Nohra
About Nohra
A village of a few hundred people west of Weimar with two things behind it that nobody expects: a reception committee for Martin Luther in 1521, and an airfield that ran from the First World War until the Soviet army left in 1992.
Nohra in depth
Named in 1217, a church from 1303
Nohra appears in a document for the first time on 30 November 1217. Its church of St Peter is first mentioned in 1303, and its tower — visible from a long way off across this open country — stands 38 metres high. The parish covers about twenty square kilometres and the village has just under four hundred inhabitants, which is to say it is a village and not a town.
5 April 1521
On that day Martin Luther, travelling to the Diet of Worms, was received in Nohra by senior councillors and professors — a formal welcome laid on in a village on the road west. Six days later he would be standing in front of the Emperor. It is the kind of detail that makes a journey concrete: the most consequential trip in German religious history ran through here, and the reception party came out to meet him.
An airfield from 1916 to 1992
Construction of the Nohra airfield began in 1916/17, and the site was used in one way or another until 1992 — through two German states, a war, and forty years in which the Soviet army held the ground. The withdrawal of the former Soviet Union's forces in 1992 ended it.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Nohra known for?
- Nohra is known for two things nobody expects in a village this size: the formal reception of Martin Luther here on 5 April 1521, on his way to the Diet of Worms, and a military airfield built from 1916/17 and used until the Soviet withdrawal in 1992.
- What is Nohra's connection to Martin Luther?
- On 5 April 1521, travelling to the Diet of Worms, Luther was formally received in Nohra by senior councillors and professors — six days before he stood before the Emperor.
- How old is Nohra?
- Nohra is first documented on 30 November 1217, and its church of St Peter is first mentioned in 1303.
- What is there to see in Nohra?
- St Peter's church, whose tower stands 38 metres high and is visible across the open country around the village, and the site of the former Nohra airfield, in use from 1916/17 to 1992.
Quick Information
Northwest
Highlights & Attractions
Historical Significance
Eight centuries of village history with two national moments in it: Luther's passage to Worms in 1521, and a military airfield in use from the First World War to the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1992.
In the history of Nohra
Historical figures
1483–1546 • reformer • theologian • preacher
He was formally received here on 5 April 1521, on the road to the Diet of Worms.
Historical periods
Luther's passage through the village in 1521 puts Nohra in the same decade in which the Reformation reached Weimar's own pulpit.
For a hundred years Weimar is a Reformation town before it is anything else — and it becomes a capital by accident, because a prince who had lost everything else still had this place. The century leaves the town its market-square gables, an altarpiece the stewards rank among the main works of Reformation painting, and a court that never moved away again.
Stay and eat nearby
Where to eat
Hauptstraße 56a, OT Obernissa, Grammetal (Nohra)
In Obernissa, like Nohra a village of the Grammetal municipality.
Dorfstraße 35, OT Eichelborn, Grammetal (Nohra)
In Eichelborn, a village of the Grammetal municipality that our towns record calls Nohra.
Interesting reads
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
1759–1805 • writer • poet • historian
1739–1807 • duchess • regent • patron • composer
1883–1969 • architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
Historic sites
Frauenplan 1, 99423 Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar