Grave Panel of Martin Luther
A piece which was added to the collection in its early years is a plaster cast of the grave panel of Martin Luther. The panel, which was made in the Ziegler workshop in Erfurt shortly after Luther’s death, had been intended for Luther’s grave in the Schloßkirche Wittenberg but could not be taken there because of turmoil during a war („Schmalkaldischer Krieg“). Instead, the panel was taken to Jena, where it has remained until today. At the end of 19th century the Loccum cloister donated a bronze cast for Luther’s grave. Apparently the donors had no idea that the original casting model, a wooden panel in relief which is today at St. Andreas in Erfurt, still exists, and they made a new model consisting of several parts and used it to found the bronze panel preserved in Schloßkirche Wittenberg until today. But that model was also used to manufacture a plaster cast the founders of the collection brought to Halle. Because Luther’s dead body broke its journey from Eisleben, where Luther died, to Wittenberg where he lived in Halle, it was a wise decision to try to get a plaster cast of Luther’s gravel panel (unfortunately without heraldic figure and inscription) for the collection in Halle. Today, after the university has taken the reformer’s name, these casts originating from one model show in a special way the connection of both university locations linked by name.
