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The Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al 2026 in Wittenberg

Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al, Wit­ten­berg 2026 – You’re invited!

Dis­cov­er his­tor­ic sites, a fest­ive atmo­sphere and a wide range of events in the Old Town

On 31 Octo­ber 1517, Mar­tin Luth­er made his­tory: by nail­ing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wit­ten­berg, he set in motion a move­ment that pro­foundly trans­formed the Church, soci­ety and cul­ture, and laid the found­a­tions for the estab­lish­ment of Prot­est­ant churches. 

Today, vis­it­ors can exper­i­ence Luther’s fas­cin­at­ing stor­ies and ideas first-hand at the ori­gin­al sites. 

Wheth­er at the grand torch­light pro­ces­sion with col­our­ful lan­terns, at the his­tor­ic mar­ket brim­ming with music, crafts and street per­formers, or in the churches with fest­ive ser­vices, con­certs and guided tours – the Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al in Wit­ten­berg offers some­thing for all gen­er­a­tions. Immerse your­self in his­tory, join in the cel­eb­ra­tions and enjoy the unique atmo­sphere of this city of the Reformation. 

That was the Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al 2025
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High­lights

The Grand Parade of Lights

On 31 Octo­ber 2026 at 5.00 pm, a fest­ive torch­light pro­ces­sion will take place from the Luth­er House through Wittenberg’s old town to the Schlosswiese.

The lights, car­ried by loc­al res­id­ents, vis­it­ors and his­tor­ic­al soci­et­ies, will serve as a sym­bol of hope, com­munity and renew­al – a uni­fy­ing exper­i­ence for all generations.

Five worlds – one celebration!

New to our pro­gramme: Take a jour­ney through time with the photo booth

On Schlossplatz, near the Thesentür, a photo booth invites vis­it­ors to embark on a per­son­al jour­ney through time for the first time. Guests arrive in their every­day clothes – and find them­selves in the middle of the Reform­a­tion era in their pho­to­graph. Five spe­cially designed scenes offer dif­fer­ent per­spect­ives on life some 500 years ago: from a tongue-in-cheek pat on the back with the Reformers, to the nail­ing of the theses to the door of the Castle Church, to Luther’s table talks and a vis­it to Cranach’s stu­dio. No spe­cial cos­tume is required. The AI-powered photo booth com­bines his­tor­ic­al back­drops with the present day, cre­at­ing a per­son­al­ised memento of your vis­it to the festival.

Great­er poten­tial for recyc­ling at the Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al 2026

The Recyc­ling Chal­lenge in Luth­er­stadt Wittenberg

The his­tor­ic Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al in 2026 will bring tra­di­tion and the future togeth­er.
Under the slo­gan ​‘Recyc­ling Chal­lenge’, a spe­cial cam­paign is being launched to pro­mote bet­ter waste sort­ing and put sus­tain­ab­il­ity into practice.

On 31 Octo­ber, enthu­si­ast­ic school pupils will be out and about in Luth­er­stadt Wit­ten­berg to show shop­keep­ers and vis­it­ors how waste can be turned into a valu­able raw mater­i­al. Armed with inform­a­tion leaf­lets and yel­low bags, they’ll be explain­ing the cor­rect way to sort waste, recyc­ling pro­cesses and the bene­fits of single-sort recyclables. 🔄

All the bags of recyc­lables col­lec­ted will be sor­ted and dis­posed of prop­erly – res­ult­ing in new mater­i­als and valu­able insights: just how much recyc­ling poten­tial does a big fest­iv­al actu­ally hold?

What you can exper­i­ence with us

Pro­gramme highlights 
at a glance

  • Tra­di­tion­al his­tor­ic­al mar­ket spectacle
  • Con­certs and fest­ive church services
  • fas­cin­at­ing guided tours of the town
  • Inter­act­ive activ­it­ies at the fam­ous Thesentür
  • A spe­cial high­light this year: the torch­light pro­ces­sion at 5.00 pm
Beim Abspielen des Videos werden externe Inhalte von YouTube geladen.
Dabei werden durch den jeweiligen Anbieter Informationen über den Nutzer erfasst. Es kann hierbei nicht ausgeschlossen werden, dass eine Verarbeitung der so erhobenen Daten in den USA stattfindet. Nähere Informationen entnehmen Sie bitte unserer Datenschutzerklärung.

Prac­tic­al information 
for visitors

  • Free admis­sion: The His­tor­ic Mar­ket Spec­tacle is free of charge through­out the entire event area.
  • Ded­ic­ated park­ing: Addi­tion­al park­ing is avail­able near Wittenberg’s old town.
  • Shops open: Wittenberg’s town centre is the per­fect place to shop, stroll and relax, even on this pub­lic holiday.

Reform­a­tion Fest­iv­al: A Visu­al Guide

Source: RBW Fernse­hgesell­schaft mbH

Con­tact

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06886 Lutherstadt Wittenberg