A letter from Martin Luther for the Latvian National Library: Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Haseloff has honoured the common history of his land and the Baltic States during a visit to Riga with a special gift – and also commended the 500th anniversary of the first printed Latvian-language book.
Saxony-Anhalt might be not the biggest federal state of Germany, but it is definitely one with a unique, fascinating history and rich cultural heritage. Situated at the geographical heart of Germany, the eastern German region is home to several sites of outstanding historical significance for Germany and beyond. It was the starting point and setting of key moments for Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, which rapidly spread also to the territory of what was then, together with the territory of Estonia, known as Livonia.
The Reformation also paved the way for education in Livonia in the vernacular and the first books in Latvian and Estonian language that were probably printed in Wittenberg. In close connection with the Lutheran movement, the nowadays fourth-largest town of Saxony-Anhalt was back then one of the most important places for printing books in Germany.
During a recent visit to Latvia, Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff highlighted the two regions’ historical connections through the Reformation and printed books.
axonia-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff hands over the facsimile of an epistle from Martin Luther from 1525 to the head of the LNB´s Special Collections Department Marika Selga
Photo: Alexander Welscher
“We should cherish and nurture this very concrete cultural bond between Saxony-Anhalt and the Baltic states, and preserve its memory for future generations,” he said at the Latvian National Library (LNB), highlighting that Europe was already strongly interconnected 500 years ago.
In the LNB, Haseloff presented a special gift to the People’s Bookshelf. He donated a facsimile of an epistle from Martin Luther, which the great reformer had addressed to the Christians in Livonia in 1525.
“It is an admonition that every Christian should confess his or her sins not only to priests, but also to one another and strive for improvement,” the Prime Minister explained when handing over the letter to the head of the LNB´s Special Collections Department, Marika Selga.
A professor of theology and a priest, Luther famously challenged the Vatican’s authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s teachings and practices through his 95 theses, which he is said to have nailed on 31 October 1517 to the door of the Wittenberg castle church, an act of protest that launched the Reformation.
Like all other sites in Saxony-Anhalt associated with the work and life of Martin Luther, the castle’s door in the historic old town now has a UNESCO World Heritage listing.
The Reformation and Riga
The Reformation was a turning point and the beginning of new era in the religious and political history of the Western world. Luther’s protest against the sale of indulgences quickly spread to Livonia and Riga became one of the first cities outside Germany to disseminate Protestantism.
Reformation ideas were first debated in St Peter’s Church on 12 June 1522 – just a few years after Luther initiated the movement in Wittenberg. This is noted on a memorial plaque inside the church that was unveiled in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, when also the previously nameless square in front of the church
was named Reformation Square.
Significant evidence of Luther’s personal connection with the Reformation in the Baltic States are his letters in which he addressed directly his followers in Riga – 17 letters from the church reformer, according to historical records, have reached today’s Latvian capital.
Some of these unique and valuable relics are held in the collection of the Department of Manuscripts and Rarities of the Academic Library of the University of Latvia, which was founded in 1524 on Luther’s advice as the Bibliotheca Rigensis. It is one of the oldest libraries in Northeastern Europe and was originally located in the cloister of Riga Cathedral.
One of the reasons Luther asked to set up libraries was to preserve books and to make them later on available to the public at large since the reformist sentiment escalated into iconoclastic outburst. Churches and monasteries were looted, religious images, statutes and other furnishing destroyed, and books were burned.
In spring 1524, Riga Town Council took control, and with the support of preachers and guilds began reorganising the ecclesiastical life, which was accompanied by the renewal of school education. Luther’s own ideas spread further through the written word and he indirectly encouraged the appearance of Latvian-language books by asking clergymen to preach in the believers’ everyday language. This was meant to ensure that everyone could read and understand the Holy Scriptures and Lutheran messages in their native tongue.
“It is likely there were no printed works in Latvia prior to the Reformation. Maybe there were some manuscripts of prayers and songs”, as literary scholar and researcher Māra Grudule has pointed out in her remarkable account of the history of reading in Latvia.
While the first widely distributed book was a catechism, the oldest known Latvian-language printed book is believed to be a description of a new Lutheran order of church services published in 1525. But it has not survived and only written accounts of its existence remains because its shipment did not reach Riga. The texts with “heretical” content were seized in Lübeck by the pro-Catholic city council, prevented from being loaded onto a ship and burned before they could be transported across the Baltic Sea. This fact is evidenced in the notes of the
dean of the Lübeck Cathedral Chapter, which are kept in the Lübeck city archives and indicate that the books might have contained parallel texts in there languages to allow German missionaries in Livonia to read the Lutheran messages aloud in Latvian and Estonian as well.
Marking the advent of Latvian literature
Although the actual books have perished and could not be re-discovered, the year 1525 is traditionally considered the starting point of Latvian and Estonian book history, and both countries are celebrating this quincentennial since the earliest known publishing of an native-language book with an extensive series of events. In Latvia it will culminate on 8th November with a vast programme for different age groups and interests. The festivities will include also a historic lecture by the director of the Luther Memorials Foundation from Saxonia-Anhalt at a ceremonial event at St Peter’s Church in Riga on the evening of 7th November.
Not without reason since oldest books printed in Latvian were probably or in the Estonian case even quite reliably printed in Wittenberg. “Exactly 500 years ago, the printed works comprising the Catechism were sent out, most likely printed in Wittenberg. My ancestors were there when they were packed, so everything made it out of Wittenberg safely”, Haseloff noted in this speech. The 71 years old politician himself hails from the Wittenberg region, where his family has been deeply rooted for generations.
