Martin Luther's Death House 2.01

Martin Luther's Death House is the historic building in Eisleben, Germany, where it was incorrectly thought that Martin Luther died on 18 February 1546. Since then it has become a museum and a UNESCO world heritage site. The city of Eisleben, located in Saxony-Anhalt, is also where Martin Luther was born and baptised; his birth house is also a UNESCO world heritage site and museum.HistoryLuther travelled on 23 January 1546 from Halle to Eisleben on a mission to solve an inheritance dispute in the House of Mansfeld. This mediation was protracted and in the meantime Luther was tormented by cramps in his chest. Luther anticipated his death many days beforehand because he was increasingly suffering many heart attacks. By 17 February 1546 the inheritance dispute had finally been resolved and at dinner that day Luther commented he would finally lie down to sleep in his coffin and allow the worms to have a good meal. The pain in his chest continued to worsen and many medications were tried on him, but to no avail. In his last hours more than twenty people were with him, including his son Paul Luther. The theologian Justus Jonas documented his death. Luther recited prayers, begged the Lord to take his soul and then his senses faded. On 18 February 1546, Luther died at the age of 62 years. The reason for his death is assumed to be a cardiac infarct.The question of how Martin Luther died became essential to the fate of the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic church preached that the manner of death attests the life and that the devil uses the last moments of life as his last chance to tempt the individual. Immediately after Luther's death, Catholic pamphlets spread rapidly, alleging that Luther had drunk himself to death with alcohol or hanged himself. The site of Luther's last rest became a place of worship for the faithful of the Protestant religion and they went on pilgrimages to the house until this was banned in 1707.