Lichtenburg Castle (Prettin)

Haus Lichtenbergk was the main branch of the Antonine Order in the Electoral District near Prettin. Its last preceptor, Wolfgang Reissenbusch, frequently visited Luther's house. As the last remaining Antonine monks turned to the Reformation in 1525, the monastery was dissolved. Individual monks received a life annuity. In the Antonine House Lichtenbergk, Martin Luther met the Elector of Saxony's Chancellor Georg Spalatin for the first time in 1518, who assured him of the support of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise for his ecclesiastical reform efforts.

The Antonine Monastery Lichtenbergk was first mentioned in a document in 1315. After its dissolution, Electress Elisabeth of Brandenburg, who had fled from her old-believing husband, lived in the former monastery from 1536 to 1546.

Later, August I of Saxony had the monastery buildings demolished and, at the request of his wife Anna, built a Renaissance castle, the "Lichtenburg". A prominent resident was the Saxon Electress Hedwig, widow of Elector Christian II, who had her dower house here from 1611 to 1641. Other residents: Electress Anna, builder of the Renaissance castle church St. Anna in 1581.

From 1812, the Lichtenburg became an Electoral Saxon prison – relocated here from Torgau. Later, the Lichtenburg became a Prussian penal institution, which, after the introduction of the Prussian Penal Code of 1851, served as a penitentiary for male prisoners in the Province of Saxony until its closure in 1928. Under the National Socialists, a concentration camp was established here from 1933 to 1937 for men, and thereafter until 1939 for women.

Today, the Lichtenburg is a museum of the city of Prettin and, since January 1, 2007, also part of the Saxony-Anhalt Memorials Foundation.