Day 05 - Augsburg/Neuschwanstein/Fuessen

It’s Friday night in Füssen, and we are going to bed in the small German town in the valley below the majestic Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle and its gorgeous view seemed fitting for our last night in Germany. 

Our “idea of the day” was the distinction between Law and Gospel. Learning to distinguish these was a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation. And while not everyone understood it the same, by thinking through the difference between “thou shalt” and “it is finished”. Our devotional from Galatians 3 followed this distinction in verse 11, “clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because 'the righteous will live by faith”. 

Having left Nuremberg and set off for one of the oldest cities in Germany, Augsburg. It was founded in 15 BC and named for Caesar Augustus, whom we read about in Luke 2 (in those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree).

The once “Imperial Free City” was built with money from the Fugger banking dynasty and, despite being in Catholic Bavaria, was one of the first to embrace the Reformation. 

We visited St. Anna’s church and saw a place of worship with medieval roots (in the Goldsmith’s Chapel) and obviously Early Modern influences from its days during the Reformation. The ceiling was blindingly Baroque!

From the church, we went to the Town Hall, where the Augsburg Confession was presented to Emperor Charles V in 1530. Later, this was the site for the epoch-making Peace of Augsburg, which formally legalized Lutheran churches (if the local magistrate chose to be Lutheran). This would obviously leave a problem for the other churches of the Reformation, which we will learn about as we pivot towards Switzerland. 

We ended at the most famous castle—Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Walt Disney and a UNESCO site that has welcomed over 70 million guests.