What is hap­pen­ing at Luther­’s wedding?

From 13 to 15 June 2025, Luth­er­stadt Wit­ten­berg will be cel­eb­rat­ing the tra­di­tion­al ​‘Luther’s Wed­ding’ fest­iv­al. For this week­end, the town will return to the time of the Reform­a­tion to cel­eb­rate the mar­riage of Mar­tin Luth­er and Kath­ar­ina von Bora 500 years ago. With his­tor­ic robes, tra­di­tion­al crafts, a mag­ni­fi­cent mar­ket and an opu­lent pro­gramme, Wit­ten­berg will be the set­ting for one of the biggest wed­ding cel­eb­ra­tions in Ger­many. This year’s motto is: 500 Years of Love!

Here are some of the most beau­ti­ful things on the programme:

Fri­day, 13 June 2025

The col­our­ful hustle and bustle begins in the streets of the city at 4 pm. Late on Fri­day after­noon, the new­ly­weds will step out of their house into the court­yard of the Augusteum, where they will be cheered on by many friends and con­tem­por­ar­ies from that time. We then await Mar­tin and Kath­ar­ina and their entour­age on the mar­ket square at 5 pm for the grand open­ing of the three-day wed­ding cel­eb­ra­tions! Cheers, cheers, jubilee! 

‘Organ music at the end of the week’, which will cel­eb­rate the church music pre­lude to the fest­iv­al week­end at 6 pm in St Mary’s Church. At 10 pm, the band Rebell Tell will per­form on the mar­ket square, mark­ing a high­light of the fest­iv­al week­end — a wed­ding present from the Wit­ten­berg Art Asso­ci­ation to Lutherstadt. 

Sat­urday, 14 June 2025

The fest­iv­al starts at 11:00 on Sat­urday. Look for­ward to the big his­tor­ic­al parade with over 2,000 cheer­ing wed­ding guests, which sets off at 14:00. The start­ing point is the Luth­er House. After­wards, Wit­ten­ber­g’s most prom­in­ent wed­ding couple invites you to join them from 17:00 to 19:00 in Mit­tel­straße — at the city’s longest wed­ding table. Over a dis­tance of 500 metres, you can drink, dine and, above all, cel­eb­rate with the couple and Luther­’s friends.

But what’s even bet­ter: there’s a blind date area in the middle of the whole table! Who knows, maybe this is where the ​‘Luth­er wed­ding love story’ begins!

Inter­na­tion­al guests and parish­ion­ers are invited to the Eng­lish Min­istry at 5pm in the Castle Church.

In the even­ing hours of Sat­urday, there will be more wed­ding music than ever before! A var­ied pro­gramme awaits vis­it­ors in 13 adven­ture worlds and on 13 stages. A spe­cial high­light is the per­form­ance of the Spi­el­leut Rammeschuck­sn at 9.00 pm on the mar­ket square — it’s going to get really hot here!

Oth­er items on the pro­gramme: Chil­dren’s theatre, Renais­sance dances and dance classes, medi­ev­al rock with bag­pipes and the rhythm of many drum­mers, blues & folk, Wit­ten­ber­g’s fan­fare band and the guest fan­fare band from Bretten in com­bin­a­tion with the flag-wavers from Voigt­land. Young and young-at-heart wed­ding guests will find their wed­ding music to ​‘ABJU­BELN’ at abstract fre­quen­cies in the castle courtyard.

Sunday, 15 June 2025

The day begins with two spir­itu­al ser­vices, invit­ing you to pause and recharge your bat­ter­ies. The first ser­vice is at 10:00 a.m. in the castle church, and the second is at the same time in the town church, where couples will be blessed and the ser­vice will be broad­cast by MDR tele­vi­sion and radio. Fur­ther bless­ings for couples will be offered after the tele­vised ser­vice until 15:00 p.m. in the Cor­pus Christi Chapel.

And Sunday is fam­ily day! From 10:00 a.m., the pro­gramme is aimed espe­cially at chil­dren, par­ents and grand­par­ents. At 10.30 a.m. the wed­ding cake will be cut by the chil­dren’s Luth­er couple in the Luth­er­hof. At 11.00 a.m., little Kath­ar­ina and little Mar­tin will lead the his­tor­ic­al chil­dren’s parade through the town with 400 chil­dren from Wit­ten­berg clubs, day-care centres and schools, hand­ing out sweet treats as they go. Our his­tor­ic­al play street (the Wall­straße) for ​‘Pla­gen & Bäl­ger’ also invites young and old to ima­gin­at­ive adven­tures on Sunday. At 15:00, the Roland Kais­er Trib­ute Show will bring the greatest love songs from five dec­ades to the mar­ket square.

All fest­iv­al days: ​“stick togeth­er” – video install­a­tion
Exper­i­ence the emo­tion­al ​“stick togeth­er” pro­ject in the Cor­pus Christi Chapel. From Fri­day to Sunday, a touch­ing video install­a­tion show­cases intim­ate glimpses into the every­day lives of couples – authen­t­ic, mov­ing, and inspiring.

Be there and cel­eb­rate the wed­ding of the cen­tury with us. We look for­ward to see­ing you!

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Open­ing hours

Fri­day: from 16:00 to 2:00 (clos­ing time)

Sat­urday: from 11.00 a.m. to 1.00 a.m. (clos­ing time)

Sunday: from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. (dis­mant­ling)