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] views on the Jews are described as racial or religious ], <ref>], <cite>A History of the Jews</cite>, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), p. 242.</ref> or as ]. <ref>], "Luther and the Jews." <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite> 123 (2004) No. 4:19.</ref> In his pamphlet ''Von den Juden und ihren Lügen'' ('']''), published in 1543, he wrote that Jews' ]s should be set on fire, ]s destroyed, ]s forbidden to preach, homes "smashed and destroyed," property seized, money confiscated, and that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be drafted into forced labor or expelled "for all time." <ref>], "On the Jews and Their Lies," Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), pp. 268-271.</ref> He also appeared to sanction their murder: <ref>], "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'', 46:4 (Autumn 1985), pp. 343.</ref> "Jerusalem was destroyed over 1400 years ago, and at that time we Christians were harassed and persecuted by the Jews throughout the world ... So we are even at fault for not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for 300 years after the destruction of Jerusalem ... We are at fault in not slaying them." <ref>''On the Jews and Their Lies'' quoted in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'', 46:4, (Autumn 1985), pp. 343-4.</ref> | |||
| image = Von den Jüden und iren Lügen (cover).png | |||
| language = German | |||
| caption = Title page of Martin Luther's ''On the Jews and Their Lies'' | |||
| genre = Religion | |||
| country = ] | |||
| published = 1543 | |||
| wikisource = The Jews and Their Lies | |||
| subjects = ], ] | |||
| native_external_url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qqhcAAAAcAAJ | |||
| native_external_host = ] | |||
| orig_lang_code = de | |||
}} | |||
{{short description|Book by Martin Luther}} | |||
{{Italic title}}'''''On the Jews and Their Lies''''' ({{langx|de|Von den Jüden und iren Lügen}}; in modern spelling {{lang|de| Von den Juden und ihren Lügen}}) is a 65,000-word ] treatise written in 1543 by the German ] leader ] (1483–1546).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pthu.nl/Over-PThU/Organisatie/Medewerkers/m.matthias/downloads/09-luther-von-den-juden-und-ihren-luegen-wa-53-417ff.pdf |title=M. Luther, Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, WA 53, 417-552 |website=pthu.nl |language=de}}</ref> | |||
Luther's attitude toward Jews took different forms during his lifetime. In his earlier period, until about 1537, he wanted to convert Jews to ] (Protestant Christianity). In his later period when he wrote ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', he ].<ref name="jencyclo">{{cite web |last1=Deutsch |first1=Gotthard |title=Luther, Martin |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10196-luther-martin |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com |access-date=4 March 2024 |pages=213-215 |language=en |date=1906}} See also the note ''supra'' referring to Robert Michael.</ref> | |||
British historian ] has called ''On the Jews and their Lies'' the "first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the ]." <ref name=Johnson242>Johnson, <cite>A History of the Jews</cite>, p. 242.</ref> Four centuries after it was written, the ] cited Luther's treatise to justify the ]. <ref>Egil Grislis, "Martin Luther and the Jews," <cite>Consensus</cite> 27 (2001) No. 1:64. </ref> Uwe Siemon-Netto, a veteran German journalist and Lutheran lay theologian working in the United States, argues against linking Luther to the anti-Semitism of the Nazis: "Most of Luther’s anti-Jewish diatribes were forgotten until anti-Semites dug them up in the 20th century. To suggest that Lutheran theology turned Germans into Nazis is a false charge that simply cannot be substantiated by the facts." <ref name=”SiemonNetto2”>], "Luther and the Jews." <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite> 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21."</ref> Since the 1980s, ] bodies and organizations have begun a process of formally denouncing these writings.<ref name=declaration1>, ]. (Retrieved December 15, 2005); http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/interfaithrelations/jewish/declaration.html "Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community]", ], April 18, 1994. (Retrieved December 15, 2005);, ], July 12 - 16, 1995. (Retrieved December 20, 2005); . The Evangelical Churches in Austria and the Jews. Declaration of the General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B., October 28, 1998. (Retrieved December 18, 2005); , November 24, 1998. (Retrieved December 18, 2005) Also printed in <cite>Freiburger Rundbrief</cite> 6:3 (1999), pp.191-197.</ref> | |||
In this treatise, he argues that Jewish ]s and ] be set on fire, ]s be destroyed, ]s forbidden to preach, Jewish homes burned, and property and money confiscated. Luther demanded that no mercy or kindness be given to Jews,<ref>Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'' 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 342.</ref> that they be afforded no legal protection,<ref name=Michael343>Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'' 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 343.</ref> and "these poisonous envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled forever.<ref name= Luther1>]. ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', ''Luthers Werke''. 47:268–271; Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in ''Luther's Works''. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971).</ref> He also seems to advocate murder of Jews, writing "e are at fault in not slaying them".<ref>]. ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', cited in Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'' 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.</ref> | |||
==Luther's statements about the Jews== | |||
===Luther's Spalatin Letter=== | |||
Luther's first known comment on the Jews is in a letter written to Reverend Spalatin in ]: | |||
<blockquote>I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted. He who neither reads nor understands this, as yet knows no theology, in my opinion. And I presume the men of Cologne cannot understand the Scripture, because it is necessary that such things take place to fulfill prophecy. If they are trying to stop the Jews blaspheming, they are working to prove the Bible and God liars.</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>But trust God to be true, even if a million men of Cologne sweat to make him false. Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working -- or rather playing -- from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as ] says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction. <ref>Martin Luther, "," in <cite>Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporaneous Letters</cite>, trans. ] (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), 1:29.</ref></blockquote> | |||
