09 Wörms

Germany Trip 2026 Episode 09: Wörms After taking the ferry back across the Rhine to Bingen, I took the train down to Wörms. My first stop was the Jüdischer Friedhof Heiliger Sand, Europe's oldest remaining Jewish cemetery, with gravestones dating back 1000 years. Visitation stones adorn some of the oldest gravestones, in particular, those of eminent rabbis in the 11th c. Jewish community. The author/philosopher Martin Buber had an emotional visit to the cemetery in 1933, during which he noted a particularly enchanting view, looking through the cemetery to the cathedral in the distance, now known as the "Martin Buber Blick." Wörms' gaunt, blocky, Romanesque cathedral is one of my all-time favorites. Dom St Peter was mostly completed by 1181. The 18th c. High Altar was created by Balthasar Neumann. There are a number of medieval grave monuments embedded in the cathedral walls. The side-chapels are illuminated by beautiful albeit modern stained glass windows as the medieval glass did not survive the war. Several 15th c. relief carvings of the Life of Christ, which were in the former cloisters, are now in the north aisle, including an Annunciation, Nativity, Deposition, and Resurrection. Most of the sarcophagi in the crypt predate the current church building, the oldest that of Conrad the Red (d. 955). Adjoining the cathedral is a open area which was the site of the former Bishop's Palace. It was here at the Diet of Wörms in 1521 that Martin Luther was interrogated by church officials who demanded that he recant his views that the Catholic church considered heretical. The event is commemorated by a bronze relief depicting the Bishop's Palace, and a pair of bronze shoes where Martin Luther famously stood his ground, uttering the words: "I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word. I cannot and will not recant... so help me God. Amen." In a nearby park is the Lutherdenkmal, a series of 19th c. statues celebrating key figures from the Reformation, including Luther, Savonarola, Hus, and many others. The overall monument is in the shape of a castle, an allusion to Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress."