the idea of Luther in the Wartburg

so...having now seen the birth-house where Luther was not born, and the death-house where he did not die...today it was the room where he was for some 10 months (May 1521 to March 1522) in hiding, incognito, as "Knight George"...and in such conditions it seems that all agree that he unquestionably actually lived and worked in those two rooms of the Wartburg, where he translated the New Testament into German.

and yet...
acknowledgedly, nothing now ín the visitable room -- its desk, chair, stove, cabinet, bible -- is in fact Luthers..."except", the student-looking attendant said confidently, "the whale vertebra" (a foot rest?), which seems doubtful nonetheless.
hearing that the room is otherwise as it was in his time...meaning presumably the large supporting structural timbers above and in the wall, and the wooden wall boards (such modern nails they had in those times)...
here an example pic of what is there to see


but, more seriously...
what is it in fact: though one perhaps wants to feel, to find, to see more than remains, it is -- like that which one feels, finds and sees is missing at eg the Golgotha stone... what is it all in fact but an idea. rather, a story. Luther's story, and its part of our larger history. those who dont know, nor wish to, the details of the history, can look at the "furnishings". but otherwise, what can one gain, what might one, from what happened there almost 500 years ago?
it is the idea, the understanding of the story, rather than the building, the room, the -- however dramatic -- location. it is the New Testament he translated there, the story of the conditions in which he did it, that remains...that resonates.

the room may as well be empty, except for those who need the simple "image" that it was so when Luther was there, perhaps to imagine they are his things. for others, it is the part of the story that happened there, however unconvincing Luther's Wartburg rooms may now be.