The book may have had an impact on creating later antisemitic German thought.<ref name=Wallmann1987 /> With the rise of the ] in ], the book became widely popular among Nazi supporters. During ], copies of the book were commonly seen at Nazi rallies, and the prevailing scholarly consensus is that it may have had a significant impact on justifying ].<ref name=ellis /> Since then, the book has been denounced by many Lutheran churches.<ref name=BavariaChurch /> | |||
===Servitude of the Jews=== | |||
In ], Luther challenged the doctrine "Servitus Judaeorum" ("Servitude of the Jews"), established in '']'' by ] in ]. He wrote: "Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. ... What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them—that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?" <ref>Luther quoted in Elliot Rosenberg, <cite>But Were They Good for the Jews?</cite> (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997), p.65.</ref> | |||
==Content== | |||
=== Commentary on the Magnificat === | |||
In the treatise, Martin Luther describes Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of ], and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth".<ref>Luther, Martin. ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', 154, 167, 229, cited in Michael, Robert. ''Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 111.</ref> Furthermore, Luther writes that the ] has been an "incorrigible whore and an evil slut".<ref name=Michael112>Michael, Robert, ''Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 112.</ref> | |||
In his commentary on the <cite>Magnificat</cite>, Martin Luther is critical of the emphasis Judaism places on ]. He states that they "undertook to keep the law by their own strength, and failed to learn from it their needy and cursed state." <ref>Martin Luther, <cite>The Magnificat</cite>, Trans. A. T. W. Steinhaeuser, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 21:354.</ref> Yet, he concludes, that God's grace will continue for Jews as Abraham's descendents for all time, since they may always become Christians. <ref>Russell Briese, "Martin Luther and the Jews," <cite>Lutheran Forum</cite> 34 (2000) No. 2:32.</ref> "We ought...not to treat the Jews in so unkindly a spirit, for there are future Christians among them." <ref>Luther, <cite>Magnificat</cite>, 21:354f.</ref> | |||
In the first ten sections of the treatise, Luther expounds, at considerable length, upon his views concerning Jews and Judaism and how these compare to ] and Protestant Christianity. Following the exposition, Section XI of the treatise advises Protestants to carry out seven remedial actions, namely:<ref name=Luther2>Luther, Martin. ''The Jews and Their Lies'', (Publisher: Christian Nationalist Crusade, 1948).</ref> | |||
===''That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew''=== | |||
In his 1523 essay ''That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew'', Luther condemned the inhuman treatment of the Jews and urged Christians to treat them kindly. Luther's fervent desire was that Jews would hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly and be moved to convert to Christianity. Thus he argued: | |||
# to burn down Jewish synagogues and ] and warn people against them | |||
<blockquote>If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery...If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position we should remember that we are but ]s, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are...If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either. <ref>Martin Luther, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew," Trans. Walter I. Brandt, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 200-201, 229.</ref></blockquote> | |||
# to refuse to let Jews own houses among Christians | |||
# to take away Jewish religious writings | |||
# to forbid ]s from preaching | |||
# to offer no protection to Jews on highways | |||
# for ] to be prohibited and for all Jews' silver and gold to be removed, put aside for safekeeping, and given back to Jews who truly convert | |||
# to give young, strong Jews flail, axe, spade, and spindle, and let them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow | |||
Luther's essay consistently distinguishes between Jews who accept Christianity (with whom he has no issues) and Jews who practice Judaism (whom he excoriates viciously).<ref>{{cite book | |||
=== Luther and Josel of Rosheim === | |||
| last1 = Luther | |||
In August ], Luther's prince ] issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm. | |||
| first1 = Martin | |||
An ] ], Rabbi ], asked a reformer ] to approach Luther in order to obtain an audience with the prince, but Luther refused every intercession. <ref>Martin Brecht, <cite>Martin Luther</cite> (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985-1993), 3:336.</ref> | |||
| year = 1543 | |||
In response to Josel, Luther referred to his unsuccessful attempts to convert the Jews: "... I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good lord." <ref>Luther’s letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, ''Martin Luther and the Jews'' (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to , this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther’s works.</ref> ] notes this event as significant in Luther’s attitude toward the Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther’s career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews." <ref>], ''Luther: Man Between God and the Devil'' (New York: Image Books, 1989), p.293.</ref> | |||
| title = Von den Jüden und iren Lügen | |||
The order of expulsion was repealed after Josel found an occasion to appeal to the prince in 1539. | |||
| trans-title = On the Jews and their lies | |||
| url = http://jdstone.org/cr/files/martin_luther/onthejewsandtheirlies01.html | |||
| publisher = Christianity-Revealed.com | |||
| publication-date = 2011 | |||
| access-date = 2019-04-05 | |||
| quote = If God is to become gracious also to them, the Jews, they must first of all banish such blasphemous prayers and songs, that boast so arrogantly about their lineage, from their synagogues, from their hearts, and from their lips, for such prayers ever increase and sharpen God's wrath toward them . However, they will not do this, nor will they humble themselves abjectly, except for a few individuals whom God draws unto himself particularly and delivers from their terrible ruin. | |||
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | |||
| last1 = Luther | |||
| first1 = Martin | |||
| year = 1543 | |||
| title = Von den Jüden und iren Lügen | |||
| trans-title = On the Jews and their lies | |||
| url = http://jdstone.org/cr/files/martin_luther/onthejewsandtheirlies11.html | |||
| publisher = Christianity-Revealed.com | |||
| publication-date = 2011 | |||
| access-date = 2019-04-05 | |||
| quote = I advise that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. | |||
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | |||
| last1 = Luther | |||
| first1 = Martin | |||
| year = 1543 | |||
| title = Von den Jüden und iren Lügen | |||
| trans-title = On the Jews and their lies | |||
| url = http://jdstone.org/cr/files/martin_luther/onthejewsandtheirlies12.html | |||
| publisher = Christianity-Revealed.com | |||
| publication-date = 2011 | |||
| access-date = 2019-04-05 | |||
| quote = they did not know at that time that it was God's word; but now they have been informed of it these fifteen hundred years. All right, let them even now hear and believe it, and all will be simple. | |||
