The journal Die Christliche Welt, founded in 1886 by Martin Rade and others, initially remained firmly under the influence of its founders' Ritschlian school of thought, but quickly developed into a kind of internal communication medium for what it saw itself as free Protestantism. The life, work and, above all, the person of Martin Luther were central topics of discussion in the journal. The study traces significant steps in the transformation of Luther's reception in the Wilhelmine Empire and shows the connection between cultic-national and theological aspects by focusing on the concepts of experience and personality, which already at the turn of the century laid the foundations for the so-called Luther Renaissance.