Slüter’s reformation sermon in Rostock, Bernhard Reinhold, 1858
July 7, 2017 – November 5, 2017
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation the Rostock Cultural History Museum presents an exhibition on its history. The exhibition not only broaches the issue of events related to the reformation in Rostock and Mecklenburg, but also the cultural and religious exchange processes connected to it. The ecclesiastic and religious life and the faith before reformation, the development leading to upheaval and transformation, and the development of the protestant regional church in Mecklenburg since the mid-16th century play their role. Hence an overall view emerges onto the versatile religious, cultural and social processes during the 16th and 17th century, which can be summarized under the notion of reformation and its consequences.
Not only was Rostock the intellectual centre of the reformation in Mecklenburg, but also became an extraordinary multiplier of reformatory ideas as early as the 1520s. This is owed to the first protestant preacher in Rostock, Joachim Slüter. Already in 1525 he released a protestant hymnbook and in 1526 a prayer booklet, both in Low German language, which are the oldest evidence of this type at all. Especially the hymnbook became a bestseller and was distributed far beyond the boundaries of Mecklenburg. Hymns from Rostock shaped the protestant community singing in Sweden and Denmark, and also in England and Latvia as in many territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Characters like David Chyträus and Johann Quistorp the elder, or Johann Friedrich König, Heinrich Müller, or Theophil Großgebuer shaped Lutheranism beyond the boundaries of the empire and let emanate Rostock’s influence across the Baltic Sea towards Scandinavia.
