felt like I had a much better handle on the man. However, the more I learned of Luther, the more I wanted to know.

Opening the box on his life also introduces a nagging question: Was he a good man ?

Luther’s legacy has been complicated. There are billions of Protestants in the world who owe their faith to him. Yet the rift that he created has led to countless wars and troubles.

Most difficult of all, as the Nazis came to power, they relied heavily on the writings of Martin Luther to justify their positions. And it was easy to do, Luther wrote a 60,000 word book on the topic: On the Jews and Their Lies .

Nuremberg was the first major city to embrace Lutheranism and it was also the intellectual seat of Nazi power. Many historians have argued that Luther’s ideas and writings were the blueprint for Nazism. Even if this overstates his role, he certainly helped pave the way.

Over 500 years after the Reformation, I’m glad I took the time to tour the Martin Luther Germany sites and learn more about this complex man and his ideas. Walking in the footsteps of Martin Luther is an experience I will never forget.

Sites on the Martin Luther Germany Tour

Martin luther sites in eisenach.

Luther’s House – Located at Lutherplatz 8. The house is open from April-October daily from 10:00am-5:00pm; and November-March from 10:00am-5:00pm, except Mondays. Website: https://www.lutherhaus-eisenach.com/en/

St. George’s Church – Located right on the market square. He sang and preached in this church. Website: https://www.kirchenkreis-eisenach-gerstungen.de/

Wartburg Castle – Located on the hill above town. The castle is open from April-October daily from 8:30am-5:00pm; and November-March daily from 9:00am-3:30pm. Website: https://www.wartburg.de/en/

Martin Luther Sites in Erfurt

Augustinian Monastery – Located at Augustinerstrasse 10. Visits are possible on a one hour which is run several times daily. Check the website for specific times, but generally at 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm and 2:30pm, plus other times during peak season. Website: https://www.augustinerkloster.de/

St. Mary’s Cathedral – Located on the massive Domplatz square in the Old Town. The Cathedral is open from May-October on Monday-Saturday from 9:30am-6:00pm, and 1:00pm-6:00pm on Sunday; from November-April on Monday-Saturday from 9:30am-6:00pm, and 1:00pm-5:00pm on Sunday. Website: www.dom-erfurt.de

Collegium Maius , the old Erfurt University Building – Located on Michaelisstrasse. This building is a post-war reconstruction. The exterior is visible, but the building itself now houses an evangelical church.

The Georgenburse , or Student Dormitory – Located at Augustinerstraße 10. Tours are available on request.

Luther Memorial Statue – Located in Anger Square in front of Merchants’ Church St Gregorius at Anger 80. Always accessible.

Merchants’ Bridge and the “Lutherstiege” (or Luther’s Stairs) – Crossing the Gera River in the center of town. Always accessible.

Martin Luther Sites in Weimar

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul – Located on the Herderplatz in Weimar. Open from April-October on Monday-Friday from 10:00am-6:00pm; Saturday from 10:00am-noon and again 2:00pm-4:00pm; Sunday from 11:00am-noon and again from 2:00pm-4:00pm. From November-March, open daily from 11:00am-noon and again from 2:00pm-4:00pm. Website: https://www.ek-weimar.de/

The Palace Museum – Open April-October 15 on Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00am-6:00pm; and October 16-March on Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00am-4:00pm. Website: https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/

Duchess Anna Amalia Library – Located at Platz der Demokratie 1. A maximum of 290 people can visit per day. Get tickets well in advance at the Tourist Information office in Weimar on the main Market Square.

Martin Luther Sites in Coburg

The Coburg Fortress – Towering above the village of Coburg, the Coburg Fortress (Veste Coburg) is open April-October daily from 9:30am-5:00pm; from November-March on Tuesday-Sunday from 1:00pm-4:00pm. Website: https://www.kunstsammlungen-coburg.de/en/home/

While in Germany, I was the guest of the German National Tourist Board . I’m grateful to the GNTB as well as Thuringia Tourism , Weimar Tourism , the Erfurt Tourism & Marketing Board , and the Eisenach Wartburg Region . As always, all opinions are my own.

A few more photos from my Martin Luther Tour of Germany:

Lance Longwell is a travel writer and photographer who has published Travel Addicts since 2008, making it one of the oldest travel blogs. He is a life-long traveler, having visited all 50 of the United States by the time he graduated high school. Lance has continued his adventures by visiting 70 countries on 5 continents – all in search of the world’s perfect sausage. He’s a passionate foodie and enjoys hot springs and cultural oddities. When he’s not traveling (or writing about travel), you’ll find him photographing his hometown of Philadelphia.

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Lynn Schmidt

Thursday 14th of September 2023

Is there a tour in October that I might join? I am a solo traveler.

Lance Longwell

Friday 15th of September 2023

I didn't do a tour. I explored on my own as a solo traveler. It's possible to do it alone.

Protestant Itineraries »

Germany », in the footsteps of martin luther.

Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen (Martin Luther). We are in for an unforgettable experience as we follow the footsteps of a man who changed the course of the world. Not only did Martin Luther’s courage and convictions initiate the Protestant Reformation, but his translation of the Bible into the language of his people impacted German culture, his hymns influenced the development of singing in churches throughout the world, and his cherished union with Katharina von Bora (My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus.) set a model for the practice of clerical marriage. As we pilgrimage through Germany, through the great cities and beautiful countryside of Luther’s world, we will gain a deeper understanding and keener appreciation of his exemplary life, and will come away with a desire to live our own lives more courageously and purposefully.

Tour Itinerary

• Harz Mountains
• Quedlinburg
• Wernigerode
• Harz Fairy Tales
• Berchtesgaden Area
• Berchtesgaden Town
• Eagle's Nest
• Hitler's Berghof
• Obersalzberg
• Braunau am Inn
• Wartburg Castle
• Martin Luther
• Hogan's Heroes
• Colditz Castle
• Flights to Germany
• Martin Luther Biography

A Martin Luther Biography

Martin Luther biography, the story of the German monk who challenged the authority of the Church and set off the Protestant Reformation.

• Early Years

Luther the Monk

• Sale of Indulgences

The 95 Theses

Upheaval in germany.

• Diet of Worms
• In Hiding: Wartburg

Revolution in Wittenberg

• Luther Gets Married
• Peasants War
• Reformation in Germany

The Early Years

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in the small town of Eisleben in eastern Germany. His parents were from peasant stock, but had high ambitions for their intelligent, eldest son.

Luther's father, Hans, started out as a miner, but by Martin's birth had become the owner of several foundries. Young Luther was sent away to boarding schools in various towns nearby to study.

The curriculum during the late Middle Ages was Latin and church liturgy and doctrine. Discipline was severe: pupils were caned for misbehavior and not learning their schoolwork.

Martin was a good student and he went on to the University of Erfurt, earning Bachelors and Masters degrees in Theology. He was in his first year of Law School in Erfurt when an incident occurred that would change the course of European history.

On a stormy afternoon in July, 1505, Martin Luther was walking along a country road on the way back to his college. Suddenly, a bolt of lightening hit the ground near his feet. In his terror, he cried out to St. Anne, vowing to become a monk if he survived.

Two weeks later, Luther joined the Augustinian Order in Erfurt; his father was furious.

Many Christians of the late Middle Ages had a great fear of demons and devils, and were terrified of ending up in hell. Mortality rates were high and life was very uncertain due to disease, accidents, childbirth and wars. Luther shared those fears and his first years in the monastery he was tormented with the idea that all men were hopeless sinners in the sight of God and unworthy of salvation.

Some years later, his view changed and he came to believe that Christians could be saved only by true repentance and their faith in Christ's promise of salvation. He rejected the doctrine that acts of penance and good works were the keys to heaven.

Luther followed all the requirements of the cloister - prayer, fasting, living a spartan life - but carried everything to such an extreme that his superiors were worried about him. He wore out his confessor with marathon sessions of confessing, going over every thought in detail, then starting again from the beginning. His confessor, Father Staupitz, told him:

"Look here, if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive- parricide, blasphemy, adultery -instead of all these peccadilloes."

Partly for this reason, he was sent to teach theology at the University of Erfurt, and in 1511, at the University of Wittenberg, where he received his Doctorate in Theology. In Wittenberg he was also the parish priest assigned to minister to the citizens of the town.

The Sale of Indulgences

A major source of church funding during this period was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was a "get out of purgatory card" that could be obtained for oneself or others by paying a certain sum to the church.

At this time, the local prince, Frederick III of Saxony (The Wise), had been granted permission from the Pope to sell indulgences in Wittenberg to raise money for a bridge over the Elbe.