}}</ref> | |||
The tract specifically acknowledges that many early Christians, including prominent ones, had a Judaic background.<ref>{{cite book | |||
===''On the Jews and Their Lies''=== | |||
| last1 = Luther | |||
{{main|On the Jews and Their Lies}} | |||
| first1 = Martin | |||
] | |||
| year = 1543 | |||
| title = Von den Jüden und iren Lügen | |||
| trans-title = On the Jews and their lies | |||
| url = http://jdstone.org/cr/files/martin_luther/onthejewsandtheirlies13.html | |||
| publisher = Christianity-Revealed.com | |||
| publication-date = 2011 | |||
| access-date = 2019-04-05 | |||
| quote = For more than one hundred years after Jesus' resurrection there were always bishops in Jerusalem from the tribe of the children of Israel, a of whom our Eusebius mentions by name (Eccl. Hist., Bk. 4, ch. 5). He begins with St. James the apostle and enumerates about fifteen of them, a of whom preached the gospel with great diligence, performed miracles and lived a holy life, converting many thousands of Jews and children of Israel to their promised Messiah who had now appeared, Jesus of Nazareth; apart from these there were the Jews living in the Diaspora who were converted together with the Gentiles by St. Paul, other apostles, and their disciples. This was accomplished despite the fact that the other faction, the blind, impenitent Jews the fathers of the present-day Jews raved, raged, and ranted against it without letup and without ceasing, and shed much blood of members of their own race both within their own country and abroad among the Gentiles . The peoples, that is, not only the Jews but also the Gentiles, are in perfect accord in their obedience ; they have become one people, that is, Christians. | |||
}}</ref> | |||
==Evolution of Luther's views== | |||
In ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', written in 1543 three years before his death, Luther recommends that Jews be deprived of money, civil rights, religious teaching, and education, and that they be forced to labor on the land, or else be expelled from Germany and possibly killed. <!--what is the point of this quote? can we introduce it in some way?He states: "There is one thing about which they boast and pride themselves beyond measure, and that is their descent from the foremost people on earth, from ], ], ], ], ], and from the twelve ]s, and thus from the ]."--> | |||
{{main|Martin Luther and antisemitism}} | |||
===Medieval Church and the Jews=== | |||
He refers to Jews as "a brood of vipers and children of the devil" (from ] 12:34), "miserable, blind, and senseless", "truly stupid fools", "thieves and robbers", "lazy rogues", "daily murderers", and "vermin", likens them to "gangrene", and recommends that Jewish ]s and schools be burned, their homes razed and destroyed, their writings confiscated, their rabbis forbidden to teach, their travel restricted, that lending money be outlawed for them, and that they be forced to earn their wages in farming. Luther advised "f we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs." | |||
{{Antisemitism |expanded=Publications}} | |||
In conclusion, he wrote: | |||
Early in his life, Luther had argued that Jews had been prevented from ] by the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure ] by the ], and he believed they would respond favorably to the ] message if it were presented to them gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that ] was born a Jew was committing ].<ref name=Berenbaum8/> | |||
<blockquote>There is no other explanation for this than the one cited earlier from Moses — namely, that God has struck with 'madness and blindness and confusion of mind.' So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them. Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite all their murdering, cursing, blaspheming, lying, and defaming; we protect and shield their synagogues, houses, life, and property. In this way we make them lazy and secure and encourage them to fleece us boldly of our money and goods, as well as to mock and deride us, with a view to finally overcoming us, killing us all for such a great sin, and robbing us of all our property (as they daily pray and hope). Now tell me whether they do not have every reason to be the enemies of us accursed Goyim, to curse us and to strive for our final, complete, and eternal ruin! <ref>Martin Luther, <cite>On the Jews and Their Lies</cite>, Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:267.</ref></blockquote> | |||
Luther's first known comment about Jewish people is in a letter written to ] in 1514: | |||
Luther advocated an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews either by ] or by expulsion: | |||
{{bquote|Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working – or rather playing – from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as ] says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.<ref>Martin Luther, "" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702190514/http://www.ctsfw.edu/etext/luther/letters/LuthertoSpalatin.txt |date=2007-07-02}}, in ''Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporaneous Letters'', trans. ] (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), 1:29.</ref>}} | |||
# "First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..." | |||
# "Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ..." | |||
# "Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ..." | |||
# "Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ..." | |||
# "Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ..." | |||
# "Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. ... Such money should now be used in ... the following ... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed ..." | |||
# "Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow... For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants." | |||
# "If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs." <ref>Luther, <cite>On the Jews</cite>, 47:268-288, 292.</ref> | |||
In 1519, Luther challenged the doctrine '']'' ("Servitude of the Jews"), established in {{lang|la|]}} by ] in 529. He wrote: "Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. ... What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them – that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?" | |||
===''Schem Hamephoras'' and Luther's final sermon=== | |||
Several months after publishing ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', Luther wrote another attack on Jews titled ''Schem Hamephoras'', in which he explicitly equated Jews with the Devil. <ref>, ]. (Retrieved December 15, 2005)</ref> | |||
In his commentary on the '']'', Luther is critical of the emphasis Judaism places on the ], the first five books of the ]. He states that they "undertook to keep the law by their own strength, and failed to learn from it their needy and cursed state".<ref>Martin Luther, ''The Magnificat'', trans. A. T. W. Steinhaeuser, in ''Luther's Works'' (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 21:354.</ref> Yet, he concludes that God's grace will continue for Jews as ]'s descendants for all time, since they may always become Christians.<ref>Russell Briese, "Martin Luther and the Jews", ''Lutheran Forum'' 34 (2000) No. 2:32.</ref> "We ought ... not to treat the Jews in so unkindly a spirit, for there are future Christians among them."<ref>Luther, ''Magnificat'', 21:354f.</ref> | |||
