Luther Library

Constructed in 1963, the new Guildhall is now home to the City Library. It is in charge of the Luther Library with its over 650 printed works from the Reformation era, including works by Luther and Melanchthon.

The most precious item is a parchment Bible from 1541 with a personal inscription by the reformer.
The works are not accessible to the public.

Max (von) Heyl donated the collection to the Paulus Library in Worms in 1883 on the occasion of Luther's 400th birthday celebrations. It contains mainly works by Luther in editions up to 1548 (pamphlets, Bible translations, Latin and German editions) and thus includes almost all the works that were presented to Luther for revocation at the Diet of Worms in 1521.

The copy of his pamphlet "An die Ratsherren aller Städte deutsches Lands" (Wittenberg 1524) was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2015. In it, Luther called for a humanistic education for boys and girls of all classes, primarily with the aim of enabling them to read the Bible for themselves. To this end, the councillors were to set up schools and libraries, which happened in Worms in 1527 with the establishment of the municipal Latin school - today known as Rudi-Stephan-Gymnasium.

The early print by Lucas Cranach and Christian Döring with a Renaissance woodcut title shows two putti holding a Luther rose in a medallion under the title.

The collection was put together by the Jewish bookseller and antiquarian Julius Stern from Worms on behalf of the founder. He also wrote the first catalog with 489 catalog numbers.

Some rare items in the collection came from the possession of the Mainz cathedral canon Friedrich Schneider, who was a friend of Max (von) Heyl. August Weckerling, the director of the Paulus Library, was authorized by the Wormser Altertumsverein to purchase further items for the Luther Library.

The collection was set up in the Paulus Museum, the forerunner of today's Municipal Museum, in a "Luther Room", which the Munich artist Lorenz Gedon had designed on Heyl's behalf with old German furniture and furnishings.