In addition, a representative of the Pope was just over the border in Thuringia selling indulgences to raise money for the Pope and for another German nobleman who was purchasing a church office (the Bishopric of Mainz) from the Pope. The Pope was selling offices and indulgences to get money for an ambitious building program which included the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. The Pope's representative, the Dominican Father Tetzel, encouraged people to buy the indulgences with the jingle,

"As soon as the coin in the coffer rings The soul from Purgatory springs"

and telling them their loved ones were crying out to be released from suffering.

Martin Luther was sent to Rome in 1510 on an errand for his order. He was shocked by the lack of morality and piety of the local clergy and by the luxurious lifestyle of the Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family. Pope Leo was known for his expensive tastes and was fond of hunting, gambling and carnivals. The papacy was at a low point in its history and others had been calling out for reform prior to Luther.

Martin Luther was a theology professor at the newly-established University of Wittenberg and had been spending a good deal of his time reading the Scriptures and writings of the early Christians, especially St. Paul and St. Augustine. He came to the conclusion there was no evidence in the Bible for believing the Pope had power to release souls from Purgatory.

Therefore, he felt the pieces of paper being sold to escape Purgatory were worthless and pious Christians were being scammed. The fact that the funds were going from poor German peasants to wealthy Roman clergy made the fraud even more disturbing. He wrote out a list of his objections to the practice; he named 95 issues he wished to dispute.

On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his ninety-five theses, or points of discussion, on the door of the Castle Church in  Wittenberg . The document was in Latin and invited other scholars to debate the statements set out.

This was the normal way to offer topics for formal discussion in a community of scholars, so the act of nailing the paper to the door was not revolutionary.

However, the topic was a touchy one. Indulgences were a major method of fund-raising for the Church. (Medieval Bingo, as author Roland Bainton, in  Here I Stand , put it!).

The  95 Theses  were translated into German and widely distributed throughout Germany, courtesy of the printing press.

There is some question about whether the list was actually attached to the church door. Phillip Melanchthon, Luther's closest ally, described the event in a writing after Luther's death and recently another writing of a contemporary has come to light which also states the theses were nailed to the door.

Luther never mentioned it in his own writings. There is no question, however, that Luther wrote the list and sent a copy of it to Prince Albert of Mainz.

The protest against the indulgences set off a conflagration which, step by step, resulted in most of Northern Europe breaking away from the authority of the Catholic Church.

The reaction of the Church initially was to try and suppress the attack on indulgences by suppressing Martin Luther. Pope Leo directed the head of the Augustinians to: "quench a monk of your order, Martin Luther by name". He also allegedly remarked, "Luther is a drunken German. He will feel differently when he is sober".

However, because of the complex politics of the time involving the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain and France, the Pope couldn't afford to alienate the German princes. Some of the princes were sympathetic to Luther and German resentment against sending money to Rome was on the rise.

The Pope, directly and through churchmen supporting him, told Luther he was wrong, but would be forgiven if he backed down. Luther became more adamant and started adding new complaints about the Church. A flurry of pamphlets and tracts issued from both camps attacking each other.

The Pope wanted to bring Luther to Rome and deal with him, but the German princes, including the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, said Luther should be given a hearing on the issue in Germany. A debate was held in Leipzig, with Luther challenging the authority of the Pope to decide doctrine and maintaining that many church practices, including most of the sacraments, were bogus because they conflicted with Scripture.

It was clear by this time that there could be no coming together on these issues, since the very authority of the Pope was called into question. Luther had made himself very unpopular with the Church. The Church did act to curb the worst abuses of indulgences, but it was too late. The debate had moved far beyond that.

See  Protestant Reformation  for a list of the doctrinal differences between Luther and the Church.

Pope Leo sent Luther a notice that he would be excommunicated unless he renounced his heretical views within 60 days. Luther responded by publicly burning the letter, or "bull" in Wittenberg, along with a stack of Church writings.

The Diet of Worms

Every year or so, the Holy Roman Emperor would call a meeting of the German princes and bishops. These meetings were called Diets and in 1521, Emperor Charles V summoned Martin Luther to the meeting to be held in the old cathedral city of Worms in western Germany. (Diet of Worms is pronounced " dee-ate  of  vohrms ".)

Charles V was a very devout Catholic, but about half of the princes were sympathetic to Luther. Luther was given safe conduct to attend the meeting and defend his positions. At the Diet of Worms, Luther was shown a table with a pile of his books and other writings. He was offered the opportunity to recant, but refused. Luther's reply was written down as he spoke it:

"Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason -- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

The printed document released after the Diet of Worms also contained the famous words, "Here I stand, I can do no other."

In Hiding: Wartburg Castle

Luther was allowed to leave Worms, but he was now considered an outlaw. Emperor Charles issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Luther a heretic and ordering his death.

Frederick the Wise of Saxony favored Luther and arranged for him to be "kidnapped" and taken to  Wartburg Castle  near the town of  Eisenach .

Luther disguised himself as a nobleman, grew a beard and called himself "Junker Jörg". He was safe in the Wartburg, a strong fortress on the top of a mountain, under the protection of the local prince.

He spent nearly a year there, writing furiously and fighting depression and numerous physical ailments.

It was in a small study in the castle in 1522 that he translated the New Testament from Greek into German and profoundly influenced the form and standardization of the German language.

Back in Wittenberg, in Luther's absence numerous leaders had sprung up, each with his own interpretation of doctrine, and most having far more radical views than Luther.

Priests wore ordinary clothing and grew their hair, services were performed in German, monks and nuns were leaving the cloisters and getting married. Some groups were smashing images and statues in the churches and dragging priests away from the altars.

Luther was becoming more and more alarmed at these reports. When the town council of Wittenberg wrote to him, begging him to come back and restore order, he decided to leave the safety of the Wartburg and return.

He did manage to quiet things down when he returned to Wittenberg. He convinced a couple of the more radical preachers to stop preaching or leave town.

Luther began the process of laying out what he believed to be the proper conduct of church services and started writing books to be used to educate the clergy and lay-people about the "correct" way of behaving and worshipping as Christians.

Katharina von Bora: Luther Gets Married

One of the problems confronting Luther when he returned was the question of what to do with all the nuns who had run away from the nunneries, including twelve who had been smuggled out in herring barrels. Apparently in the Middle Ages they couldn't be allowed to remain single, so Luther worked to find husbands for them.

Finally, only one woman was left, 26 year-old Katharina von Bora, the daughter of a poor nobleman. She had been sent to the nunnery at a very young age, probably because her father couldn't afford to provide her with a dowry to marry her off.

Luther picked out a disagreeable, elderly man for her. Katharina refused and said she would marry either Luther or another local bachelor. Luther, who was 42, had stated many times he wasn't going to marry. However, he impulsively announced he was marrying Katharina von Bora, to the great surprise of his friends.

Luther was very fond of Katharina, referring to her as "My Lord Katie" or "My rib". In a letter he addressed her, "To my beloved wife, Katharina, Mrs. Dr. Luther, mistress of the pig market, lady of Zulsdorf, and whatsoever other titles may befit thy Grace."

For a long-time bachelor, married life was quite a change, He wrote, "There is a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage. One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow that was not there before." The marriage turned out to be a happy one and they had six children, three girls and three boys, during their time together.

See Martin Luther quotes  for Martin Luther's sayings on life and love.

The Peasants War of 1525

There had been periodic unrest involving the German peasants over the years and conditions had been getting worse for them due to some changes in the way land was held. Many were inspired by Martin Luther's challenge to the authority of the Church to challenge the secular powers as well.

Luther was initially sympathetic to their struggles, but as the movement gained momentum, some of the groups became violent and were roaming the land looting and killing, robbing and burning monasteries, abbeys and castles.

Martin Luther wrote an appeal to the aristocrats to restore order by force. The peasants were disorganized and poorly armed and were no match for the knights and heavily armed soldiers. They were slaughtered by the thousands and their leader Thomas Müntzer, beheaded.

Both sides were angry with Luther: the nobles blamed him for stirring up the people and the peasants blamed him for encouraging the nobles to use violence against them.

The Protestant Reformation in Northern Germany

Martin Luther spent the rest of his life in Wittenberg, preaching the new doctrines and creating an enormous body of written work.

He wrote many books on Protestant theology, instructional books for Christian worship and living, as well as hymns for congregations to sing during the service. Many are still being sung today; the most famous is  A Mighty Fortress is Our God , which can be sung in English in Wittenberg in the Castle Church itself during certain services.

Luther wrote to and met with other leaders of the Reformation, such as Zwingli, to try and produce a unified statement of belief for the reformed church, but nothing came out of it because they were not able to agree on many of the doctrinal issues.

Protestantism spread rapidly over northern Germany and to the towns of Augsburg, Nuremberg and Strasbourg in the south, as well as Switzerland. By the time of Luther's death it was well established, mostly in the form Martin Luther created.

