Wittenberg

Wittenberg, a town of Prussian Saxony, till 1873 a fortress of the third rank, on the Elbe (here 800 feet wide), 59 miles SW. of Berlin. It is interesting as having been the capital of the electorate of Upper Saxony, as the cradle of the Reformation, and as containing the graves of Luther and Melanchthon. The famous university (1502), where Luther was professor and Hamlet studied, is now removed, and since 1815 incorporated with that of Halle. In the Stadt-Kirche are two remarkable pictures by Cranach, in which Melanchthon is represented as administering the sacrament of baptism, and Luther as preaching to a congregation of which the two foremost figures are his wife and son. In the Schloss-Kirche (1499) are the tombs of Luther and Melanchthon, as well as those of Frederick the Wise (with a noble bronze statue by Vischer) and John the Steadfast, electors of Saxony. Luther nailed his theses to its wooden door, which, burned by the Austrian besiegers in 1760 during the Seven Years' War, was in 1858 replaced by one of bronze bearing the Latin text of those theses. The Schloss-Kirche was restored and reopened by the German emperor on 31st October 1892—the occasion of a great Luther celebration. The Augustinian monastery, with Luther's cell, was converted in 1817 into a theological seminary; and the house of the great Reformer, containing his chair, table, &c., and two portraits of him by Cranach, remains almost unaltered. The houses of Melanchthon and Cranach are also shown. In the market-place is Schadow's bronze statue of Luther (1822), not far from which is Drake's of Melanchthon (1863), and outside the Elster Gate an oak marks the spot where Luther burned the papal bull. The fortifications were repaired by Napoleon in 1813 and occupied by the French; but it was besieged by the Prussians, and stormed by them 13th January 1814. It became permanently Prussian with the rest of Prussian Saxony in 1815. Manufactures are carried on of woollen and linen goods, hosiery, leather, brandy, and beer. Pop. 13,856. See works by Meyner (1845) and Schild (1883).