My Lord Katie: Katharina von Bora Luther

Home Life

Family Life

Katie was just what the Luther household needed. She brewed beer, bought cattle, drove a wagon, and was a loving wife and kind mother. Luther would call her the "boss of Zulsdorf," the name of the farm they owned.

The Luther house, which was the Black Cloister put to a new use, was so arranged that the living quarters surrounded the main living room, or Lutherstube. The kitchen was on the ground floor. The property was fenced off and the children would play in the yard. Included in the court yard was a garden where all sorts of vegetables were raised, a flower garden, and a brewery.

Luther was forty-two years old when he married Katie; she was twenty-six. They were married for twenty years and were blessed with six children. When the first born, Hans, had his first tooth, it was a national event.

Katie Luther & Hans,
listening attentively to the
Word of God preached by Dr. Luther
detail from the Cranach Altar in the city church at Wittenberg, oil on wood, 1547

Tradition has it that Katie Luther had this late gothic entrance installed as a surprise wedding anniversary present to her husband.
The Katharina Entryway, Luther House, Wittenberg, 1540

Monogamy

[Martin Luther said,] "The time will come when a man will take more than one wife."

The doctor's wife responded, "Let the devil believe that!"

The doctor said, "The reason, Katie, is that a woman can bear a child only once a year while her husband can beget many."

Katie responded, "Paul said that each man should have his own wife."

To this the doctor replied, "Yes, 'his own wife' and not 'only one wife,' for the latter isn't what Paul wrote."

The doctor kidded for a long time and finally the doctor's wife said, "Before I put up with this, I'd rather go back to the convent and leave you and all our children."

--Table Talk of Martin Luther, no. 1461