Luther had been ill off and on for most of his life and his health had been deteriorating as he got older. He died on a visit to Eisleben, the town of his birth, in 1546 at the age of 62.

He was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg in front of the pulpit where he delivered many of his sermons. His grave is still there.

More Info on Martin Luther

If you want more information on this subject, I highly recommend the Martin Luther biography by Roland H. Bainton,  Here I Stand, A Life of Martin Luther . Well-written, with tons of interesting information.

It's on Amazon (As an Amazon Associate I may earn a small commission from some purchases.)

For a concise summary of the doctrinal differences between Martin Luther and the Catholic Church, see  Protestant Reformation .

More Martin Luther...

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Martin Luther's Travel Guide: 500 Years of the 95 Theses: On the Trail of the Reformation in Germany Paperback – November 30, 2016

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• Print length 176 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Berlinica Publishing LLC
• Publication date November 30, 2016
• Dimensions 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 193590244X
• ISBN-13 978-1935902447
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., martin luther's travel guide, 500 years of the 95 theses: on the trail of the reformation in germany, berlinica publishing llc.

Luther's Uprising

Ninety-Five Theses and the Pope: How the Reformation Began

It was October 31, 1517, now 500 years ago, when Martin Luther made history: He affixed the Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, the town where he lived and preached. Luther was Catholic, as was everyone in Europe at that time, a priest, and a professor of Theology. The event itself is somewhat disputed; some doubt that it happened at all, but Philipp Melanchthon, his friend and also a professor in Wittenberg, was a witness.

However, Luther did not angrily swing a hammer. The door of the impressive Castle Church served as a bulletin board for the city's theologians. It is also public record that Luther wrote a — submissive and respectful — letter to Albert, the Archbishop of the German town of Mainz. The letter was about the same issue as the theses — indulgences, Ablasshandel. Indulgences were monies paid to the Church, who then made sure the sinner would go to heaven. Luther resented the sale of indulgences, because the remission of sins was being mixed up with political and economic goals.

But it was not just about money; indulgences were a reflection of an international power play, with the Archbishop of Mainz, Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise (see page 58), and the Pope in Rome as major players. Luther, so to speak, lived in the very last trenches of the Roman Empire: The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, an ensemble of kingdoms, mos importantly Northern Italy, Burgundy in France, Bohemia with Prague as the capital, and the Kingdom of Germany. The latter consisted of many duchies, including Saxony, which covered present-day Saxony, and parts of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Elector Frederick the Wise became a life-long benefactor of Luther. Frederick did this for political, not religious reasons. He wanted to strengthen the German princes against the Pope in Rome.

One German duchy was Mainz, then the largest archbishopric in Christianity — and also the seat of the archchancellor of Germany, the head of the German Electors. Because the archbishopric had changed occupants three times between 1504 and 1514, it had to pay a triple fee to Rome for the appointment of a new archbishop and for the granting of a gallium (the symbol for the rank of archbishop). The price tag was 10,000 ducats or 14,000 guilders (one guilder being somewhat more than fifty dollars today).

Hence, the archbishopric was in extreme debt. When a new archbishop was due to be elected, a nobleman was sought who would have the necessary finances at his disposal. Enter aforementioned Albert of Hohenzollern-Brandenburg, who had been the archbishop of Magdeburg since 1513. Even though holding multiple offices was prohibited, Rome still permitted it after a special dispensation was negotiated, plus a payment of 21,000 ducats or 29,000 guilders.

Because Albert did not have this amount at his disposal after all, he turned to the Fugger Bank of Augsburg. In return, Albert had to permit the selling of the so-called "St. Peter's Indulgence" to pay for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The other half of the proceeds would go to the Fugger Bank to repay the debt. From the outset, there was an obvious intertwining of religious and financial interests.

Indulgences were to be sold for a period of eight years in the ecclesiastical provinces of Mainz, Magdeburg, and Brandenburg. With few exceptions, they would apply to all sins. Consequently, "sub-commissioners," preachers of indulgence, and confessors were recruited to execute the campaign. On January 22, 1517, Johann Tetzel — a Dominican monk from Leipzig — was sworn in as general sub-commissioner for the sale of indulgences in the province of Magdeburg.

On April 10 of that same year, Tetzel was in Jüterbog, a town near Wittenberg. For the first time, Luther was directly confronted with the effects of the "St. Peter's Indulgence." Initially, Luther tried to clarify the matter in his sermons. Luther was not criticizing the practice of indulgences per se. Rather, he was concerned about misunderstandings, saying buyers of indulgences were being tricked into believing that from that day forward they could be sure of their salvation and that their souls would arrive in heaven as soon as the money was paid — referring to Tetzel's rhyme, "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs." Luther was upset by the claim that people could supposedly be forgiven — even of grave sin — by means of indulgences. So, Luther sent his cover letter to Albert, the Archbishop of Mainz, and included the Ninety-five Theses, which criticized indulgences from a number of different angles. In his discussion of his Theses, Luther had always — incorrectly — assumed that the Pope shared his opinion concerning indulgences. Even in 1541, Luther emphasized that he initially did not intend to oppose indulgences per se — just their misuse. He most certainly did not want to oppose the Pope. But he was mistaken. Frederick the Wise of Saxony knew better. He had his Court Preacher Georg Spalatin (page 56) read Luther's Theses to him. Frederick commented, "Mark my words. The Pope will not be able to tolerate that."

The Theses were intensely discussed within the Church, and Luther had to write an explanation of them in 1518. Luther had two tasks before him: first, the difficult and almost hopeless confrontation with the ecclesiastical system and, second, building up and implementing his new realization. The court case against Luther was opened in Rome in summer 1518. Frederick the Wise, however, managed to arrange for Luther to be summoned not to Rome but to Augsburg, before Cardinal Cajetan. That hearing would take place on October 12 and 14 in the Fugger House (Fuggerhaus) in that city. Cajetan asked Luther to recant and threatened him and his supporters with excommunication. In a loud shouting match, Luther refused to recant. Apparently, friends then helped Luther to pass through an unguarded city gate to make a quick escape to Wittenberg, riding the first leg of the journey — to Nuremberg — bareback.

After Augsburg, a moratorium followed. Luther, however, was eager for another debate. Soon, the Leipzig Debate with the theology professor Johann Eck would give him just that opportunity. The Disputation of Leipzig was a huge, well-attended event. Luther regarded himself as the winner, but so did Eck. Eck asked the Pope to move against Luther for holding to "Hussite heresy." The Hussites were an early Reformation movement in Bohemia; their founder, Jan Hus, was burned at the stake in 1415, followed by the Hussite wars.

Accordingly, a bull threatening Luther and his followers with excommunication was posted in Meissen, Merseburg, and Brandenburg in September 1520. As a result, Luther's books were burned in several cities. Luther reacted to this on December 10, 1520, in Wittenberg — by publicly burning papal books and the canon law, along with the bull threatening his excommunication.

On December 10, 1520, Luther wrote to Spalatin:

"On December 10, 1520, at nine o'clock in the morning, all these books of the Pope will be burned in Wittenberg in front of the eastern gate, near the Church of the Holy Cross: the Decretum, the Decretals, the Liber Sextus, the Clementines, the Extravagantes, and the newest bull of Leo X ... as well as several other [texts] that were added by various others so that the Papist arsonists can see that it does not take much to burn books they cannot refute."

Many years later, in 1541, Luther still wrote indignantly about the practice of indulgences:

"Meanwhile, I found out what dreadful and abominable articles Tetzel was preaching, and I will mention some of them now: He claimed that he had such grace and power from the Pope that even if someone seduced the Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, or impregnated her, Tetzel could forgive that person, if only he placed the proper amount in the money chest. Similarly, Tetzel claimed that when the red indulgence-cross bearing the papal arms is lifted up in church, it is just as powerful as the cross of Christ. ... And again, that if anyone puts money in the chest for a soul in purgatory, the soul flies [from purgatory] to heaven as soon as the coin falls and rings at the bottom. Tetzel claimed that the grace from indulgences is the same grace as the grace through which a man is reconciled to God."

Luther wrote several books against the papacy. The best-known is Christ and Antichrist, in which Luther comments crassly on ten equally crass caricatures of the Pope. On the occasion of the Council that convened in Trent in March 1545, a text of Luther's was published, Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil. In it, he describes the Pope as the "antichrist and werewolf, as an enemy of God, an enemy of Christ, and an enemy of all Christians and the whole world," and he warns that anyone who follows the Pope must know "that he is obedient to the devil in opposition to God."

Luther's Town

Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Birthplace of the Reformation

Wittenberg, a town between Berlin and Leipzig, was Martin Luther's hometown, where the historic events took place that shook the foundations of Christianity. In Wittenberg, Luther and his colleagues at the newly founded Leucorea University found the spiritual environment that put him in a position to unleash monumental forces, and change the world. Today, Lutherstadt Wittenberg is Luther Central! Practically every spot is associated with the Reformer.

