Alles hat seine Zeit. Everything has its time. Germans use the phrase in everyday speech. It comes from Ecclesiastes 3 in the Luther Bible: Ein jegliches hat seine Zeit, und alles Vorhaben unter dem Himmel hat seine Stunde. Everything has its time, and every undertaking under heaven has its hour.
The passage continues with pairs: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to be silent and a time to speak.
A German law of 1921 on the religious upbringing of children gives the child a voice that grows with age. When a court has to decide about a child’s religion, a child of ten or older must be heard. From twelve, the child cannot be raised in a different faith against its will.
From fourteen, the child alone decides which religious confession to follow.
In 1529 Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli met at Marburg to settle their dispute over doctrine. Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran who was present, wrote down what happened. During the talks, Osiander noted, Zwingli’s eyes filled with tears, and everyone saw it. When Martin Bucer asked Luther what he disliked in their teaching, Luther answered das wir nicht ainerley gayst haben, that we do not have the same spirit. Zwingli’s side also asked, for God’s sake, to be regarded as brothers: wir solten sy für brüeder halten. The Lutherans refused.
A popular story says that Luther also refused to shake Zwingli’s hand. Osiander’s report does not mention a handshake.
At the Diet of Worms in April 1521, Martin Luther stood before the emperor. His writings were laid before him, and he was told to recant them in public. Luther had expected a discussion. He hesitated and asked for time to think.
The emperor gave him 24 hours. On the next day, 18 April, Luther answered: “Widerrufen kann und will ich nichts, weil es weder sicher noch geraten ist, etwas gegen sein Gewissen zu tun.” I cannot and will not recant anything, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience.
In September 1530, at Coburg, Martin Luther wrote his Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, an open letter on translating. In it he explained where to find the right German word. Man muss die Mutter im Hause, die Kinder auf der Gasse, den gemeinen Mann auf dem Markt danach fragen und denselbigen auf das Maul sehen, wie sie reden. You must ask the mother at home, the children in the street and the common man at the market, and watch their mouths to see how they speak. The same letter gives an example. Luther did not translate the Latin Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur word for word. He wrote Wes das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über, what fills the heart spills over from the mouth. Germans still use the line today.
Germans usually quote the principle as dem Volk aufs Maul schauen, to look the people on the mouth. That is a later short form. Luther’s own words were auf das Maul sehen.
In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther explains the commandment Du sollst den Feiertag heiligen, You shall keep the holy day holy. He writes that for Christians the Sabbath commandment is lifted in its outward, literal sense. But nature itself demands a day of rest for the common people, for servants and maids who have worked all week. In a modern German version, the text says that they should sich auch einen Tag lang zurückziehen, um sich auszuruhen und zu erquicken, also withdraw for a day to rest and refresh themselves.
From 1988 to 1989 the churches in East Germany held an Ecumenical Assembly on three themes at once: justice, peace and the integrity of creation. The plenary met in Magdeburg from 8 to 11 October 1988. On 30 April 1989 the results were handed to the 19 churches that had commissioned the assembly.
The three themes belong together in the churches’ thinking. In 2011 a synod paper of the Protestant Church in Central Germany spoke of “der gegenseitigen Abhängigkeit”, the mutual dependence, between justice, peace and the care of creation.
The Catholic Academy in Berlin calls the assembly a forerunner and signpost of the Peaceful Revolution of autumn 1989.
Totensonntag, the Sunday of the Dead, is the Protestant day of remembrance for the dead. Under the holiday laws it is a stiller Feiertag, a silent holiday, everywhere except Hamburg. The Protestant churches ask that Christmas markets open only after this day. The Bavarian Protestant church said in 2017: Darum plädieren wir dafür, die Weihnachtsmärkte erst nach dem Totensonntag zu beginnen. That is why we argue that the Christmas markets should begin only after Totensonntag. That year, however, markets in Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Munich, Lindau and Hamburg opened earlier. A church spokesperson in the Rhineland called this ein Ärgernis, an annoyance.
Berlin’s shop-opening law once allowed stores to open on all four Sundays in Advent. The Protestant church of Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz and the Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin challenged it at the Federal Constitutional Court. On 1 December 2009, the court ruled that the Advent Sunday rule did not agree with the constitutional guarantee of rest on Sundays and public holidays. Rest is the rule, and opening is the exception. The sales interests of shop owners and the everyday shopping interests of customers are not enough to justify opening. The rule remained valid only until 31 December 2009.
In Bavaria, Good Friday is one of the stille Tage, the silent days, under the state holiday law. On Good Friday, sports events are banned, and so is music of any kind in places that serve drinks. In 2007 the freethinkers’ association Bund für Geistesfreiheit planned a Heidenspaß-Party, a heathens’ fun party, in a Munich theater on Good Friday. The city banned it. The case went to the Federal Constitutional Court. In a decision of 27 October 2016, published in November, the court found the protection of the silent days constitutional in principle. The protection, it said, creates lediglich einen äußeren Ruherahmen, only an outer frame of quiet. The law must, however, allow exceptions for events protected by freedom of belief or assembly.