Are there any living descendants of Martin Luther?
The answer posted above is not correct. Yes, Martin Luther has living descendants through his youngest daughter, Margarethe, but he also has descendants through his son, Dr. Paul Luther. I am descended from one of Paul’s granddaughters, Maria Magdalena Luther, who married David Teubner in Zeitz in 1640.
The Lutheriden Association (http://www.lutheriden.de/) is a membership organization that consists of descendants of the reformer Martin Luther and his collateral relatives. They are experts on the family tree of Martin Luther. The known lineages of Martin Luther through 1939 are in a document posted here: http://www.lutheriden.de/contao_2-11-2/tl_files/lutheriden/stammbaum/nachkommentafel.pdf
A good explanation of Luther’s family tree is found in this posting to the GEN-MEDIEVAL forum in 1995. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/gen-medieval/1995-12/0819056631
I was not aware the belief that Martin Luther only had descendants through his daughter had prolifereated so extemsively on the Internet, but apparently it has.
Yes. “All living descendants of Luther trace their lineage through his youngest daughter, Margarethe.” http://www.canadafirst.net/our_heritage/luther/index.html “Margarethe married into a noble and wealthy Prussian family. Her untimely death came in 1570 at the age of 36. Her descendants, and therefore Martin Luther’s offspring, have continued to the present time. How many? As of September 2004 there were 351 members in the German Association of Lutherides. This is a society whose members are all descendants of Martin Luther’s family, reaching back to his grandfather’s generation. There are undoubtedly many more descendants who don’t realize their connection to the 16th century Reformer.” http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl “However, her descendants have continued to the present, and include President Paul von Hindenburg, the Counts zu Eulenburg, and Princes zu Eulenburg und Hertefeld.” http://en.wikipedia.