The rise of Wittenberg began when Saxony Elector Frederick III, also known Frederick the Wise, founded the Leucorea University of Saxony (leucos means "white" and refers to "Wittenberg," which means "white mountain"). The university celebrated its opening on October 18, 1502, and would become the university where Martin Luther taught and developed his theses. Luther was asked to be a professor at Leucorea in 1510, and his friend and companion Philipp Melanchthon would join the faculty in 1519.

In the early 13th century, universities had been founded elsewhere under the authority of the Pope. They taught the Aristotelian academic methods customary in the Middle Ages, as well as Roman law in the area of jurisprudence. But over time, secular powers (kings, princes, and cities), began to found universities as well. With that, non-theological subjects were beginning to grow in their independence and significance. This was also the case at the Leucorea.

In the beginning, there was still a medieval aura to the Leucorea, St. Augustine was chosen as its patron saint andeach department was appointed its own saint. To determine the correct seating order at staff meetings, the various faculties were ranked. As usual in the Late Middle Ages, the theological department sat at the head of the table, followed by the law and medical faculties in less prominent positions. At the bottom of the ranking was the arts faculty. One new regulation, however, indicated the spirit of rising humanism: crowned poets (poetae laureati), were now ranked with the masters of arts faculty. These poets represented German humanism. They dealt in new ways with the ancient languages — Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.

The university required a large amount of teaching material for its students — printing had been invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 — so printers moved to town. Wittenberg's first printed texts were produced the same year the university was founded. The prior of the Augustinian Monastery was Johann von Staupitz (page 56), who would become a defender of the Reformation. Frederick the Wise also assigned two Augustinian Hermits as professors, one in the theological faculty, the other in the arts faculty, who lectured on moral philosophy. With professors and students moving into town, and printers being busy, the economy grew. The city of Wittenberg supported the Leucorea as much as possible. For instance, the confession house at the Franciscan Monastery was restored for the arts faculty's lectures.

The foundation of the Leucorea also compelled changes in Wittenberg's municipal planning. Because student accommodations were scarce, some students had to live in private homes. In 1504, a law was passed, requiring anyone owning or inheriting an empty lot to build a structure on that property within one year. So the Leucorea caused Wittenberg's first building boom of the 16 century as well. Buildings were constructed on vacant lots; homes were expanded to include small businesses for craftsmen or merchants. Even professors took in students, as did Luther and his wife, Katharina. This is when the houses now located around the City Church were built, separating the church from the city hall.

Frederick the Wise also commissioned the castle with the Castle Church. The castle of the Ascanians formerly at that site had been torn down already, and the new castle with two wings was completed in 1509. Construction cost 32,466 guilders, thirteen groschen, and nine pfennigs. The Castle Church formed the third wing of the residential castle. TheCastle Church became the University Church. Elections for various university offices were held in the sacristy, while the sanctuary served as the main hall of the Leucorea. And its door was used as a "bulletin board" for academic theses.

The Castle Church was constructed with a high altar painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder, another famed resident of Wittenberg. One of Cranach's works still hanging in the Church today is The Martyrdom of St. Catherine. On the side wings was a depiction of six female saints, known as the "Princes' Altar of Dessau" (Dessauer Fürstenaltar). Today this painting is exhibited in Dessau's Georgium Castle in the Anhalt Art Gallery (Anhaltischen Gemäldegalerie). Also, world-famous painter Albrecht Dürer contributed works that were originally in the Castle Church, of which four are preserved. Two altarpiece panels depict the Seven Joys of the Virgin and the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. The panel depicting the seven sorrows is now in Dresden, while the Virgin is displayed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. By continuously sponsoring Masses, the Elector filled the church with spiritual life. In one year, 1,138 Masses were sung and 7,856 Masses were read.

When Frederick the Wise died, the Castle Church lost its importance. His brother John the Steadfast, who succeeded him, positioned himself more clearly on the side of the Reformation and closed the Allerheiligenstift in 1525. Under a cloud of secrecy, the collection of relics was brought to the city of Torgau. Georg Goldschmidt separated the gold, silver, jewels, and pearls they contained and reworked them into items of daily use. The silver was sold to Nuremberg, with a profit of 24,739 guilders, A few items were preserved, however, such as a drinking glass owned by St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. Today it can be viewed in Coburg Castle (Veste Coburg).

In 1760, the Castle Church was destroyed in the Seven-Years'-War. The only items from inside the original church that survived were the tomb figures of Frederick the Wise and John the Steadfast. In 1892, the church was renovated in the neo-Gothic style. The aim was to have a building presenting the main Reformers. Statues commemorating Luther and his most important allies were placed inside: Justus Jonas, Johannes Bugenhagen, Nikolaus von Amsdorf, Urbanus Rhegius, Georg Spalatin, Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Brenz, and Caspar Cruciger. On the ceiling are the seals of towns that sided with the Reformation. Of the original 198 seals, 128 are preserved. On the walls are the Reformers' coats of arms. The pulpit features the four Gospel writers, plus additional coats of arms of cities that played a major role in Luther's life: Eisleben, Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Worms.

The balcony displays fifty-two coats of arms of the noblemen who dealt with Luther during the first half of the 16 century. This rich collection illustrates the intention of Crown Prince Frederick William III (who later became Emperor Frederick III), to embellish the Castle Church as a "sanctuary for all of Protestant Christianity." The only features of the Renaissance-era castle structure itself that remain today are the magnificent stairwells. They lead nowhere, because the original building had three stories, but a fourth was added when the church was transformed into a Prussian fortress.

The focal point of Luther's life was the former Augustinian Monastery. Referring to the black cowls its resident monks wore, it was also known as the Black Abbey. It was located near the Elster Gate, south of the city wall, where the Holy Ghost Hospital (Heilig-Geist-Spital) had originally been.

Johann von Staupitz founded the monastery in 1502, but was not able to complete it to include a church and cloistered courtyard as originally planned. He had, however, a monastic house constructed, with lecture halls for the university on the second floor and accommodations for forty monks on the third floor. At any given time, fifteen to twenty monks from out of town lived here while attending the university.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berlinica Publishing LLC; First Edition (November 30, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 193590244X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935902447
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• #476 in German Travel Guides
• #4,334 in German History (Books)
• #5,043 in Tourist Destinations & Museums Guides

About the author

Cornelia dömer.

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Linda Dono and Sheeka Sanahori,

Martin Luther King Jr., especially as an adult, was not a person who stayed in one place too long.

As an Atlanta teenager and student at historically Black Morehouse College, he spent two summers working in tobacco fields near Simsbury, Connecticut — his first taste of a life without Jim Crow laws. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse, he moved to Upland, Pennsylvania, for his bachelor of divinity degree and earned his doctorate at Boston University.

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The success of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, which King helped lead, propelled the Baptist minister throughout the United States and to at least 20 countries around the world in his quest to end racial discrimination.

King’s admirers have many opportunities to follow the civil rights leader’s journeys. Here are 11 spots where you can start your trek.

Site:   Ebenezer Baptist Church

Location:  407 Auburn Ave. N.E. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are buried behind the King Center on the same block; a block farther east is the home where he was born, which is closed for renovation.

Then:  On May 3, 1936, King was baptized after the church’s two-week annual revival. He was ordained there Feb. 25, 1948, upon the recommendation of his father, and served as associate pastor.

On Feb. 7, 1960, after more than five years at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, he returned to Ebenezer as co-pastor with his father so he could be closer to the Atlanta headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which he cofounded. He remained co-pastor until he was killed.

Now:  The original Ebenezer Baptist Church building is part of the 38-acre Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. The National Park Service completed a two-part, 10-year restoration of the church in 2011.

In 1999, the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church constructed a building across the street. The church has more than 6,000 members.

2. Dublin, Georgia

Site:   First African Baptist Church

Location:  405 Telfair St. A small city of about 16,000 residents, Dublin is about halfway between Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.

Then:  On April 17, 1944, at the Colored Elks Clubs of Georgia state convention, King, then 15, gave his first public speech, titled  “The Negro and the Constitution.”  He participated in an oratorical essay contest that the Elks sponsored — and he won.

On the bus trip back home that night, the driver ordered the teen and his female teacher to give up their seats to white passengers. “So we stood up in the aisle for the 90 miles to Atlanta,” he told Alex Haley in a 1965  Playboy  interview. “That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.”

Now:  The church, which was founded in 1867 and is the oldest Black church in Dublin, has services at 10:45 a.m. each Sunday. Each year on the second Sunday of April, the church and community sponsor a speech contest in the tradition of the Elks’ competition.

