The Wartburg was founded in 1067 by a Frankish Count called Ludwig der Springer (Louis the Leaper). The Wartburg is in Thüringen, but Ludwig's possessions were in Franken. No problem. Ludwig had 12 of his knights bring some dirt with them, and they scattered the dirt on the present site of the Wartburg. When confronted by the real owners (the Lords of Frankenstein), Ludwig said truthfully that he built his castle on his own soil.
Ludwig's grandson, Ludwig II the Iron, who appears in one of Thuringia's best-known sagas, "The Blacksmith of Ruhla". (The smith advises Ludwig on how to rule saying, "Be hard, as hard as this iron". Ludwig was, and the enemies he made caused him to wear a suit of iron.) Ludwig became the Landgraf (a count who who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor) in 1140 at the age of 12, and eventually expanded the Wartburg considerably. He built the first stone structures of the castle.
Ludwig III was the eldest son of Ludwig the Iron, and he built the neoclassical palace, which is one of the best examples of secular Romanesque architecture north of the Alps. It includes the cross-vaulted Knights' Hall, the Singer's Hall
Hermann I was the third son of Ludwig the Iron, and he became Count when his oldest brother died. He married the half-sister of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. He had the third floor added to the palace, and made it into a single large hall. This hall became the inspiration for the Meistersinger's Hall in Neuschwanstein when Ludwig II, the king of Bavaria, visited the Wartburg. Hermann was fond of Minnesingers (troubadours), and was a patron of Wolfram von Eschenbach (who wrote one of the most inspiring epics of the Middle Ages: Parzival), Walter von der Vogelweide (Unter der linden), Albrecht von Halberstadt (who produced a German version of Ovid's Metamorphosiis), Heinrich von Veldeke (who wrote the Eneide). These Minnesingers praised the eight nobel virtues: minne (adoration of a woman through service), êhe (honorable lifestyle and social acknowledgement), âventiure (trial by combat) ), mâze( reason and tamed instinct), zuht (self discipline), staete (fidelity), fröude (good cheer), hôher muot (spirit). The most famous legend of Mideaval Thuringia concerns the Sängerkrieg (Battle of the Bards) between the six best Minnesinger of the day. All except one, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, praised good princes and especially to Hermann. Ofterdingen praised the Duke of Austria, and caused a heated argument. They all decided that the loser should have his head chopped off. The five ganged up on Ofterdingen, until Ofterdingen cried "Oh, I summon thee hither, Klingsor of Hungary! Though thou be across the seas!" And then Ofterdingen fled to the feet of the Duchess, and took refuge in the folds of her cloak. The Duchess called for a year's cooling-off time, and Klingsor would be brought to the Wartburg to be the judge of the Sängerkriieg. Ofterdingen went to Hungary and explained the situation. He stayed with Klingsor for a year, until the night before the Sängerkrieg. Ofterdingen was impatient and worried. But Klingsor was a wizard, and he put Ofterdingen under a deep sleep, then he instructed his spirits, led by the Hound of Hell, to transport him and Ofterdingen to Eisenach, where the Wizard predicted the birth of a baby girl (Elisabeth) to the King of Hungary. The next day the contest was held, and Ofterdingen proclaimed his patron to the sun, while the other Minnesinger compared Hermann to the day, which the sun merely follows. Klingsor proclaimed that if the sun didn't light the earth, then there would be no day. So the contest was declared a tie, and no one was executed.
The Singer's Hall is painted with frescoes of the Battle, along with a copy of a medieval book that tells about 137 Minnesingers, including those in the Battle of the Bards.
The birth of Elisabeth (mentioned in the Sängerkrieg legend) is a historical fact. Hermann had Elisabeth brought to the Wartburg when she was four years old, and Elisabeth was betrothed to Hermann's son. Hermann's son died just before taking over for his father, and so a different son, Ludwig IV, married Elisabeth four years later when she was 14 and he was 20. The Duchess is known for her charity, and she had a hospice opened at the bottom of the hill below the Wartburg. Her charity wasn't appreciated by the Duke, however, and the Duchess had to smuggle bread out of the Wartburg to feed the poor. One day she was confronted by her husband, and was forced to reveal was she was hiding. Whe she opened her robes, the bread turned into roses. Elisabeth died a few years later at the age of 24, and was sainted 4 years after that.
Elisabeth's room in the Wartburg was covered in mosaics in 1902 with scenes of her life.
A couple of centuries afer Elisabeth lived in the Wartburg, Martin Luther came for a stay. In 1517 Dr. Luther pinned his 95 Theses attacking the sale of pardons on the church door in Wittenburg, where he held the Biblical Chair at the University. Pope Leo IX brought Luther to Rome, and then to the Papal Legate in Augsburg in 1518. Luther demanded that a Council be summoned, and people started taking sides. Luther wrote a manifesto called "To the Christian Nobles of the German Nation on the Improvement of the Christian Estate." in 1520. The Pope threatened to excommunicate Luther if he didn't recant, which Luther wouldn't do, so he was excommunicated in 1521. Those of his secular supporters who had influence, including his Prince Elector (Philip the Wise), managed to obtain a hearing for Luther at the Diet of Worms. The hearing lasted several days before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, issued the Edict of Worms making Luther and his supporters heretics. The separation of Church and State didn't exist in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Edict meant that Luther had no rights, so anyone could to anything they wanted to Luther, including killing him, without penalty. So Luther needed a hiding place. On April 26, 1521, he left Worms for Wittenburg, and on May 1 he arrived in Eisenach. He was so popular that he preached on the following day. Then, on his way to Wittenburg on May 4, he was kidnapped from his cart and taken to the Wartburg. When he arrived, he learned that the ringleader was the castle commander, and so Luther let himself be taken into protective custody, not being allowed to leave the Bailiff's house. He grew his beard and wore the clothes of a squire (Junker), after which he became known as Junker Jörg. He spent his time reading the original (Greek and Hebrew) texts of the bible in order to avoid the alterations in the Latin translations, and he translated the originals into German so that average people could read it. This was also heresy, because the only official accepted version of the Bible was the Latin version, it was not permitted to read the bible unless you were a priest. Along the way, Luther created a type of German that could be read regardless of which dialect you spoke. This would end up having a big effect on the High German spoken today. (Goethe claimed three centuries later that it was through Luther that the Germans became a Nation.) Luther left the Wartburg with a completed translation on March 1, 1522.
One of Luther's early bibles is on display in the Wartburg Museum. You can also see the room where he stayed, and the desk where he worked on his translation. Above the desk is a portrait of Luther in his disguise as Junker Jörg. Next to the desk is a ceramic oven used to heat the room. The wall behind the oven was not plastered, and in the wood and stones of the wall it is said that Luther saw the devil. (According to legend, everyone who comes to understand the bible sees the devil on the momentous occasion.) Luther supposedly threw an ink pot at the devil, and ink spattered on the wall. The ink renews itself, and can still be seen today, though I had to use a lot of imagination to see it.
