Katharina von Bora

Katharina von Bora was born on January 29, 1499, in Lippendorf in Saxony. As the daughter of an impoverished nobleman, she was forced to spend her childhood in a convent, sharing the fate that befell many other young women at the time. Here, she learned reading, writing, arithmetic and Latin. In 1523, she and eleven other nuns escaped from Marienthron convent in Nimbschen. Legend has it that Leonard Koppe, a merchant from Torgau, smuggled them out in fish barrels. Some of the nuns were put up by respectable middle-class families in Wittenberg. Katharina von Bora went to live in the house of the painter Lucas Cranach.

On June 13, 1525, the runaway nun Katharina von Bora married the former monk Martin Luther. They moved into an old Augustinian abbey in Wittenberg. Katharina managed and administered the vast household, which was home to their six own children, foster children from Luther's family, students, employees and lodgers. She had a good head for business and made a significant contribution to the family's later prosperity, taking care of the money, being in charge of a farm and organizing renovation work to the abbey. She also found time to run a brewery and leased a branch of the river Elbe for farming fish. For Luther, she was a beloved companion who he often called by nicknames such as "my lord Katie". In his last will and testament, he named her as the sole beneficiary of his estate and guardian of their children. This exceptional provision conflicted with contemporary law, which decreed that a guardian must be appointed for the widow. The will was contested and the family lost some of their major sources of income. In 1552, Katharina von Bora fled the plague with her daughter Margarete and her daughter's family. They left Wittenberg and headed for Torgau. Katharina was involved in an accident on the way and died from her injuries on December 29, 1552, in Torgau.