Across the street from the church is the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Monument Park, where you can hear King’s first speech and see Atlanta artist Corey Barksdale’s colorful mural and  Freedom Ascension  sculpture. Both sites are part of a walking tour with more than 70 stops in Dublin.

3. Upland, Pennsylvania

Site:   Crozer Theological Seminary

Location:  1 Seminary Ave. Upland is just north of the Philadelphia suburb of Chester.

Then:  On May 8, 1951, after a three-year course of study, King graduated as class president and valedictorian with a bachelor of divinity degree from the American Baptist seminary. When he started in fall 1948, he was one of only 11 Black students at the school.

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At the seminary, King honed his belief in what he called the “social gospel,” the importance of addressing economic insecurity, joblessness and substandard housing, and was introduced to the concept of pacifism.

Now:  In 1970, the school merged with Colgate Rochester Divinity School and moved to Rochester, New York. Its original buildings, including the Old Main building that is on the National Register of Historic Places, remain part of the western section of the campus of  Crozer-Chester Medical Center . In 2019, a historical marker was erected in front of the Old Main building, which is on the west side of Seminary Avenue.

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Site:   Boston University School of Theology

Location:  745 Commonwealth Ave. The School of Theology is on Boston University’s Charles River Campus. The Mugar Memorial Library, where King’s papers are held, is adjacent to the School of Theology. On the fifth floor of the library, you’ll find the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. A reading room is on the third floor of the library.

Then:  King moved to Boston in 1951 to pursue his doctorate at Boston University’s School of Theology. In 1952, King met Coretta Scott, who was in Boston to study at the New England Conservatory of Music. They wed in 1953. While King worked on his doctorate, he helped organize the Dialectical Society, a group for African American theology students to discuss philosophical ideas and their application to the oppression of African Americans in the United States. King earned his doctorate in June 1955.

King returned to Boston in 1965 to speak to Massachusetts state legislators about housing and employment discrimination. He led a civil rights march from Roxbury to Boston Common.

Now:  The boarding house King lived in at 397 Massachusetts Ave. was where the Dialectical Society used to meet. The building has been converted into private apartments, but visitors can view a plaque on the building’s exterior.

Boston University’s School of Theology continues to hold private classes for enrolled students, as well as public community events. The King papers collection, which he donated to Boston University in 1964, preserves more than 83,000 items and is one of the largest collections held at Boston University’s archival research center. The exhibit is on the fifth floor of Mugar Memorial Library and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. In 2023, the city of Boston unveiled a bronze abstract figure called  The Embrace , modeled from a picture of King hugging his wife, which stands as a symbol of equity and justice.  The Embrace  is in 1965 Freedom Plaza, part of downtown’s Boston Common park.

5. Montgomery, Alabama

Site:   Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

Location:  454 Dexter Ave. The church is about one block west of the Alabama State Capitol.

Then:  On May 2, 1954, the church became the first and only place where King was a full-time pastor; he served there until 1959, when he left for Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta to be co-pastor with his father. From its basement, he helped start the Montgomery Improvement Association that organized the 13-month Montgomery bus boycott.

The name of the church, designated a national historic landmark in 1974, was changed in 1978 to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church to honor its 20th pastor.

Now:  The church offers parsonage tours on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours of the church are by appointment only. Virtual tours are available. Worship services are at 10:30 a.m. Sundays.

6. Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood

Site:   Blumstein department store

Location:  230 W. 125th St. The building is across the street on the same block as the famous Apollo Theater.

Then:  On Sept. 20, 1958, Izola Curry, a Black woman attending a book signing for King’s first book, stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where a team of doctors removed the 7-inch steel blade. Within a month, Curry was committed to a hospital for the criminally insane. King said the tip of the blade was so close to his main artery, “if I had sneezed, I would have died.”

Now:  In 1976, the Blumstein family sold the department store building that was built in 1923. Various retailers, including clothing, jewelry and wig stores, are at street level. King’s attacker died March 7, 2015, living until age 98 in a Queens nursing home after spending more than 50 years in various institutions.

7. Birmingham, Alabama

Site:   Birmingham City Jail

Location:  425 Sixth Ave. S. The jail is southwest of railroad tracks that limit access from downtown and west of Interstate 65 from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Then:  On April 12, 1963, King and fellow Baptist ministers Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth were arrested in Birmingham for protesting without a permit. During the eight days King was incarcerated, he wrote the correspondence that would become his “ Letter From Birmingham Jail ” in the margins of a  Birmingham News  story smuggled in to him, on scraps of paper and eventually on legal pads that his lawyers brought.

King was detained in Birmingham a second time, Oct. 30, 1967, on contempt charges for failing to obtain a city parade permit. He spent three days in the Jefferson County Jail downtown.

Now:  The building that was the Birmingham City Jail is part of the Birmingham Police Department Detention Division. The historic jail building is unused and in disrepair but does have a historical marker that was unveiled April 16, 2013.

In 2020, Jefferson County commissioners voted to preserve what remains of the old county jail on the seventh floor of the Jefferson County Courthouse at 716 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N. (The road was 21st Street North when King was jailed.)

8. Washington, D.C.

Site:   Lincoln Memorial

Location:  The monument is the westernmost memorial on the National Mall and within walking distance of the  Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial  at the Tidal Basin.

Then:  On Aug. 28, 1963, King delivered his  “I Have a Dream”  speech to more than a quarter of a million civil rights supporters during the  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . King was not the only speaker at the peaceful protest, which was organized in less than three months.

Leading the national anthem was Marian Anderson, the acclaimed singer turned away from Constitution Hall in 1939 because the Daughters of the American Revolution had restricted the venue to white performers.  Myrlie Evers , whose husband, Medgar, had been killed two months before in Mississippi, led a tribute to Negro women freedom fighters. And white leaders, including the president of the United Auto Workers union, made remarks.

Now:  In 2003 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of King’s address, engravers etched an inscription in the granite steps to mark the place where King stood to give his speech. It is 18 steps from the top landing of the Lincoln Memorial.

On Aug. 28, 2011, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was dedicated. The half-mile between memorials takes a little more than 10 minutes to walk.

9. St. Augustine, Florida

Site:   Monson Motor Lodge Restaurant

Location:  32 Avenida Menendez. It’s a block and a half north of the city’s scenic drawbridge, the Bridge of Lions, across the parking lot from the present hotel’s lobby.

Then:  On June 11, 1964, less than a month before Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, King and 17 others were arrested after demanding service at the whites-only restaurant. King announced the day before that he would go to jail to fight the discrimination.

With television cameras on as they stood on the front steps, King politely asked the restaurant’s owner, James Brock, to admit him and his party of eight. Brock refused: “I would like to invite my many friends throughout the country to come to Monson’s. We expect to remain segregated.”

As more activists protested, white men and youths hurled bricks at state troopers and broke through a police line to punch and kick several of the demonstrators, a repetition of violence that had taken place several nights previously. A week later, protesters jumped into the whites-only pool at the motel; Brock dumped two gallons of hydrochloric acid in the water in an attempt to force them out.

Several historians cite the protests — and crowd reaction — at St. Augustine for smoothing passage of the Civil Rights Act. On June 19, 1964, one day after the pool “swim-in,” the U.S. Senate passed the legislation in a 73-27 vote breaking a filibuster that had lasted 60 working days. The House approved changes made in the Senate version, and President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law July 2, 1964.

“I’m not so sure the Civil Rights Act would have been passed had [there] not been a St. Augustine,” one of the protesters, J.T. Johnson, told  StoryCorps  50 years later.

Now:  The motel and restaurant were demolished in 2003 after a local developer decided he wanted more luxe lodging than the motor hotel built in 1960. The Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront Hotel was constructed on the site, and the steps where King was arrested are preserved and marked with a plaque.

10. Oslo, Norway

Site:   The University of Oslo

Location:  Karl Johans gate 47. The University of Oslo, known locally as the University Aula, is in the city’s center.

Then:  King arrived in Oslo on Dec. 8, 1964, accompanied by his wife, members of his family and a group of SCLC staff. At a news conference, King said the trip was the first time many in his party had been to Scandinavia, and they hoped to learn from the region’s democratic socialist traditions.

King accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10, 1964, in the University of Oslo’s auditorium, where the ceremony was held annually from 1947 to 1990. In his speech, he called the award a “profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time.” King was 35 years old when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. He donated all of the $54,123 prize money to civil rights organizations, such as the Gandhi Society for Human Rights and the SCLC.

Now:  The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held in Oslo City Hall, but the University of Oslo is open to the public on the first Saturday of each month from 12-3 p.m. After the ceremony, King attended the Nobel Banquet at the Grand Hotel, which will celebrate 150 years in business in 2024. The former American Embassy in Oslo, where King and his family were hosted for dinner and a reception during their trip, has been converted into a commercial building serving the public with a restaurant, cafe and wine bar, and rooftop terrace.

