Overview
The Reformation in Germany was shaped by a unique combination of political fragmentation, local independence, humanist scholarship, emerging print technology, and the personal crisis and charisma of Martin Luther. Although Luther himself did not intend to split the Church, the movement he initiated rapidly reshaped Europe’s religious, political and social landscape. Understanding Luther’s personality, the German states under Charles V, and the response of both elites and peasants is key to understanding the Reformation as a whole.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1453–1546) was in many ways a medieval figure. A farmer’s son from one of the most underdeveloped areas of Germany, he never entirely shook off his peasant mentality. His decision to enter monastic life stemmed from a terror-stricken vow to Saint Anne during a thunderstorm. At the same time, he lived at the transition between the medieval and modern worlds, exposed both to humanist scholarship (figures like Erasmus) and northern mysticism. His lifetime overlaps with enormous intellectual change occurring in Italy, France and England. Historians often argue that, had Luther not existed, someone else would have eventually triggered the same chain reaction.
Luther became a model monk and quickly rose in the Augustinian order. In 1511, at the age of 58, he became professor of philosophy at the new University of Wittenberg. During this period he struggled with bouts of what he himself described as despair and madness, tormented by a sense of personal unworthiness before God. Paintings from this period show a tortured, intense expression. From 1513 to 1518 he lectured on the Psalms and Epistles in their original languages. This immersion in Scripture eventually brought him personal peace — and helped form his revolutionary ideas.
From the Pauline phrase “the righteous shall live by faith,” Luther concluded that salvation came through faith alone. Humans could not earn salvation; good works contributed nothing except as a grateful response to God’s grace. Medieval practices of penance, fear of divine wrath, and spiritual anxiety were, in his view, misunderstandings of Scripture. Repentance, as the New Testament demanded it, meant a turning of heart and mind — not the performance of penitential acts.
This conviction led Luther to condemn indulgences. In 1517 he reacted strongly to the indulgence campaign authorized for Prince Albert of Brandenburg, who had taken large loans from the banking house of Fugger to secure his appointments as Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz. To repay his debts, Albert authorized the selling of Pope Leo X’s indulgence supporting the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with proceeds split between Rome and Albert’s creditors. Outraged, Luther drafted his 95 Theses and posted them on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
The ideas spread with unprecedented speed thanks to the newly developed printing press. Luther’s theses and subsequent pamphlets became best-sellers across German-speaking lands. By 1521, roughly a third of a million copies of his works were in circulation.
Luther initially did not intend to create a schism. He believed he was reforming the Church he loved. But his message — that no one could impose laws on a Christian conscience — had profound political implications in a fragmented empire where many princes resented papal and imperial interference.
The Break with Rome
In 1520 Luther was excommunicated after publicly burning the papal bull demanding his recantation. As a citizen of the Holy Roman Empire, he was entitled to a hearing before an Imperial Diet, which was scheduled for Worms in 1521. In the interim, Luther broadened his attack: he denounced papal authority, the privileged status of priests as intermediaries, and the doctrine of transubstantiation.
At the Diet of Worms, presided over by the newly elected Emperor Charles V, Luther’s writings were condemned and he was declared an outlaw. On his journey home he was “kidnapped” — in fact rescued — by Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who hid him in the Wartburg Castle above Eisenach. Under the alias Junker Jörg, Luther spent ten months in hiding. There he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, deliberately choosing clear, colloquial language. This translation became a cornerstone of the modern German language and the first widely distributed German book printed with Gutenberg technology.
In 1522 Luther returned to Wittenberg and resumed his work. With his colleague Philipp Melanchthon, known as Praeceptor Germaniae (“Germany’s teacher”), Wittenberg became the heart of the Reformation. Luther married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in 1525 — another symbolic break with Catholic tradition.
We have numerous portraits of Luther, many by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Younger, close friends who became the chief artists of the Reformation. Their prints and paintings served as powerful propaganda, contrasting the “corrupt papists” with idealized Lutheran imagery.
Political Upheaval
The Holy Roman Empire under Charles V was highly fragmented. Many territories were nearly independent, and the Free Imperial Cities exercised significant autonomy. While Pope and Emperor frequently disagreed, the Catholic Church had traditionally served as a stabilizing authority. With Luther’s excommunication, his followers felt justified in rejecting papal and episcopal authority altogether. Luther’s spiritual message had unintended political consequences.
The peasants were especially receptive. Indulgences had placed heavy financial burdens on them, and Luther’s preaching about Christian freedom resonated deeply — though he had not intended it politically. In 1524–1525 widespread peasant uprisings erupted across central and southern Germany. They demanded rights ranging from the abolition of serfdom to the freedom to choose their own pastors.
These revolts horrified Luther. Fearing anarchy, he wrote a fierce pamphlet urging the princes to “smite, slay and stab” the rebels. The uprisings were brutally crushed; more than 100,000 peasants were killed. Luther’s reputation among rural populations never recovered, contributing to the later success of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in southern and central Germany.
The Spread of Protestantism
In 1529 the Emperor reaffirmed the Edict of Worms, prohibiting all religious innovation. In response, representatives of six principalities and fourteen Free Imperial Cities met at Speyer to “protest” the decision — giving rise to the term Protestants.
At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, Charles V attempted to resolve the crisis. Melanchthon presented the Confession of Augsburg, a foundational Lutheran document still used today. Negotiations failed, however, and in 1531 Protestant states formed the Schmalkaldic League to defend themselves militarily.
Despite early imperial victories, Protestantism continued to spread. By 1555, so many states had adopted Lutheran reforms that Charles V effectively conceded defeat. Exhausted, he abdicated and retired to a Spanish monastery. His brother Ferdinand took the throne and soon after signed the Peace of Augsburg.
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
The Peace of Augsburg established the principle cuius regio, eius religio — “the religion of the ruler is the religion of the state.” Each secular prince could choose either Catholicism or Lutheranism for his territory. Subjects who disagreed were expected to emigrate. While intended as a compromise, the settlement entrenched religious division and further fragmented Germany.
The settlement also made it easier for territorial ambition to masquerade as religious conflict — a pattern that would continue dramatically during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648).
After Luther
Luther died in 1546. Soon after, the Catholic Church mounted a vigorous response through the Council of Trent (1545–1563). The Council reaffirmed Catholic doctrine and launched the Counter-Reformation, spearheaded by new religious orders such as the Jesuits. Catholicism regained ground in many rural and southern regions of Germany.
The following century was marked by confusion, competing reform movements, and devastating conflicts. Germany, still divided into hundreds of semi-independent states, continued its long, turbulent search for identity — politically, culturally and religiously.