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25 years of the Foundation Luther Memorials: Anniversary with a new brand name

In September 2022, the Foundation Luther Memorials in Saxony-Anhalt will celebrate its 25th anniversary. To mark the occasion, it will hold a large public celebration on 3 September 2022, which will take place in the Lutherhof in Wittenberg with the participation of Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President Dr Reiner Haseloff. In addition, the anniversary magazine "Mit Leidenschaft" (With Passion) will be published, which will look back on the exhibitions and building projects, highlights and bizarre things in the last 25 years on 140 pages and provide an outlook for the future.

The anniversary is also an occasion for the Foundation to launch its new corporate identity and introduce its new brand name "LutherMuseen", under which it will communicate in the future. Both the new corporate design and the new brand name are the result of a strategy process that the Foundation went through over several years.

25 Years of the Foundation Luther Memorials in Saxony-Anhalt

In 1997, the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt was founded. At that time, it was intended to bring together the four Luther sites in Wittenberg and Eisleben under one roof. Today it unites five museums: the Luther House and the Melanchthon House in Wittenberg, Luther's birthplace and his death house in Eisleben, and his childhood home in Mansfeld. The houses in Wittenberg and Eisleben have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1996. And with Luther's letter to Emperor Charles V of 28 April 1521, a world document heritage also belongs to the treasures of the foundation.
In addition to the restoration of the buildings, the Foundation has made many excellent contributions to contemporary building culture with its major building projects between 2001 and 2018. The Foundation communicates the themes of the Reformation to the scientific and cultural public with conferences, publications and, above all, with large special exhibitions, such as in 2015 for the Cranach Year or in 2017 for the anniversary of the Reformation. The Reformation has always seen itself as an educational movement. In keeping with this historical mission, the Foundation has greatly expanded its offerings at its three locations in recent years, especially for children and young people, and has thus become an extracurricular place of learning and a cultural venue with a supraregional resonance.

The upcoming anniversary three years ago was also an occasion for the Foundation to scrutinise itself and its work and to undergo a strategy process in order to reposition itself for the future. Until 2018, the Foundation's main activities were the establishment of the five museums and their permanent exhibitions as well as the preparation and implementation of the Luther Decade and the anniversary of the Reformation with extensive building measures and many large cultural projects. The highlight was 2017 with an unprecedented record number of visitors: over 250,000 guests from all over the world visited the Luther sites.

In 2019, the time was ripe for the Foundation to set itself new tasks and goals. It sees itself as a central mediator of the cultural world heritage of the Reformation and, beyond that, as a place with relevance for our society today. The constant expansion of the cultural offerings as well as the historical sites and scientific activities are at the centre of its activities. The aim is to transfer history into the living environment of the visitors and to impart knowledge in a playful way while having fun discovering and learning. Accordingly, new formats will be developed and tried out in the future, such as with "Crime Scene 1522", an exhibition in an escape game format, or the special exhibition for the Peasants' War anniversary, which is dedicated to the current topic of "justice".

"Foundation Luther Memorials" becomes "LutherMuseums"

As part of the process, the Foundation has given itself a new visual image and is now communicating under the brand name "LutherMuseen". It stands for what the Foundation is all about: lively museums and cultural venues that offer contemporary, exciting and varied experiences for all age groups.

The core element of the new word-image brand and appearance is the speech bubble. It stands for the "Reformation Education Movement" - a movement of language, writing and communication. It figuratively shows what the LutherMuseums are: Places of knowledge, understanding and exchange. In the figurative mark, the speech bubble is enclosed by an L and an M - they stand for LutherMuseums, but offer further scope for interpretation, for example Martin Luther or Luther and Melanchthon. In its entirety, the logo is reminiscent of a house - a symbol for the historical buildings and places of the Reformation.