11. Memphis, Tennessee

Site:   Lorraine Motel

Location:  450 Mulberry St. The location is about six blocks, close to a half-mile, south of Beale Street, birthplace of the blues.

Then:  At about 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, King was assassinated while standing outside the second-floor room of a motel that marketed itself as upscale lodging for Black clientele during the Jim Crow era. He had arrived in Memphis the day before to prepare for a march on behalf of striking city sanitation workers, giving his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to an overflowing crowd at Bishop Charles Mason Temple, a Pentecostal church at 938 Mason St.

After King was killed, the Lorraine Motel preserved Room 306 where he was staying and adjoining Room 307. The motel became single-room occupancy housing for low-income individuals before it closed for good in 1988. It was restored and opened in 1991 as the National Civil Rights Museum.

Now:  The expanded museum includes a nearby building with interactive exhibits and historic collections. The Mason Temple, which was built in 1941 and was the largest Black-owned church building at the time, serves as headquarters of the Church of God in Christ.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on Jan. 15, 2020. It has been updated to reflect new information.

Linda Dono is an executive editor for AARP. Previously, she served as a reporter and editor for USA Today , Gannett News Service and newspapers in four states, including The Cincinnati Enquirer . Sheeka Sanahori is a freelance travel journalist and the founder of “Inherited Travel,” a newsletter for travelers who want to make more socially conscious travel choices.​ ​

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Spartacus Educational

Roman malinovsky.

Roman Malinovsky, the son of Roman Catholic peasants, was born in the Plotsk Province of Russian Poland , on 18th March, 1876. He was orphaned at an early age and was in trouble with the local police for getting involved in criminal activities. His third offense being that of robbery with breaking and entry, for which he had served a prison term from 1899 to 1902. A man who once shared a cell with Malinovsky, later remarked: "Malinovsky's life was a series of crimes, his talents, his mind, and his will being used for one purpose: to sell himself at the highest possible price".

On his release from prison in 1902 Malinovsky joined the Izmailovsky Guards Regiment . After four years service he left the army and found employment as a lathe operator in a factory in St. Petersburg . He became involved in trade union activities and eventually became the full-time secretary of the Metalworkers Union. He joined the Bolsheviks and took a prominent role in organizing workers during the 1905 Revolution . However, he was now well-known to the police and in November, 1909, he was arrested and expelled from the city.

Malinovsky went to Moscow with his wife and two children but in May, 1910, he was arrested once again. It was while he was in prison he agreed to become an undercover agent for the Russian secret police. For 100 roubles a month Malinovsky supplied reports on Bolshevik members, locations of party meetings and storage places for illegal literature.

In 1911 Malinovsky began working for S. P. Beletsky the director of Okhrana . Beletsky later admitted that: "Malinovsky was given the order to do as much as possible to deepen the split in the Party. I admit that the whole purpose of my direction is summed up in this: to give no possibility of the Party's uniting. I worked on the principle of divide et impera ." Beletsky ordered Malinovsky to "attach himself as closely as possible to the Bolshevik leader (Lenin)". Beletsky later testified that, in view of this important mission, he freed his agent at this time "from the further necessity of betraying individuals or meetings (though not from reporting on them), as arrests traceable to Malinovsky might endanger his position for the more highly political task."

Malinovsky met Lenin in 1912. According to Bertram D. Wolfe : "When he met Lenin at the Prague Conference of 1912, he was thirty-four, robust, ruddy complexioned, vigorous, excitable, a heavy drinker, a rude and eloquent orator, a gifted leader of men." Lenin was impressed with Malinovsky and suggested that he should join the Bolshevik Central Committee. Lenin also advocated that Malinovsky should be a Bolshevik candidate for the Duma . Malinovsky became known as an eloquent and forceful orator. Before making his speeches he sent copies to Lenin and S. P. Beletsky .

After being elected in October, 1912, Malinovsky became the leader of the group of six Bolshevik deputies. Lenin argued: "For the first time among ours in the Duma there is an outstanding worker-leader. He will read the Declaration (the political declaration of the Social Democratic fraction on the address of the Prime Minister). This time it's not another Alexinsky. And the results - perhaps not immediately - will be great."

Malinovsky was now in a position to spy on Lenin . This included supplying Okhrana with copies of his letters. In a letter dated 18th December, 1912, S.E. Vissarionov, the Assistant Director of Okhrana, wrote to the Minister of the Interior: "The situation of the Fraction is now such that it may be possible for the six Bolsheviks to be induced to act in such a way as to split the Fraction into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Lenin supports this. See his letter (supplied by Malinovsky)".

Rumours began to circulate that Malinovsky was a spy working for Okhrana . This included an anonymous letter sent to Fedor Dan about Malinovsky's activities. Another Bolshevik leader, Nikolai Bukharin , became convinced that Malinovsky was a spy. David Shub , a member of the Mensheviks , has argued: "There was a wave of arrests among the Bolsheviks in Moscow. Among those rounded up was Nikolai Bukharin... Bukharin, then a member of the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party, had distrusted Malinovsky from the start, despite the latter's assiduous attempts to win his confidence. For Bukharin had noticed several times that when he arranged a secret rendezvous with a party comrade, Okhrana agents would be waiting to pounce on him. In each case Malinovsky had known of the appointments and the men whom Bukharin was to meet had been arrested."

Bukharin wrote to Lenin claiming that when he was hiding in Moscow he was arrested by the police just after a meeting with Malinovsky. He was convinced that Malinovsky was a spy. Lenin wrote back that if Bukharin joined in the campaign of slander against Malinovsky he would brand him publicly as a traitor. Understandably, Bukharin dropped the matter. Nadezhda Krupskaya later explained: "Vladimir Ilyich thought it utterly impossible for Malinovsky to have been an agent provocateur. These rumors came from Menshevik circles... The commission investigated all the rumors but could not obtain any definite proof of the charge." Instead of carrying out an investigation into Malinovsky, Lenin made him his deputy inside Russia.

In 1912, the wife of Alexander Troyanovsky , was arrested. As David Shub , the author of Lenin (1948) has pointed out: "In February 1913 Troyanovsky's wife, who had just returned from Austria with instructions from Lenin, was arrested in Kiev. She had been asked to become secretary to the Bolshevik group in the Duma. Important secret documents were found in her possession. Very few people had known of her arrival. Both Bukharin and Troyanovsky suspected Malinovsky's hand in her arrest. To confirm their suspicions, Troyanovsky sent a registered letter to his wife's father, telling him he knew who had betrayed his wife to the police and that he was determined to square accounts with the informer. The letter brought the results Troyanovsky expected. His wife was immediately released." S. P. Beletsky later testified that when he showed this letter to Malinovsky he "became hysterical" and demanded that she was released. In order that he remained as a spy Beletsky agreed to do this.

Shub argues: "Convinced now that his wife's arrest was the work of an agent provocateur, Troyanovsky investigated the details of her trip to Russia, whom she met there - as well as the circumstances of her arrest and release. All the evidence pointed strongly to Malinovsky." After discussing the matter with Nikolai Bukharin , both men wrote to the Central Committee demanding that Malinovsky appear before a Party court. Lenin, speaking for the Central Committee, forbade them to spread these rumours about Malinovsky. Lenin called their action worse than treason, and threatened to have them expelled from the Bolsheviks if they persisted. Bukharin obeyed, but Troyanovsky decided to resign from the party.

According to Bertram D. Wolfe in 1913: "He (Malinovsky) was entrusted with setting up a secret printing plant inside Russia, which naturally did not remain secret for long. Together with Yakovlev he helped start a Bolshevik paper in Moscow. It, too, ended promptly with the arrest of the editor. Inside Russia, the popular Duma Deputy traveled to all centers. Arrests took place sufficiently later to avert suspicion from him... The police raised his wage from five hundred to six hundred, and then to seven hundred rubles a month."

In June 1914 Lenin published an article in Prosveshchenie , where he continued to attack people like Jules Martov and Fedor Dan who continued to denounce Malinovsky as a spy: "We do not believe one single word of Dan and Martov.... We don't trust Martov and Dan. We do not regard them as honest citizens. We will deal with them only as common criminals - only so, and not otherwise... If a man says, make political concessions to me, recognize me as an equal comrade of the Marxist community or I will set up a howl about rumors of the provocateur activity of Malinovsky, that is political blackmail. Against blackmail we are always and unconditionally for the bourgeois legality of the bourgeois court... Either you make a public accusation signed with your signature so that the bourgeois court can expose and punish you (there are no other means of fighting blackmail), or you remain as people branded... as slanderers by the workers."

