The story of this place
In April 1521, summoned before Emperor Charles V and the assembled princes at the Diet of Worms, the monk Martin Luther was ordered to renounce his writings against the Church. After a day's reflection he refused, declaring that unless convinced by Scripture and reason he could not recant, for 'to go against conscience is neither right nor safe' — words later crystallised as 'Here I stand, I can do no other.' The emperor declared him an outlaw, but the stand became a defining moment of the Reformation and of individual conscience against authority. The world's largest Reformation monument, unveiled in 1868, stands on the spot, showing Luther surrounded by earlier reformers and cities that embraced Protestantism.