In his final sermon shortly before his death, Luther preached "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord." <ref>Martin Luther, <cite>D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe</cite>, Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1920),51:195. Hereafter cited WA.</ref> | |||
In his 1523 essay ''That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew'', Luther condemned the inhuman treatment of Jews and urged Christians to treat them kindly. Luther's fervent desire was that Jews would hear the gospel proclaimed clearly and be moved to convert to Christianity. Thus he argued: | |||
==The influence of Luther's views== | |||
===16th and 17th century=== | |||
Paul Johnson notes Luther's influence on the fate of German Jews: "Luther was not content with verbal abuse. Even before he wrote his anti-Semitic pamphlet, he got Jews expelled from ] in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from ] in 1543. His followers continued to agitate against Jews there: they sacked ] in 1572 and the following year finally got their way, the Jews being banned from the entire country." <ref name=Johnson242/> | |||
{{bquote|If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery ... If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us ] as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are ... If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.<ref>Martin Luther, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew", trans. Walter I. Brandt, in ''Luther's Works'' (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 200–201, 229.</ref>|sign=|source=}} | |||
In 1543, Luther's Prince, Elector John Frederick of Saxony, revoked some of the concessions he gave to Josel of Rosheim in 1539. Johann of Küstrin, Margrave of Neumark, repealed the safe conduct of Jews in his territories. ] added restrictions to his <cite>Order Concerning the Jews</cite>. No ruler attempted to enact all of Luther's recommendations. <ref>Mark U. Edwards, Jr. <cite>Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics, 1531-46</cite> (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), pp. 135-136.</ref> | |||
===Against the Jews=== | |||
During the twenty-five years following Luther's death, Luther's polemics had very little effect on the treatment of Jews. In the 1570s, however, Pastor Georg Nigrinus published a book, <cite>Enemy Jew</cite>, which reiterated Luther's anti-Jewish program of <cite>On the Jews and Their Lies</cite>, and ], one of the authors of the <cite>]</cite>, reprinted Luther's <cite>Against the Sabbatarians</cite>, <cite>On the Jews and Their Lies</cite>, and <cite>Vom Schem Hamphoras</cite>. Neither appear to have influenced either princes or the general population. <ref name="Wallmann1">Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." <cite>Lutheran Quarterly</cite> ns 1 (1987) No. 1:72-78.</ref> | |||
In August 1536, Luther's prince, ], issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm. An ] ], Rabbi ], asked a reformer, ], to approach Luther in order to obtain an audience with the prince, but Luther refused every intercession.<ref>Martin Brecht, ''Martin Luther'' (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336.</ref> In response to Josel, Luther referred to his unsuccessful attempts to convert Jews: "I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good Lord."<ref>Luther's letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, ''Martin Luther and the Jews'' (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to {{cite web |url=http://www.ntrmin.org/Luther%20and%20the%20Jews%20(Web).htm |title=Luther and the Jews |access-date=2017-03-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051104181522/http://www.ntrmin.org/Luther%20and%20the%20Jews%20%28Web%29.htm |archive-date=2005-11-04}}. This paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.</ref> ] notes this event as significant in Luther's attitude toward Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther's career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews";<ref>], ''Luther: Man Between God and the Devil'' (New York: Image Books, 1989), p.293.</ref> yet, Oberman contends that Luther would have denied any such "turning point". Rather he felt that Jews were to be treated in a "friendly way" in order to avoid placing unnecessary obstacles in their path to Christian conversion, a genuine concern of Luther.<ref>cf. Luther's "]" (1546); original German text: ''Weimar Ausgabe'' 51:194–196; J. G. Walch, ''Dr. Martin Luthers Sämmtliche Schriften'', 23 vols. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1883), 12:1264–1267).</ref> | |||
] writes that "Luther was not content with verbal abuse. Even before he wrote his anti-Semitic pamphlet, he got Jews expelled from ] in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from ] in 1543."<ref name=Johnson242>]. ''A History of the Jews'', p. 242.</ref> | |||
Luther's treatises against the Jews were reprinted early in the 17th century at ], where they were seized by the Emperor. In 1613 and 1617, they were again published at ] in support of the banishment of Jews from Frankfurt and ]. These editions were the last popular publication of these works prior to the 20th Century. <ref>Wallman, p. 78.</ref> | |||
] writes that Luther's reliance on the ] as the sole source of Christian authority fed his later fury toward Jews over their rejection of Jesus as the ].<ref name=Berenbaum8>]. ''The World Must Know'', ], pp. 8–9.</ref> For Luther, salvation depended on ] ], a belief that ]. Graham Noble writes that Luther wanted to save Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance", which produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own brand of Christianity". (Noble, 1–2) When they did not convert, he turned on them.<ref name=Michael1985>Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews", ''Encounter'' 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.</ref> | |||
===The Nazis === | |||
The line of "anti-Semitic descent" from Luther to Hitler is "easy to draw," <ref>]. ''The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945''. First published 1975; this Bantam edition 1986, p.23. ISBN 055334532X</ref> according to American historian ]. In her ''The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945'', she writes that both Luther and Hitler were obsessed by the "demonologized universe" inhabited by Jews, with Hitler asserting that the later Luther, the author of ] was the real Luther. <ref name=Dawidowicz/> | |||
==History since publication== | |||
Dawidowicz writes that the similarities between Luther's anti-Jewish writings and modern anti-Semitism are no cooincidence, because they derived from a common history of ''Judenhass'', which can be traced to ] advice to ], although modern German anti-Semitism also has its roots in German nationalism and ] anti-Semitism, a foundation she says was laid by the ] Church and "upon which Luther built." <ref name=Dawidowicz/> | |||
