Hans Luder (abt. 1459 - bef. 1534)

Born about 1459 in Möhra, Landgrafschaft Thüringen, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Descendants

Died before 1534 before about age 75 in Mansfeld, Grafschaft Mansfeld, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Biography

Hans, father of Martin Luther, was the eldest son in his family, although he did not inherit the family farm. He was a copper miner and later became a prosperous small businessman (smelter) and also worked for the Counts of Mansfield as a mine overseer. He was a founder of the Marian brotherhood, a lay religious organization.^[1]

Hans married Margaret Lindemann and they had the following children:

• Martin^[1]
• Barbara, who died when Martin was aged 36^[1]
• Dorothy, married into a local family^[1]
• Margaret, married into a local family^[1]
• Jacob, took over his fathers business^[1]
• unknown daughter who married a man named Polner^[1]

Hans Luder died in or before 1534, when his estate was settled.^[1]

MARTIN LUTHER’S FATHER

‘When Martin was a child, he was always calm and well-behaved. When he reached the age of four, we enrolled him in school in Mansfeld. He was too young and too small to be able to make it to school on his own, so his older classmates would carry him, something I am certain he enjoyed. Martin would later go to school first in Madgeburg, then in Eisenach. I had always hoped that he would grow up to become a lawyer. Instead, he joined the Augustinians in Erfurt and became a mendicant friar! Martin always had a mind of his own. Martin’s decision to enter the monastery led to a serious altercation between us, after which we lost contact. I viewed monks as lazy journeymen who lived at the expense of the people and did nothing more than to stuff their bellies all day. It was not until Martin’s wedding that my wife and I travelled to Wittenberg. There, after many years, Martin and I were finally able to reconcile our differences. Of course by that time, he had already given up being a monk’.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Hendrix, Scott H. Martin Luther - Visionary Reformer. Yale University Press, 2015. Online (preview only) at Google Books, pages 19-20.

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