My friend David Mathis was reading a bio on Martin Luther and stumbled upon this excerpt from Twelve Reformation Heroes by G. A. Neilson:
I take great joy in knowing (or hoping) that one of my direct ancestors (or someone’s ancestor) was a “chum” of Luther, and helped feed the starving boy. My guess is without this clever Reinke intervention Martin would have starved and the spark of the reformation would have been extinguished.
I’ve never been more proud to be called Reinke! So thank you, David! This excerpt makes my reformation day.
Tony Reinke 
Does any of that goodness rub off on me if I touch my computer screen?
Hee hee!
I have two toebones from said Reinke and for a mere $500 you can gaze on each and reduce your time in blogatory by 1000 years!
I always wondered just how to pronounce “Reinke”.
It was fun practicing, though the manly part of the “manly, deep and robust German declaration” was missing. It just wasn’t quite robust enough I am sure.
How interesting about John Reinke!
That’s quite the honour Tony. Very nice.
I’m curious about the pronunciation of your name. Generally in German the “ei” dipthong takes the sound of the second vowel, so that “ei” is pronounced as the long “i”, or, “eye”, such as in “Reich”. Accordingly, I would have thought Reinke would have been pronounced, “RINE-KAH, not RAIN-KAH.
Here I’ve been pronouncing your name wrong all along, and it will take some effort to pronounce the dipthong as “ay”.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Reformationstag!
Yes, it was RINE-KAH but I don’t like the sound of it so I changed the official German pronunciation to RAIN-KAH. When you preserve the reformation you can do things like that.
I’ve found that Germans themselves change pronunciation of their own words anyway. So, I suppose you have the power to do the same. :)
Oh, and thanks for saving the reformation, by the way. You’re a chum! :)
Finally, Emily, finally! You are the first to thank me for helping to save the reformation. I’m honored to be thanked. It’s so undeserved, yet I’m thankful to be honored. Your chum. Tony
how could I not thank you? its a big deal, after all.
After years of having my last name butchered or putting up with being called ‘Stinky Reinke’, this is great news! Will pass along to all my friends and family and work on my new, more authentic German introduction. Thanks, Tony.