On the outbreak of the First World War Malinovsky resigned from the Duma and against the orders of the Bolsheviks he joined the Russian Army . He was wounded and captured by the German Army in 1915 and spent the rest of the conflict in a prisoner of war camp. Surprisingly, in December 1916, the Bolshevik newspaper, Sotsial Demokrat , reported that Malinovsky had been "fully rehabilitated" for his past crime of "desertion of his post".

On 2nd November, Malinovsky crossed the Russian border and turned up in Petrograd . He visited the Smolny Institute , the Bolshevik headquarters, on three days running, demanding to be taken to see Lenin. On the third day, Gregory Zinoviev saw him and ordered his arrest. He was taken to Moscow for trial and Nikolai Krylenko was appointed as prosecutor.

Malinovsky told Vladimir Burtsev : "When the Revolution triumphed in Germany and Russia and the possibility of participating prominently in political activities was lost to him forever, he decided to go back and die, rather than to flee into the obscurity of an Argentina or a similar place of refuge. Of course, he could have committed suicide, but he preferred to die in the view of everybody, and had no fear of death."

At his trial that took place in secret Malinovsky admitted he had been a spy being paid 6,600 rubles by the Okhrana . He argued: "If I refused to accept the money the Okhrana would have suspected me of playing a double game. I had to show that I was faithful." The judge replied: "But you had already proved that by delivering our best comrades to the police." Malinovsky also told the court he had made a full confession to Lenin in 1914.

Malinovsky used his full oratorical talents in a six-hour defence speech. It ended with the words: "I am not asking for mercy! I know what is in store for me. I deserve it." David Shub , the author of Lenin (1948) has pointed out: "Lenin sat facing Malinovsky, his head bent over a desk while he wrote on a pad. It was obvious, according to Olga Anikst, a Bolshevik witness; that Lenin was undergoing an emotional conflict. He remained in the same position for hours. When the defence counsel said that if Malinovsky had had friends to guide him he would never have become a spy, Lenin stirred, looked up at Malinovsky, and nodded his head many times. When the verdict of death by shooting was read, Malinovsky began to tremble and his face was distorted by fear. He had obviously expected Lenin's intercession. It is possible that before appearing he had been promised clemency. Lenin himself was undecided. A delegation of Petrograd Bolshevik workers attending the trial demanded to be allowed to witness the execution, apparently fearing that Lenin might commute the sentence of the agent provocateur who once enjoyed his full confidence."

Roman Malinovsky was executed that night. The historian, Bertram D. Wolfe , has asked the following questions: "How much did Lenin know of Malinovsky's past? Why did Lenin exonerate Malinovsky in 1914, against the evidence and against the world? Why did he rehabilitate him in 1916? Why did Malinovsky return to Russia when Lenin was in power? Did he count on Lenin? Why did Lenin then not lift a finger to save him?"

Si Liberman has argued: "Malinovsky's life was a series of crimes, his talents, his mind, and his will being used for one purpose: to sell himselfatthe highest possible price where he could do the most possible harm to the liberation of the working class. He will go down in history as one of its greatest traitors."

Primary Sources

(1) david shub , lenin (1948).

Alexander Troyanovsky, later became Soviet Ambassador to the United States. In February 1913 Troyanovsky's wife, who had just returned from Austria with instructions from Lenin, was arrested in Kiev. She had been asked to become secretary to the Bolshevik group in the Duma. Important secret documents were found in her possession. Very few people had known of her arrival. Both Bukharin and Troyanovsky suspected Malinovsky's hand in her arrest. To confirm their suspicions, Troyanovsky sent a registered letter to his wife's father, telling him he knew who had betrayed his wife to the police and that he was determined to square accounts with the informer. The letter brought the results Troyanovsky expected. His wife was immediately released. Convinced now that his wife's arrest was the work of an agent provocateur, Troyanovsky investigated the details of her trip to Russia, whom she met there - as well as the circumstances of her arrest and release. All the evidence pointed strongly to Malinovsky. After discussing the matter with Bukharin, both wrote to the Central Committee demanding that Malinovsky appear before a Party court. In reply, they received a severe rebuke from Lenin, who, speaking for the Central Committee, forbade them to spread these rumours about Malinovsky. Lenin called their action worse than treason, and threatened to have them expelled from the Party if they persisted. Bukharin obeyed, but Troyanovsky soon parted company with Lenin and did not rejoin the Bolsheviks until 1921. But fresh evidence against Malinovsky continued to accumulate. Late in the summer of 1913 Sverdlov, an active Bolshevik Party worker, fled from Siberia to St Petersburg, and hid in the apartment of Badayev, a Bolshevik deputy to the Duma. A few days later the janitor asked Badayev whether he was harbouring a man answering to Sverdlov's description. Badayev denied having any stranger in his apartment, but he realized that Sverdlov was no longer safe with him. After consulting Malinovsky, he decided to move Sverdlov elsewhere. Sverdlov was to stand at the window while Badayev and Malinovsky kept a look-out for spies. If the road was clear, they were both to light cigarettes as a signal for Sverdlov to come out. When Sverdlov saw the signal, he went into the street. The two men helped him over a fence, where a cab was waiting to take him to Malinovsky's flat. From there he was taken to the home of Petrovsky, another Bolshevik member of the Duma. That very night he was arrested and sent back to Siberia. And still no action was taken to investigate Malinovsky.

(2) Bertram D. Wolfe , Strange Communists I Have Known (1966)

In 1917, when the Tsar fell and the Provisional Government opened up the police archives, they found proof that Zhitomirsky had been a spy during all the years he enjoyed Lenin's confidence. This, of course, was no surprise to Burtsev. But what did startle him was the realization that Malinovsky (whom he did not even begin to suspect until the end of 1916) had come to him that day on a double mission, charged simultaneously by Vladimir Ilyich and by the director of the Russian Police, S. P. Beletsky, with the task of finding out which spies Burtsev knew of in the Bolshevik faction, and from what government personages he derived his tips concerning these most jealously guarded secrets of the police. How deep must Malinovsky's personal interest have been in learning Burtsev's secret, and knowing what revelations or whose turn was coming next! Before we go on with our story, we must note a version, less flattering to Burtsev, of his interview with Malinovsky. The account we have just given is Burtsev's own, but from the well-informed Boris Nikolaevsky, biographer of Azev, who had many interviews with Burtsev, I got an account less favorable to the famous counter-espionage specialist. According to Nikolaevsky, Burtsev did not come to suspect Zhitomirsky as a result of his own investigations, but merely received a tip, couched in general terms, that someone very close to Lenin was a police agent. The tip came from Syrkin, a liberal official high in the Tsar's secret police, who offered to give details to someone whom he could trust. Thereupon, Burtsev wrote to Lenin asking him to come himself or send a man of absolute confidence, to whom he would divulge an important secret. When Lenin sent Roman Malinovsky, Burtsev confided to him that Syrkin of the Moscow Okhrana would give him the name of a police spy close to Lenin. Malinovsky took no chances. Instead of going to Syrkin, he reported the latter's offer to the chief of the Moscow Okhrana. Syrkin was dismissed from his post and exiled to Siberia.

(3) Testimony of S. P. Beletsky (1919)

Malinovsky was given the order to do as much as possible to deepen the split in the Party. I admit that the whole purpose of my direction is summed up in this: to give no possibility of the Party's uniting. I worked on the principle of divide et impera .

(4) Nadezhda Krupskaya , Reminisces on Lenin (1926)

Vladimir Ilyich thought it utterly impossible for Malinovsky to have been an agent provocateur. These rumors came from Menshevik circles... The commission investigated all the rumors but could not obtain any definite proof of the charge... Only once did a doubt flash across his mind. I remember one day in Poronino, we were returning from the Zinovievs and talking about these rumors. All of a sudden Ilyich stopped on the little bridge we were crossing and said: "It may be true!" and his face expressed anxiety. "What are you talking about, it's nonsense," I answered deprecatingly. Ilyich calmed down and began to abuse the Mensheviks, saying that they were unscrupulous as to the means they employed in the struggle against the Bolsheviks. He had no further doubts on the question.

(5) Lenin , The Methods of Struggle of Bourgeois Intellectuals Against the Workers (June 1914)

We do not believe one single word of Dan and Martov. We will never enter into any "investigation" of dark rumors in which the Liquidators and the grouplets which support them may take part ... If Martov and Dan, plus their concealers, the Bundists, Chkheidze and Co., the "August Bloc People," etc., directly or indirectly invite us to a common "investigation," we answer them: we don't trust Martov and Dan. We do not regard them as honest citizens. We will deal with them only as common criminals - only so, and not otherwise... If a man says, make political concessions to me, recognize me as an equal comrade of the Marxist community or I will set up a howl about rumors of the provocateur activity of Malinovsky, that is political blackmail. Against blackmail we are always and unconditionally for the bourgeois legality of the bourgeois court... Either you make a public accusation signed with your signature so that the bourgeois court can expose and punish you (there are no other means of fighting blackmail), or you remain as people branded... as slanderers by the workers.

