500th birthday of Philipp Melanchthon - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1997 - 100 Pfennig

The humanist and reformer Philipp (Schwartzerdt) Melanchthon was born on 16 February 1497 in the Palatinate city of Bretten. With his grandmother he moved in 1508, after the death of his father, to Pforzheim and attended there the Latin school. Since then, he has received generous support from his great-uncle, the humanist Johannes Reuchlin, who in 1509 lent him the Greek spelling of his name, which was popular in humanist circles at the time: Philip Schwartzerdt became Philipp Melanchthon. After just one year, he moved to the University of Heidelberg. In 1511 he received his doctorate in Baccalaureate Artium. In 1512 he moved to the University of Tübingen, where in 1514 he acquired the academic degree of Magister Artium. In 1518, he was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg. There he becomes the closest colleague and friend of Martin Luther. With this he formulates the reformatory theology. In 1530 he wrote the so-called "Confessio Augustana" at the Reichstag in Augsburg, the most important Lutheran confessional text to this day. When Luther dies in 1546, he succeeds him. Melanchthon is particularly significant because of his pedagogical activities, which earned him the honorary title »Praeceptor Germaniae«, teacher of Germany, during his lifetime. On a theoretical level, he reconciles religion and education, reformatory theology and humanism, composes a series of school regulations as well as various educational works that have survived his time. (Text: Professor Dr. Horst F Rupp, University of Würzburg)