The prevailing scholarly view since the ] is that the treatise exercised a major and persistent influence on Germany's attitude toward its Jewish citizens in the centuries between the ] and the ].<ref name="Wallmann1987">{{cite journal|last=Wallmann|first=Johannes|title=The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century|journal=]|number=1|date=Spring 1987|pages=1:72–97|quote=The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented antiSemitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Michael|first=Robert|title=Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|year=2006|chapter=Chapter 4: The Germanies from Luther to Hitler|pages=105–151}}</ref><ref name="HillerbrandEB">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Hillerbrand|first=Hans J.|title=Martin Luther|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=2007|quote=is strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German antisemitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history.}}</ref> Four hundred years after it was written, the ] displayed ''On the Jews and Their Lies'' during ], and the city of ] presented a ] to ], editor of the Nazi newspaper '']'', the newspaper describing it, on Streicher's first encounter with the treatise in 1937, as the most radically ] tract ever published.<ref name=ellis>{{cite web|last=Ellis|first=Marc H.|author-link=Marc H. Ellis|url=http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/PowerPoints/Christian%20Anti-Semitism%20(part%202).ppt|title=Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism|format=PPT|page=14|date=Spring 2004|publisher=Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710100514/http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/PowerPoints/Christian%20Anti-Semitism%20%28part%202%29.ppt|archive-date=2007-07-10|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://elsinore.cis.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/04-29-46.htm#herrwerth|title=Nuremberg Trial Proceedings|date=April 19, 1946|publisher=]|volume=12|page=318|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321151237/http://elsinore.cis.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/04-29-46.htm|archive-date=2006-03-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
Against this view, theologian ] writes that the treatise had no continuity of influence in Germany, and was in fact largely ignored during the 18th and 19th centuries.<ref name="Wallmann1987"/> Hans Hillerbrand argues that to focus on Luther's role in the development of German antisemitism is to underestimate the "larger peculiarities of German history".<ref name="HillerbrandEB"/> | |||
Professor ], Professor Emeritus of European History at the ], has argued that Luther scholars who try to tone down Luther's views on the Jews ignore the murderous implications of his antisemitism. Michael argues that there is a "strong parallel" between Luther's ideas and the anti-Semitism of most German Lutherans throughout the Holocaust. <ref name=MichaelR>Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," <cite>Encounter</cite> 46:4 (Autumn 1985), pp. 339-56.</ref> Like the Nazis, Luther mythologized the Jews as evil, he writes. They could be saved only if they converted to Christianity, but their hostility to the idea made it inconceivable. <ref name=MichaelR/> | |||
In May 1948, antisemite ] published an English translation called "The Jews and Their Lies", which was published under the name "]". | |||
Luther's sentiments were widely echoed in the ] of the 1930s, particularly within the Nazi party. Hitler's Education Minister, ], was quoted by the '']'' as saying that: "Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance ... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp ". <ref>'']'', August 25, 1933 cited in Steigmann-Gall, Richard. ''The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity'', 1991-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 136-7. ISBN 0521823714</ref> | |||
Since the 1980s, some ] bodies have formally denounced and dissociated themselves from Luther's vitriol about Jews.{{efn|Attributed to multiple sources:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2166|title=Q&A: Luther's Anti-Semitism|publisher=Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031226220638/http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2166|archive-date=2003-12-26|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/interreligious/jewish/declaration.html|title=Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community|date=18 April 1994|publisher=Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729234239/http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/interreligious/jewish/declaration.html|archive-date=2012-07-29|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada|url=https://www.jcrelations.net/article/a-statement-of-the-elcic-to-the-jewish-community-in-canada.pdf|title=A statement of the ELCIC to the Jewish Community in Canada|date=16 July 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B.|url=https://www.jcrelations.net/statements/statement/time-to-turn-the-evangelical-churches-ab-and-hb-in-austria-and-the-jews.html|title=Time to Turn: The Evangelical Churches in Austria and the Jews|date=28 October 1998}}</ref>}} In November 1998, on the 60th anniversary of {{lang|de|]}}, the ] issued a statement: "It is imperative for the Lutheran Church, which knows itself to be indebted to the work and tradition of Martin Luther, to take seriously also his anti-Jewish utterances, to acknowledge their theological function, and to reflect on their consequences. It has to distance itself from every ] in Lutheran theology."<ref name=BavariaChurch>{{cite web|url=https://www.jcrelations.net/statements/statement/christians-and-jews-a-declaration-of-the-lutheran-church-of-bavaria.html|title=Christians and Jews: A Declaration of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria|date=24 November 1998}}</ref> | |||
], leader of the ]'s magazine ''Deutsche Kultur-Wacht'', and of the Berlin chapter of the '']'', paid tribute to Luther in his acceptance speech as head of both the Jewish section and the film department of ]'s Chamber of Culture and Propaganda Ministry. "Through his acts and his spiritual attitude, he began the fight which we will wage today; with Luther, the revolution of German blood and feeling against alien elements of the Volk was begun. To continue and complete his ], nationalism must make the picture of Luther, of a German fighter, live as an example ''above the barriers of confession'' for all German blood comrades." <ref>Steigmann-Gall 2003, p. 137.</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
According to ], Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium Luther's writings shortly after ] — which ], Professor of the History of the Church in the ] argued Luther's writing was a "blueprint" for <ref>], ''Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700''. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666-667.</ref> — in which Sasse "applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On November 10, 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews." <ref>Bernd Nellessen, "Die schweigende Kirche: Katholiken und Judenverfolgung," in Büttner (ed), <cite>Die Deutchschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich</cite>, p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen, <cite>Hitler's Willing Executioners</cite> (Vintage, 1997).</ref> | |||
