Centrally located in the former trading centre of Erfurt ‘Anger’ in the Bildungshaus St. Ursula, the group went on excursions to Eisenach and Weimar. An exploration of important places in the state capital was also on the programme. The aim was not only to explore the various sites as tourists, but also to be spiritually and religiously moved by them. The on-site visits were complemented by reflections on the experiences and a group church service.
In Eisenach, the participants encountered the difference between the Catholic and Protestant churches by focussing on the life of St. Elisabeth and that of the reformer Martin Luther (‘Junker Jörg’) on a guided tour of Wartburg Castle and the museum there. In the ‘Bach House’, the group then learnt more about Johann Sebastian Bach, who is regarded as a bridge-builder between the denominations through his musical work. This visit was rounded off with a short concert on original instruments from his time.
The group met Dr Tobias Kläden at the Catholic Agency for Missionary Pastoral Care (KAMP) in Erfurt for a discussion that focused on the church situation in the very secularised East of Germany, which is sometimes difficult to understand from an international perspective. In the afternoon, the participants explored the difference between the very influential Christian tradition in the city of countless churches and the religious ‘non-musicality’ of many contemporaries. The theologian Meister Eckhart, who lived for many years in the Dominican monastery in Erfurt, and his mysticism could be a bridge builder between the church and the worldly pious, as both Christians and agnostics read his writings today.
The scholars were also able to visit the home of the German poet prince Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose alliance with Friedrich von Schiller became a national myth, embodied in the double statue of the two poet princes on the forecourt of the National Theatre.
The group then visited Buchenwald concentration camp, just a few kilometres away, where 56,000 people died between July 1937 and April 1945. The difference between the city of ‘poets and thinkers’ and this place of ‘German evil’ could not be more cruel.
History – as our study trip made abundantly clear – is highly contradictory and ambivalent. A close look at the historical actors made it clear to us how much it depends on the responsibility and courage of individuals, how strongly their commitment, spirituality and creativity can shape the whole. This was true then and is still true today.
