While filming in Rothenburg at the amazing Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, we got a behind-the-scenes look at how great museums don’t just happen. (Tacky and commercial “torture museums” — which you’ll find all over Europe — do just happen… but I’m talking about real museums that have real historic artifacts.) Put on some white gloves, watch this video clip, and have a peek.
Modern Germans Reenact Medieval Battles
While filming our Protestant Reformation documentary in Germany, we decided to use Rothenburg’s 16th-century settings to do my “on cameras.” It was perfect: Its Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum is the best of its kind. Its churches are quiet and stately in a 1500s Protestant kind of way. The ramparts just scream Thirty Years’ War. And Jörg Christöphler, the very effective director of the Rothenburg tourism office, made sure we had access to whatever we needed to do our work well. Jörg actually called up his Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) army for us. I had the joy of commanding about 50 stunningly clad reenactors. In this clip, we’ve divided them in two groups so each cameraman can be creative. We wanted to get some artistic clips that Simon, my producer, can use for his treatment of the Wars of Religion that devastated Germany in that period. (We kept thinking Protestant and Catholic Christians 500 years ago are an eerie parallel to Shiite and Sunni Muslims of our era. By 1648, about 20 percent of Germany lay dead.) When we were finished with our work, Commander Jörg declared “100 liters of beer for all!” And our army marched to the nearest beer garden. Life is much better these days.
Documentary Style à la Ken Burns
Ken Burns can enthrall me for hours on end with lavishly filmed, edited, and narrated history. It’s my hope that our hour-long special on Luther and the Reformation will be enthralling too. For me it was exciting to have access to actual documents, papal bulls, letters of indulgence, Bibles in both Latin and German, and pamphlets by Luther — all dating from the early 1500s. The Luther Haus in Wittenberg is the best single museum for Reformation artifacts and documents. We were given complete access to its treasures. We scouted one day to make a list and a plan. Then we filmed for four extremely efficient hours getting lots of great images to “cover” our script. As it was by far the most images we’ve ever shot in one location, I decided to be well-organized and catalog the clips. It’s like a puzzle, and at this single stop we got these 60 pieces. Here’s my list of camera shots:
Art shot in Luther Haus in this order: 1. Wittenberg townscape etching, 2. Frederic the Wise small color painting, 3. Luther with professor’s bonnet, 4. Indulgence etching scene with Tetzel, 5. Actual small indulgence (same thing filmed later in treasures room), 6. Tetzel on horse etching, 7. Pope Leo X, 8. Luther’s actual wooden pulpit, 9. First printed 95 Theses, 10. Luther with monk haircut etching, 11. Jan Hus etching, 12. Tiny color burning scene (big one later is much better), 13. Worms townscape color etching, 14. Booklet cover Luther at Worms in 1521, 15. Color painted Luther portrait, 16. Emperor Charles V, 17. Luther in disguise etching, 18. Cover showing three marriages, 19. Receipt for payment to city, 20. Money chest for community, 21. Latin Bible, 22. Etching of Luther and another reformer taking Communion, 23. Luther preaching etching, 24. Etching of fat usurer with good farmers, 25. Color portraits of two princes, 26. Life-size Frederic the Wise painting, 27. Portrait of Katie and Martin, 28. Wedding scene on book cover, 29. Katie portrait etching, 30. Locked metal box and coins, 31. Small painted portraits of Luther and Melanchthon, 32. Portraits of two princes, 33. Luther holding Bible (close up of hands on Bible), 34. Two-page spread with music, 35. First complete German Bible, 36. Tiny hymnal; Printing Press Room (37. Printing press, 38. Pope as Satan, 39. Color portrait of group of great Reformers, 40. Cranach illustrations on Luther booklets: 40. Grouping of several, 41. Cartoons of grinder, 42. Animal faces, 43. Big donkey, 44. Two anti-Jewish covers); Treasures Room — three 16th-century documents (45. Big one good for 100 days less in purgatory, 46. Small one with blanks to fill in, 47. Medium one with dingleberries), 48. Luther and Katie portraits young, 49. Martin and Katie in one painting, 50. Martin and Katie old, 51. Luther and swan etching, 52. Martin Luther fine color portrait, 53. Gathering of Reformers (with faces and the pope and company trying to blow out candle), 54. Big paintings of Diet of Worms (many shots), 55. Burning of papal bull, 56. Luther at Wartburg Castle fighting the devil, 57. Luther’s living room (with Rick walk through), 58. Luther’s first New Testament in German, 59. Pulpit room (with Rick walk through), 60. Rick walk into museum from outside — two versions, wide shot of the building exterior.
Tartan Tat in Edinburgh and Falling into the Set of ‘Avatar’
There’s lots of travel fun happening in our Travelers’ Café — a collection of favorite blogs for all my travel buddies. Cameron Hewitt is now in Scotland, as he realized when he stepped into the breakfast room and found a bottle of whisky. Cameron reports on the “tartan tat” (kitschy sales gimmicks travelers find in Edinburgh), the truth about “family tartans,” and much more. If you treasure your romantic Scottish clichés, don’t read his latest entry. My kids Andy and Jackie are in northern Vietnam on a two-day cruise through stunning Halong Bay. In his video report, Andy says he’s fallen into the set of “Avatar.” And Jackie writes vividly about the experience.
Reformation Shoot
We’re in Germany filming a one-hour special about Martin Luther and the Reformation which will be released in a year for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
Luther was the first guy to stand boldly against the Holy Roman Emperor and the medieval pope — and actually survive. In this dramatic showdown before many of the most powerful people in Europe (at the Diet of Worms) Luther is told to recant all he wrote in his trouble-causing pamphlets. He said, “Unless you can convince me by scripture or by clear reasoning, I am bound by my beliefs. I cannot and I will not recant. God help me.” From there the plot thickens…and Luther’s hoped for religious reforms go far beyond his intent.
Luther was a brilliant PR man with a coarse and edgy wit. He had Germany’s top political cartoonist for a buddy, and the printing press to amplify his ideas. This propaganda etching, typical of the inflammatory cartoons of the day, shows Luther, Calvin, and the other great reformers lighting the way for religious freedom while, at the bottom, the pope, a cardinal, a monk, and the devil do their best to blow out the candle.
This is the first documentary-style special we’ve produced, and it’s heavy on art. And art tells the story vividly.
This painting pumps up Luther’s charisma as he challenges teachings of the medieval Church that he didn’t find in the Bible. He preached in the people’s language, quoting the Bible like a lawyer to make his cases — unprecedented at the time. Listening to him is his wife and many children. (A priest with a wife and kids…also unprecedented.)
Producer Simon Griffith did a good job of keeping our script balanced and reining in my enthusiasm for Luther’s groundbreaking work. But here, in the forest beneath the castle where Luther hid out as he translated the Bible into a language regular people could read, it seems Simon is having a special Lutheran moment.