During 1999, the five hundredth anniversary of Katharina von Bora's birth was marked by celebrations in her native land. Much has been published about Katharina, Martin Luther's wife, and more is published every year. Through five centuries she has been portrayed very differently according to the values of each period. Primary sixteenth-century sources, including Luther's letters and table talk, other contemporary letters and documents, and Katharina's own surviving correspondence provide a sketchy account of her life. Contemporary polemical attacks on the marriage of an ex-nun to an ex-monk, in Catholic controversialist literature and illustrations, resulted in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century refutational works, followed by parallel tracks of nineteenth-century classic scholarly studies and works of sentimental idealization. Mid-twentieth-century works, including a fictional account of Katharina's own table talk, emphasize her perceived feminist qualities. Translations of some of her surviving letters are appended.