(6) Bertram D. Wolfe , Strange Communists I Have Known (1966)

Five times he was arrested by the police for his activities, either because they had no inkling of his role, or because he was at a meeting which he himself had betrayed, where everybody had to be taken in. His early reappearance on the scene after each arrest was so managed as not to excite suspicion. A typical arrest was that of late November, 1909. He had tipped off a secret caucus of the labor delegates to an impending anti-alcoholic congress and was present when it was raided. Released in January, 1910, he was exiled from Saint Petersburg to avert suspicion from him. This ended his secretaryship of the Petersburg union, but he immediately turned up in Moscow in the spring of 1910, where he was welcomed by the entire labor movement and was able to report to the police on every phase of it. On the rolls of the Moscow Okhrana he appears as of March, 1910, no longer as a "piece worker," but with the regular salary of fifty rubles a month, plus expenses. In addition, of course, to his wages as a metal turner... Malinovsky was now instructed to take the earliest possible opportunity to come out as a Bolshevik and to attach himself as closely as possible to the Bolshevik leader. Police Director Beletsky testified that, in view of this important mission, he freed his agent at this time from the further necessity of betraying individuals or meetings (though not from reporting on them), as arrests traceable to Malinovsky might endanger his position for the more highly political task. It was the easier for the police to make this exemption since they had by now advanced their men to a number of key posts in the Bolshevik underground, including the headship of the Moscow organization itself, which had just been taken over by agent Kukushkin, aided by the spies Romanov, Poskrebuchin and Marakushev. The agents ascended quickly in the Party hierarchy by the simple expedient of arranging the arrest of incumbents, persons who suspected them, and others who stood in their way.

(7) A. Y. Badayev was a Bolshevik deputy in the Duma . He wrote about the Roman Malinovsky case in his book, The Bolsheviks in the Tsarist Duma (1929)

Malinovsky's life was a series of crimes, his talents, his mind, and his will being used for one purpose: to sell himself at the highest possible price where he could do the most possible harm to the liberation of the working class. He will go down in history as one of its greatest traitors.

(8) Lenin , Vestnik Vremmenago Pravitelstva (16th June, 1917)

I did not believe in provocateurship here, and for the following reason: If Malinovsky were a provocateur, the Okhrana would not gain from that as much as our Party did from Pravda and the whole legal apparatus. It is clear that by bringing a provocateur into the Duma and eliminating for that purpose all the competitors of bolshevism, etc., the Okhrana was guided by a gross conception of bolshevism, I should say rather a crude, homemade caricature. They imagined that the Bolsheviks would arrange an armed insurrection. In order to keep all the threads of this coming insurrection in their hands, they thought it worth while to have recourse to all sorts of things to bring Malinovsky into the Duma and the Central Committee. But when the Okhrana succeeded in both these matters, what happened? It happened that Malinovsky was transformed into one of the links of the long and solid chain connecting our illegal base with the two chief legal organs by which our Party influenced the masses: Pravada and the Duma Fraction. The agent provocateur had to serve both these organs in order to justify his vocation. Both these organs were under our immediate guidance. Zinoviev and I wrote daily to Pravda and its policy was entirely determined by the resolution of the Party. Our influence over forty to sixty thousand workers was thus secured.

(9) During his trial Roman Malinovsky attempted to explain why he spied on the Bolsheviks .

Judge: Why did you accept the 6,000 rubles compensation? You were evidently more interested in the money than in your so-called tragedy. Malinovsky: If I refused to accept the money the Okhrana would have suspected me of playing a double game. I had to show that I was faithful. Judge: But you had already proved that by delivering our best comrades to the police.

(10) Si Liberman , Events and Men (1944)

Malinovsky's life was a series of crimes, his talents, his mind, and his will being used for one purpose: to sell himselfatthe highest possible price where he could do the most possible harm to the liberation of the working class. He will go down in history as one of its greatest traitors.

(10) David Shub , Lenin (1948)

Lenin sat facing Malinovsky, his head bent over a desk while he wrote on a pad. It was obvious, according to Olga Anikst, a Bolshevik witness; that Lenin was undergoing an emotional conflict. He remained in the same position for hours. When the defence counsel said that if Malinovsky had had friends to guide him he would never have become a spy, Lenin stirred, looked up at Malinovsky, and nodded his head many times. When the verdict of death by shooting was read, Malinovsky began to tremble and his face was distorted by fear. He had obviously expected Lenin's intercession. It is possible that before appearing he had been promised clemency. Lenin himself was undecided. A delegation of Petrograd Bolshevik workers attending the trial demanded to be allowed to witness the execution, apparently fearing that Lenin might commute the sentence of the agent provocateur who once enjoyed his full confidence. The next day Izvestia reported that Malinovsky had been shot. The minutes of the trial were never published.

(11) Bertram D. Wolfe , Strange Communists I Have Known (1966)

The last act in this strange drama of Roman Malinovsky occurred in November, 1918, when Lenin had been in power for a full year. On November 2, reckless adventurer to the end, Malinovsky crossed the Russian border and turned up in Petrograd. For three successive days he visited the Smolny Institute (Bolshevik headquarters), demanding either to be arrested or taken to see Lenin. On the third day, Zinoviev saw him and ordered his arrest. He was taken to Moscow for trial. The Bolshevik Krylenko, who was later to conduct many prosecutions until he himself disappeared in a purge, was appointed as prosecutor. He knew the defendant well since he too had reason to believe that one of his arrests by the tsarist police was Malinovsky's work. The trial was swift and secret. But the workers' organizations of Moscow sent deputations to attend, for they feared that Lenin might exonerate their ex-Deputy once more. Accounts of the trial are confused and sometimes deliberately confusing. But from Bolshevik memoirs, and the writings of Burtsev, we are able to reconstruct some scenes of this last act. A trick of fate put Burtsev in jail in the same cell as ex-Police Chief Beletsky, when the latter was testifying at Malinovsky's trial. Another important source was Malinovsky's old colleague, the Bolshevik Duma Deputy, Badaev. Where Badaev and Burtsev agree, we are likely to be on firm ground. Malinovsky's bearing at the trial was proud and challenging. He demanded that Lenin be summoned as a witness. According to some accounts, this was refused. But the Bolshevik Olga Anikst, in a memoir in Vol. IV of the series "About Lenin" published by the official Gosizdat (Moscow, 1925, page 93), tells how she watched Lenin closely during the trial. All through it his head remained bowed, and he took notes. But when the defense counsel in his summary said that if Malinovsky had had friends to guide him properly, he would never have become a spy, Lenin looked up at Malinovsky and emphatically nodded his head. If so, it was his only testimony. Malinovsky asserted that Lenin must have known of his role after his resignation from the Duma. He had further tried to tell Lenin that his past was "filled with abominations," but Lenin had refused to listen, saying that for Bolsheviks these personal misdeeds of his youth had no meaning. Did not Lenin know that the police had a hold on him? Still Lenin had permitted him to rehabilitate himself in a German prison camp, and the Bolshevik organ, Sotsial Demokrat , in December, 1916, declared that he had been "fully rehabilitated." "The best period of my life was the two and one-half years which I devoted to propaganda among the Russian prisoners in Germany. I did a great deal during that time for the spread of the ideas of Bolshevism." And Badaev writes: "He alleged that he was forced to become an agent provocateur because he was already completely in the hands of the police. He represented his career as a long martyrdom, accompanied by suffering and remorse from which he could not escape... He tried to prove that he left the Duma of his own free will because of personal unhappiness, and that he obtained permission from the police to quit politics... He adopted a pose of sincere repentance while admitting the gravity of his crimes." How much did Lenin know of Malinovsky's past? How well did he understand what manner of man he was using in the German prison camps, in disregard of the accusations of the Mensheviks, of Bukharin and Rozmirovich, and the scandal of his resignation from the Duma? Why did Lenin exonerate Malinovsky in 1914, against the evidence and against the world? Why did he rehabilitate him in 1916? Why did Malinovsky return to Russia when Lenin was in power? Did he count on Lenin? Why did Lenin then not lift a finger to save him? Malinovsky's closing words at the trial, according to Badaev, were a profession of sincere repentance and devotion to the Revolution, a reminder that he had returned voluntarily to Bolshevik Russia... The verdict was "death." Malinovsky was shot that same night, shortly after the trial ended, at 2 o'clock in the morning. Was there a special reason for the speed?

Russian Revolution

Latah County Human Rights Task Force

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Our 2023 Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast on January 21st was a great success with an excellent presentation by Dr. Scott Finnie. A video of the Breakfast, including the Rosa Parks Awards and Dr. Finnie’s speech is now available here: 2023 Breakfast and Friends of Human Rights .

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