Museum Winter: Devotion to the Virgin Mary on the Eve of the Reformation

Kickoff event for this year's "Museum Winter" lecture series featuring Prof. Dr. Marc von der Höh

On the eve of the Reformation, devotion to the Virgin Mary reached a final peak in the Hanseatic cities of the southern Baltic region: brotherhoods and Marian altars, Rosary devotions, and memorial endowments shaped religious life. Regional church historiography, shaped by the Reformation, has long regarded these practices exclusively as superstition. This lecture offers an alternative perspective to these interpretations, one that focuses less on moral judgment and more on the role these forms of piety played in urban society.