Only a historical copperplate engraving served as a template: The wheelwright of Braunschweig Theo Malchus has recreated the carriage, on which Martin Luther travelled Germany 500 years ago. The vehicle can be seen at the national special exhibition on the Wartburg.
Once the Reformer Martin Luther travelled around the country on a wooden carriage with a leather tarpaulin. “Without suspension, it was certainly very hard to travel”, says, smilingly Theo Malchus, a wheelwright from Braunschweig. He has recreated in handcrafted work the carriage with huge iron-worked wheels a personally brought to the Wartburg in Eisenach in Thuringia. The carriage is one of the highlights of the coming National special exhibition “Luther and the Germans” on the Wartburg, taking place from the May 4th to November 5th.
Visitors of the exhibition can test the comfort
The model will be open to the public in the courtyard of the Wartburg, explains the project director of the exhibition, Marc Höchner. The visitors of the exhibition will have the possibility to sit in the carriage and to feel how comfortably or uncomfortably the Reformer travelled Hundreds of miles around the country pulled by horses. Luther stopped, among others, in Magdeburg, Weimar, Torgau, Eisleben, Augsburg or Heidelberg.
The research for the project was difficult at first for Malchus. A copperplate engraving from the 16th century was the only template for the vehicle. The picture shows the feigned kidnapping of Luther to the Wartburg on May 4th 1521. Supporters brought the Reformer to safety from the persecution by the Emperor. “We can see in the background how the carriage might have more or less looked like, but we cannot recognise many details”, explains Malchus.
Chassis of a pontifical carriage
It was only with the help of historian Rudolf Wackernagel from Munich that the 56 year old created one year ago a sketch for the so-called “Kobelwagen”. The term derives from the Middle German word “Kobel” which meant a shed. The craftsman found a sketch for the chassis on another historical illustration: It shows a turned over carriage of a Catholic pope, the wheelwright tells with a wink.