Ernst Rietschel designed the group in 1859. He completed the sculptures of Luther and John Wycliff but died in 1861. The other statues were mostly executed by his pupils. Adolf von Donndorf contributed standing figures of Reuchlin and Frederick the Wise of Saxony, seated figures of Girolamo Savonarola, Peter Waldo and an allegorical statue (with mural crown) representing the town of Magdeburg grieving after the Sack of Magdeburg in 1631, as well as reliefs. Johannes Schilling created a statue for the town of Speyer, the location of the Protestation at Speyer in 1539. made statues of Jan Hus, Philipp Melanchthon, Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and one for the town of Augsburg, where the Augsburg Confession was first presented in 1530. The architect Georg Hermann Nicolai, a pupil of Gottfried Semper, was also involved. The monument was cast at the .