Photo: Wikimedia Commons/HydroThe Marburg CastleAt the beginning there was Elizabeth of Thuringia. As a young widow she moved to Marburg in 1228 and founded a hospital, where she herself nursed the sick and the needy. Elizabeth's grave in the church that was named after her became a place of pilgrimage. Her grandson Heinrich was the first Landgrave of Hessia, and Marburg the first Hessian capital.

The oldest Protestant university

Marburg remained the intellectual and spiritual centre of Hessia under Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, who was born in the castle of Marburg and became the most important supporter of the Reformation in Germany, next to the Saxonian Electors. In 1527, Landgrave Philip founded the first university in Germany that was Protestant from its outset.

Photo: Rainer KieselbachThe old university of MarburgTeaching began in the city's three secularised monasteries. Since 1605, the university of Marburg followed the reformed (Calvinist) creed. Next to the universities of Heidelberg and Herborn, it was a centre of German Protestantism. Until today, life in the city is very much dominated by the internationally renowned "Philipps-Universität" with around 21000 students.

Religious dialogue in Marburg

Two years after the university was founded, the most important meeting of theologians during the age of the Reformation was held at the castle of Marburg. In  1529, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Oekolampad, Martin Bucer and many other eminent representatives of the Reformation movement followed the invitation of the Hessian Landgraves and met for a so-called religious dialogue in Marburg.

Marburg may therefore pride itself of being the only place that is a Luther city and a Zwingli city at the same time. The goal of the dialogue, the settling of the dispute between Luther and Zwingli about the right understanding of the Holy Supper, was not met. But the fifteen "Marburg Articles" were the only document of the Reformation that was signed by Luther as well as by Zwingli.