Photo: Lutz DöringSt. Petri-Paul church in Eisleben Eisleben was chosen as the seat of the Dukes of Mansfeld in the Middle Ages. For a long time, copper mining was important for the city. Today, Eisleben is known above all as the place of birth and death of the most important German Protestant reformer.

Baptised in Eisleben

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben on November 10, 1483. His parents had him baptised on the following day in the Church of St. Peter and Paul and named him after St. Martin. Although the family left Eisleben only a few months later, Luther always remained attached to his place of birth.

Photo: Lutz DöringSt. Andreas church in EislebenHe visited the city multiple times and held Reformational sermons there. Luther travelled to Eisleben in 1546, in order to resolve a conflict involving the Barons of Mansfeld. He died on February 18, 1546, in the home of the Drachstedt family, located on the market place; he gave his last four sermons in St. Andrew's Church – on a pulpit that can still be seen today. In addition to the houses where Luther was born and died and the churches of St. Peter, St. Andreas, and St. Anne (where, as the district’s vicar, Luther consecrated a monastery in 1516), Rudolf Simmering’s Luther Monument of 1883 offers a reminder of Eisleben’s best-known citizen.