Hungary to lend Luther’s will to Wittenberg

Budapest, July 26 (MTI) – The Hungarian Lutheran Church will lend the handwritten will of Martin Luther to the city of Wittenberg for the 500th anniversary celebration of the Reformation in 2017, Lutheran Bishop Tamas Fabiny told MTI on Sunday.

The writings will be on display in Wittenberg from August to November, Fabiny said, adding that in exchange for the document, Hungary’s National Museum will receive a replica of the will to be put on display during those four months.

The National Museum will also be lent a valuable artifact from the Wittenberg collection: a Hungarian flag belonging to a group of Hungarian students studying at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in the 1520s.

The city of Wittenberg asked the Hungarian Lutheran National Archives to lend it the will at the beginning of 2015.

In April, Karoly Hafenscher, president of the Synod of the Hungarian Lutheran Church and commissioner appointed to help the work of the Reformation Memorial Committee, held talks with Stephan Dorgerloh, minister of cultural affairs of Saxony-Anhalt on a potential deal, with the final decision being left up to the Hungarian Lutheran Church.