Austria’s Legacy: Protestant Vienna

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Heritage Austria

Protestant Vienna

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther is said to have proven his 95 theses against the sale of indulgences for the castle church in Wittenberg. An act whose effects led to the conversion of a large portion of the population in the Habsburg lands to the Lutheran faith. It is even said that there was a Protestant mayor in Vienna in 1576, perhaps much to the annoyance of the Catholic Habsburgs, who restored their Catholicism in full force years later in the course of the Counter-Reformation. In this episode of Out of Frame, presenter and art connoisseur Karl Hohenlohe visits the small but fascinating District Museum in Vienna’s 1st district, where the current exhibition addresses the great Protestant anniversaries and then strolls through the city center with Bishop Michael. Bunker, former sites that have a lot to tell about the history of the Protestant religious movement in Vienna. In addition, Karl Hohenlohe visited Pastor Enes Knoll in the Lutheran City Church, the oldest Protestant church building in Vienna, built in 1582-1583.