{{Portal|Judaism|Christianity}} | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==Notes== | |||
William Nichols, Professor of Religious Studies, recounts, "At his ] after the ], ], the notorious Nazi propagandist, editor of the scurrilous antisemitic weekly, '']'', argued that if he should be standing there arraigned on such charges, so should Martin Luther. Reading such passages, it is hard not to agree with him. Luther's proposals read like a program for the Nazis." <ref name=nichols>William Nichols, <cite>Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate</cite> (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1995), p. 271.</ref> It was Luther's expression "The Jews are our misfortune" that centuries later would be repeated by ] and appear as ] on the front page of Julius Streicher's ''Der Stürmer''. | |||
{{Notelist}} | |||
==References== | |||
Some scholars have attributed the Nazi "Final Solution" directly to Martin Luther.<ref>William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 91, 236 </ref>. Others refute this point of view, pointedly taking issue with the thesis advanced by Shirer and others <ref>Uwe Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995), 17-20.</ref> | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
'''Bibliography''' | |||
====Luthertag==== | |||
{{refbegin}} | |||
In the course of the ''Luthertag'' (Luther Day) festivities, the Nazis emphasized their connection to Luther as being both nationalist revolutionaries and the heirs of the German traditionalist past. An article in the ''Chemnitzer Tageblatt'' stated that "he German Volk are united not only in loyalty and love for the Fatherland, but also once more in the old German beliefs of Luther ; a new epoch of strong, conscious religious life has dawned in Germany" and continues: | |||
*]. ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther''. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-687-16894-5}}. | |||
<blockquote>The leadership of the ] espoused a similar view. Fahrenhorst, who was on the planning committee of the Luthertag, called Luther "the first German spiritual ]" who spoke to all Germans regardless of clamor confession. In a letter to Hitler, Fahrenhorst reminded him that his "Old Fighters" were mostly Protestants and that it was precisely in the Protestant regions of our Fatherland" in which Nazism found its greatest strength. Promising that the celebration of Luther's birthday would not turn into a confessional affair, Fahrenhorst invited Hitler to become the official patron of the Luthertag. In subsequent correspondence, Fahrenhorst again voiced the notion that reverence for Luther could somehow cross confessional boundaries: "Luther is truly not only the founder of a Christian confession; much more, his ideas had a fruitful impact on all Christianity in Germany." Precisely because of Luther's political as well as religious significance, the Luthertag would serve as a confession both "to church and Volk." <ref>Richard Steigmann-Gall, <cite>The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945</cite>, (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p.138.</ref></blockquote> | |||
*Brecht, Martin. ''Martin Luther'', 3 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. {{ISBN|0-8006-0738-4}}, {{ISBN|0-8006-2463-7}}, {{ISBN|0-8006-2704-0}}. | |||
*Gavriel, Mardell J. ''The Anti-Semitism of Martin Luther: A Psychohistorical Exploration''. Ph.D. diss., Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 1996. | |||
*]. '']''. Vintage, 1997. {{ISBN|0-679-77268-5}}. | |||
*] ''Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgement''. ]: ], 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-8028-6676-9}}. | |||
*Halpérin, Jean, and Arne Sovik, eds. ''Luther, Lutheranism and the Jews: A Record of the Second Consultation between Representatives of The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation and the Lutheran World Federation Held in Stockholm, Sweden, 11–13 July 1983''. Geneva: LWF, 1984. | |||
*]. ''A History of the Jews''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987. {{ISBN|0-06-091533-1}}. | |||
*Kaennel, Lucie. ''Luther était-il antisémite?'' (''Luther: Was He an Antisemite?''). Entrée Libre N° 38. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1997. {{ISBN|2-8309-0869-4}}. | |||
*Kaufman, Thomas. Lesley Sharpe and Jeremy Noakes trans. ''Luther's Jews.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-19-873854-1}}. | |||
*Kittelson, James M. ''Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career''. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. {{ISBN|0-8066-2240-7}}. | |||
*] ''The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation''. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-8006-0709-0}}. | |||
*Roynesdal, Olaf. ''Martin Luther and the Jews''. Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1986. | |||
*Rupp, Gordon. ''Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure? In Reply to Peter F. Wiener''. London: Lutterworth Press, 1945. | |||
*]. ''The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth''. Peter L. Berger, Foreword. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. {{ISBN|0-570-04800-1}}. | |||
*Siemon-Netto, Uwe. . '']'' 123 (2004) No. 4:16–19. (PDF) | |||
*Steigmann-Gall, Richard. ''The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-521-82371-4}}. | |||
*Tjernagel, Neelak S. ''Martin Luther and the Jewish People''. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. {{ISBN|0-8100-0213-2}}. | |||
*Wallmann, Johannes. "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." '']'' 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97. | |||
*Wiener, Peter F. '''', Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1945; | |||
{{refend}} | |||
==External links== | |||
===Luther's words and scholarship=== | |||
{{Wikisource|The Jews and Their Lies}} | |||
Anglican Luther scholar Gordon Rupp wrote: | |||
*{{Jewish Encyclopedia|title=Martin Luther|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10196-luther-martin|author=]|noicon=1|edition=1906}} | |||
{{Martin Luther}} | |||
<blockquote>Luther's antagonism to the Jews was poles apart from the Nazi doctrine of "Race". It was based on medieval Catholic anti-semitism towards the people who crucified the Redeemer, turned their back on the way of Life, and whose very existence in the midst of a Christian society was considered a reproach and blasphemy. Luther is a small chapter in the large volume of Christian inhumanities toward the Jewish people. <ref>Gordon Rupp, <cite>Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure?</cite> (London: Lutterworth Press, 1945), p. 75.</ref> | |||
{{Antisemitism footer}} | |||
... | |||
"Needless to say, there is no trace of such a relation between Luther and Hitler. I suppose Hitler never once read a page by Luther. The fact that he and other Nazis claimed Luther on their side proves no more than the fact that they also numbered Almighty God among their supporters. Hitler mentions Luther once in ] in a harmless context. <ref>Rupp, p. 84.</ref></blockquote> | |||
] | |||