The head of the LNB´s Special Collections Department Marika Selga (l.) and Saxonia-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff are having a remote online conversation with LNB director Dagnija Baltiņa and the head of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt, Thomas T. Müller:
Photo: Alexander Welscher
“Back then, Mathias Haseloff lived around the corner at Elstertor, where I still live today. And he left a very clear message that everything was on track and on its way. Unfortunately, Lübeck thwarted our plans”, the Prime Minister said, before adding jokingly that Saxony-Anhalt might ask compensation from Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck, once more information is unearthed about the number and unit price of the books that back were possibly printed by the Wittenberg publisher Hans Lufft.
“The history of Saxony-Anhalt and Latvia goes hand in hand with the history of book”, underlined LNB director Dagnija Baltiņa, who joined the event together with the head of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt, Thomas T. Müller, and the University of Latvia History Professor Andris Levāns via a video link live from Wittenberg, where they took part in a scientific conference titled “Censorship and Ashes. Forbidden books and the Reformation in Livonia in 1525”.
Over the course of three days, historians and researchers from Germany, Latvia and other countries from 15th to 17th September examined the situation in Livonia 500 years ago and tried to jointly find out more about the first printed book in Latvian. As a first initial result they figured out that “the books were worth a sheep or a calf”, as Müller revealed already before the official start of the conference to Haseloff and the few people present at the event in the LNB.
However, in general, information about the books is scarce and much is still unclear. The Latvian historian Gustavs Strenga, who attended the conference, emphasizes that there are also “quite a few arguments that show why it may not have been possible at all” that in 1525 an entire book could have already been written and published in Latvian and Estonian. And also the content of the books that were found and burned might have been different, he said recently in an interview with Latvian Radio.
Historian Gustavs Strenga
Photo: Reina Rasmane / Latvijas Radio
The LNB has chosen in its own way to deal with this uncertainty and promotes it as the “great mystery” of the first book printed in Latvian and a “true detective story” dating back to 1525. “Twenty generations of readers later, the story is not over yet – one copy of the book might still be out there in world”, reads the flyer about the so-called “world’s shortest detective story about a book”.
Latvia is all about books
Although the books did not reach their final destination, and surviving examples have not been found, their burning did not stop the dissemination of words in Latvian. The “ashes” have been fertile: words written in Latvian were possible, grew further and spread in a variety of ways, first originally primarily from the activities of German clergy.
“The phenomenon of the book has been a significant factor for the development and endurance of the Latvian language, for the education, intelligence, growth and self-assurance of the society. And also has been a decisive element for the formation of our state”, Baltiņa emphasized in her speech, adding that books, reading and literature continue to hold a special place in the development of the Latvian nation.
This was also acknowledged and commended by Haseloff whose deep personal interest in history comes along with an ardent local patriotism. Being a devout Catholic, Germany’s longest serving Prime Minister usually at every opportunity promotes the rich history of present-day Saxony-Anhalt and his Lutheran hometown, which in his opinion is, alongside Berlin, the most famous German city in the world and just recently marked this summer the 500th anniversary of Luther’s marriage to Katharina von Bora.
Saxonia-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff studies an old map of Livonia in the LNB
Photo: Alexander Welscher
But in Riga he also offered very complimentary words for his hosts: “I have got to know here a country and people who know how to deal with a thousand years of history and its cultural tradition and language. And also with
the book, which has contributed to this, now standing synonymous with education, reading, and literature. All of this I have found here to an extent that I could hardly have imagined”, Haseloff said at the end of his visit, addling that despite all historical ruptures people can remain united if they remain a cultural nation and that this cultural bond transcends systems and endures also during historical catastrophes.
“This is the mutual enrichment we feel in Europe and we urgently need in order to live together peacefully.”
During his stay in Riga, the clearly recognizable personal highlight for the bibliophile Prime Minister was the visit to the LNB, which he reverently described as a “monument to the book” – both in his speech and his entry in the
guest book.
While touring the library building and the LNB’s collection together with his entourage, Haseloff enthusiastically browsed through ancient books, maps and other documents that were presented to him by LNB staff, and did not hesitate to take photos of them with his mobile phone. Some delegation members even only half-jokingly noted that they have to get him away from the books in time, otherwise the onward flight to Vilnius would be in jeopardy.
“We are impressed by the technical diversity, the expertise of the employees, and everything we find here. I asked a colleague of yours earlier how I can recognize a Latvian. And she told me: By the book”, Haseloff said with a smile, while sitting in front of People’s Bookshelf that rises several metres high in the atrium of the National Library of Latvia and currently is home to almost 8 000 books in 50 languages from all over the world.
“I am glad I can be here in front of this huge wall of books and even have them photographed. Because it always gives me an excuse to my wife that there are even more books to stack up somewhere.”
While his wife took it with humour and laughed, she will back home now have to deal at least with one new book from Latvia on their bookshelf since as a return gift, Haselhoff received a facsimile edition of “Terra Mariana 1186-1888”. This historical overview about Roman Catholic parish churches in the Baltic Provinces was originally by Gustav Baron von Manteuffel (1832-1916) and was re-published by the LNB in 2013. “Thank you so much. This is really something – a nice, big book”, Haselhoff said full of joy, before adding: “We will have to take an extra suitcase for that.”
