Neal’s comments:

I first visited when it was still East Germany (I was at an international conference in Leipzig) and the DDR was gearing up to get as much money from Lutheran tourists as possible (the next year was some big Lutheran anniversary) and they had just renewed the ink spot (supposedly from the ink pot that Luther threw at the devil while he was translating the New Testament into German – but ink doesn’t last that long, hence the need to renew it — this spot is no longer there, the new Germany doesn’t do that kind of thing)

I also visited Erfurt when I was at the conference in Leipzig and loved it! I went back when I was doing a sabbatic in Salzburg, and Germany was still split, and was dismayed to find that Erfurt was completely in ruins! It turns out the communists were planning on letting it totally rot, then tear it down to make way for big new buildings — with lots of maneuvering room for corruption. Fortunately, the wall then came down and what was left of Erfurt was saved. Photos are from 1989-90.