Eisleben owes its prosperity in the late Middle Ages to the copper mining. The Mansfeld copper area gained national importance on the European market.
Eisleben owes its prosperity in the late Middle Ages to the copper mining. The Mansfeld copper area gained national importance on the European market.
The wealth of this period is still reflected today in the structure and the main monuments of the town. Hans and Margarethe Luder from Mohra, Thuringia, were also attracted by the “Call of the Miners”. On 10 November 1483, Margarethe Luder gave birth to a son and the next day he was baptized, St. Martin of Tours, in the St. Petri and Pauli Church, which is only a few steps away from his birth house. Luther’s life ended in his home town on 18 February 1546. For centuries, the inhabitants of Eisleben have treasured Luther’s birth house and the memory of his death in their town. Between 2005 and 2007, the birth house and the former Armenfreischule (school for Paupers), were fully restored and completed by a visitor information centre as well as an exhibition building, which has received numerous architectural awards. The permanent exhibition is titled “Von daher bin ich (So I am)”- Martin Luther and Eisleben. The museum “Luther’s Death House” will be fundamentally refurbished and structurally expanded by the end of 2012. A new permanent exhibition, which takes up the enactment of historicism again, will be concerned with Luther’s death and dying: Luther’s death in Eisleben as an event, the reason of his death in the culture of the late Middle Ages, Luther’s dealing with death as a mourner, comforter and theologian and his afterlife in the Protestant culture of death. Martin Luther spent his childhood in Mansfeld. However, this Lutherort in the Harz leads so far a rather shadowy existence. In the next few years will find the parents a greater attention. The house is being renovated and extended to 2013 by a new building