In his book '']'', ] wrote: | |||
] | |||
<blockquote>It is difficult to understand the behavior of most German Protestants in the first Nazi years unless one is aware of two things: their history and the influence of Martin Luther. The great founder of Protestantism was both a passionate anti-Semite and a ferocious believer in absolute obedience to political authority. He wanted Germany rid of the Jews. Luther's advice was literally followed four centuries later by Hitler, Goering and Himmler. <ref>], <cite>]</cite>, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p.236.</ref></blockquote> | |||
] | |||
] | |||
], noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote with reference to ''On the Jews and Their Lies'': "One could wish that Luther had died before ever this tract was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial." <ref>], <cite>Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther</cite> (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), p. 297.</ref> This is later echoed by James M. Kittelson writing about Luther's correspondence with Jewish scholar ]: "There was no anti-Semitism in this response. Moreover, Luther never became an anti-Semite in the modern, racial sense of the term." <ref>James M. Kittelson, <cite>Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career</cite>, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), p. 274.</ref> | |||
] | |||
] | |||
Paul Halsall <ref name=halsall>Halsall, Paul, ed., . (Retrieved April 25, 2006)</ref> states, "In his Letters to Spalatin, we can already see that Luther's hatred of Jews, best seen in this 1543 letter ], was not some affectation of old age, but was present very early on. Luther expected Jews to convert to his purified Christianity. When they did not, he turned violently against them." <ref>Halsall, Paul, , ], ]. (Retrieved January 4, 2005)</ref> | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] gives this evaluation of <cite>On the Jews and Their Lies</cite>: "I confess that I am ashamed as I am ashamed of some letters of St. Jerome, some paragraphs in Sir Thomas More, and some chapters in the Book of Revelation, and, must say, as of a deal else in Christian history, that their authors had not so learned Christ." <ref>Rupp, p. 76.</ref> | |||
According to ], "he basis of Luthers ] was the conviction that ever since ]'s appearance on earth, the Jews have had no more future as Jews." <ref>], <cite>The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation</cite> (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p.46.</ref> | |||
] views Luther's remarks as part of a pattern of similar statements about various groups Luther viewed as enemies of Christianity. He states: | |||
<blockquote>Although the Jews for him were only one among many enemies he castigated with equal fervor, although he did not sink to the horrors of the ] against Jews, and although he was certainly not to blame for ], Luther's hatred of the Jews is a sad and dishonorable part of his legacy, and it is not a fringe issue. It lay at the center of his concept of religion. He saw in the Jews a continuing moral depravity he did not see in ]s. He did not accuse papists of the crimes that he laid at the feet of Jews. <ref>], <cite>Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death</cite> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p.482.</ref></blockquote> | |||
], in his ] of Hitler and Nazi Germany, devoted an entire section to Luther's influence on Hitler and Nazi ]. He noted that Hitler kept a list of quotes from many prominent Germans (including ], ], and ]), as well as Luther, often using them out-of-context, and in a manner to make himself appear more well-read than he actually was. | |||
Waite also compared his psychoanalysis with ]'s own psychoshistory of Luther, ''Young Man Luther'' and concluded that, had Luther been alive during the ], he most likely would have spoke out against Nazi persecution of Jews, even if this placed his life in danger, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Lutheran pastor) did. <cite> Waite, Robert G.L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: First DaCapo Press Edition, 1993 (orig. pub. 1977). ISBN 0-306-80514-6.</cite> | |||
In ] Lutheran theologian Stephen Westerholm argued that Luther's attacks on Jews were part and parcel of his attack on the Catholic Church — that Luther was applying a ]ine critique of ] as legalistic and hypocritical to the Catholic Church. Westerholm rejects Luther's interpretation of Judaism and his apparent anti-Semitism but points out that whatever problems exist in Paul's and Luther's arguments against Jews, what Paul, and later, Luther, were arguing ''for'' was and continues to be an important vision of Christianity. | |||
==Reactions of Christian church bodies== | |||
===Lutherans=== | |||
In ], the ], noting that "Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are a continuing problem in our world," made an official statement <ref name=declaration1> at Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, www.lcms.org. Retrieved December 15, 2005.</ref> disassociating themselves from what they describe as "intemperate remarks about Jews" in Luther's works. | |||
In ], the Church Council of the ] publicly rejected Luther's anti-Semitic statements, saying: | |||
<blockquote>In the spirit of that truth-telling, we who bear his name and heritage must with pain acknowledge also Luther's anti-Judaic diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against the Jews. As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations. In concert with the Lutheran World Federation, we particularly deplore the appropriation of Luther's words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching of hatred toward Judaism or toward the Jewish people in our day.<ref name=declaration2>'''', April 18, 1994, www.elca.org. Retrieved December 15, 2005.</ref></blockquote> | |||
The statement by the ] to the Jewish Community in Canada issued in ] says in part: | |||
<blockquote>Lutherans belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada carry a special burden in this matter because of the anti-Semitic statements made by Martin Luther and because of the suffering inflicted on Jews during the Holocaust in countries and places where the Lutheran Church is strongly represented.<ref name=declaration3> to the Jewish Communities in Canada. 5th Biannual Convention of the ELCIC, July 12 - 16, 1995. Retrieved December 20, 2005.</ref></blockquote> | |||
In ], the Austrian Evangelical Church declared that | |||
<blockquote>not only individual Christians but also our churches share in the guilt of the Holocaust/Shoah. ... we as Protestant Christians are burdened by the late writings of Luther and their demand for expulsion and persecution of the Jews. We reject the contents of these writings.<ref name=declaration4>. The Evangelical Churches in Austria and the Jews. Declaration of the General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B. (October 28, 1998). Retrieved December 18, 2005.</ref>.</blockquote> | |||
In the same year, the Land Synod of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria issued a declaration <ref name=declaration5> A Declaration of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria] (November 24, 1998). Retrieved December 18, 2005. Also printed in ''Freiburger Rundbrief'', vol. 6, no. 3 (1999), pp.191-197.</ref> saying in part: | |||
