My daughter Sarah Wittig, granddaughter Montana Schafer, husband Larry Wargel, and myself went to Germany for family research but stopped at Wittenberg because the Wittigs are Lutheran, so, although I am now a member of St. Paul Catholic Church in Johnston City, I was also Lutheran for a time, and my grandpa Paul Schultetus identified as Lutheran.
This is a picture of the 13th century Stadt Kirche or Town Church, in Wittenberg, Germany, where Martin Luther preached to begin the Protestant Reformation and ignite all the turmoil that caused. Whether you agree with him or not, he had to be a brave man to go through all the hassles he had to endure because he was upset with the leaders of the Catholic Church and their new rules. I write more about this in my book, since it is the history of my family.
While Germany was calmer about these new thoughts, France was not. The Catholics even planned a Catholic/Protestant mixed wedding among royalty for the advantage of a sneak attack on the Protestants who attended. Thousands were murdered as the Catholics also spread out into the surrounding areas to do their deeds. One branch of my family, the De Le Camps, were French Huguenots who had left Luther to follow John Calvin, another Protestant. They had to abandon their homes in France and begin new lives in Germany where they were welcomed. That’s why I had the interest in this topic.
There wasn’t a lot of Christian love and compassion passing around at this time. Kind of reminds you of all the murdering of women in the Middle East and non-Muslims elsewhere in the name of religion; or the Ku Klux Klan in Herrin slaughtering the Italian Catholic immigrants; or shooting little black girls in a Baptist church; or shooting Jewish worshippers in a synagogue; or the Holocaust; or the Inquisition. What we do in the name of God.
You know, in 1934, a man named Michael King, Sr. traveled to Italy, Egypt, Jerusalem, Berlin, and also to Germany. Historians say he was deeply moved by what was happening with the emergence of Nazism in Germany and also by what he learned of Martin Luther. In that same year, after returning home, he changed his name to Martin Luther King, Sr. Michael, Jr. became Martin Luther King, Jr., although he wasn’t quick to adapt. He didn’t change his birth certificate until 1957. Others have said he had an uncle named Luther. Different stories.