<blockquote>It is imperative for the Lutheran Church, which knows itself to be indebted to the work and tradition of Martin Luther, to take seriously also his anti-Jewish utterances, to acknowledge their theological function, and to reflect on their consequences. ... | |||
The Lutheran Church of Bavaria... knows itself to be co-responsible for anti-Jewish thoughts and actions that made possible or at least tolerated the crimes of the "]" against children, women, and men of Jewish origin.</blockquote> | |||
The statement went on to say that while there were in the Lutheran Church of Bavaria who recognized the issue, "the church as a whole did not take seriously the so-called ] as a theological issue." | |||
==Notes== | |||
<references /> | |||
==Bibliography== | |||
*]. <cite>Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther</cite>. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978. ISBN 0687168945. | |||
*Brecht, Martin. <cite>Martin Luther</cite>, 3 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. ISBN 0800607384, ISBN 0800624637, ISBN 0800627040. | |||
*Gavriel, Mardell J. <cite>The Anti-Semitism of Martin Luther: A Psychohistorical Exploration<cite>. Ph.D. diss., Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 1996. | |||
*]. <cite>Hitler's Willing Executioners</cite>. Vintage, 1997. ISBN 0679772685. | |||
*Halpérin, Jean, and Arne Sovik, eds. <cite>Luther, Lutheranism and the Jews: A Record of the Second Consultation between Representatives of The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation and the Lutheran World Federation Held in Stockholm, Sweden, 11-13 July 1983<cite>. Geneva: LWF, 1984. | |||
*]. <cite>A History of the Jews</cite>. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987. ISBN 0060915331. | |||
*Kaennel, Lucie. <cite>Luther était-il antisémite?<cite> (''Luther: Was He an Antisemite?''). Entrée Libre N° 38. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1997. ISBN 2830908694. | |||
*Kittelson, James M. <cite>Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career</cite>. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0806622407. | |||
*Luther, Martin. "On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543". Martin H. Bertram, trans. In <cite>Luther's Works</cite>. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971. 47:137-306. | |||
*] <cite>The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation</cite>. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0800607090. | |||
*Rosenberg, Elliot, <cite>But Were They Good for the Jews?</cite> (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997). ISBN 1559724366. | |||
*Roynesdal, Olaf. <cite>Martin Luther and the Jews<cite>. Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1986. | |||
*Rupp, Gordon. <cite>Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure? In Reply to Peter F. Wiener</cite>. London: Lutterworth Press, 1945. | |||
*]. <cite>The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth</cite>. Peter L. Berger, Foreward. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0570048001. | |||
*Siemon-Netto, Uwe. . <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite> 123 (2004)No. 4:16-19. (PDF) | |||
*Steigmann-Gall, Richard. <cite>The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945</cite>. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521823714. | |||
* Tjernagel, Neelak S. <cite>Martin Luther and the Jewish People</cite>. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0810002132. | |||
* Wallmann, Johannes. "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." ''Lutheran Quarterly'' 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97. | |||
==External links== | |||
*<cite> </cite> (excerpts) at Medieval Sourcebook | |||
* by Albrecht, Mark. <cite>Essays Online</cite> Mequon, WI: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 1999. | |||
* from the Florida Holocaust Museum. | |||
* by Siemon-Netto, Uwe. <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite> 123 (2004) No. 4:16-19. | |||
* article in <cite>]</cite> (] ed.) by Gotthard Deutsch | |||
* by James Swan | |||
* | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 09:19, 26 December 2024
Title page of Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies | |
Author | Martin Luther |
---|---|
Language | German |
Subjects | Religious antisemitism, antisemitic canard |
Genre | Religion |
Published | 1543 |
Publication place | Holy Roman Empire |
Original text | On the Jews and Their Lies at Google Books |
Translation | On the Jews and Their Lies at Wikisource |
On the Jews and Their Lies (German: Von den Jüden und iren Lügen; in modern spelling Von den Juden und ihren Lügen) is a 65,000-word antisemetic treatise written in 1543 by the German Reformation leader Martin Luther (1483–1546).
Luther's attitude toward Jews took different forms during his lifetime. In his earlier period, until about 1537, he wanted to convert Jews to Lutheranism (Protestant Christianity). In his later period when he wrote On the Jews and Their Lies, he denounced them and urged their persecution.
In this treatise, he argues that Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, prayer books be destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, Jewish homes burned, and property and money confiscated. Luther demanded that no mercy or kindness be given to Jews, that they be afforded no legal protection, and "these poisonous envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled forever. He also seems to advocate murder of Jews, writing "e are at fault in not slaying them".
The book may have had an impact on creating later antisemitic German thought. With the rise of the Nazi Party in Weimar Germany, the book became widely popular among Nazi supporters. During World War II, copies of the book were commonly seen at Nazi rallies, and the prevailing scholarly consensus is that it may have had a significant impact on justifying the Holocaust. Since then, the book has been denounced by many Lutheran churches.
Content
In the treatise, Martin Luther describes Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth". Furthermore, Luther writes that the synagogue has been an "incorrigible whore and an evil slut".
In the first ten sections of the treatise, Luther expounds, at considerable length, upon his views concerning Jews and Judaism and how these compare to Protestants and Protestant Christianity. Following the exposition, Section XI of the treatise advises Protestants to carry out seven remedial actions, namely:
- to burn down Jewish synagogues and schools and warn people against them
- to refuse to let Jews own houses among Christians
- to take away Jewish religious writings
- to forbid rabbis from preaching
- to offer no protection to Jews on highways
- for usury to be prohibited and for all Jews' silver and gold to be removed, put aside for safekeeping, and given back to Jews who truly convert
- to give young, strong Jews flail, axe, spade, and spindle, and let them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow
Luther's essay consistently distinguishes between Jews who accept Christianity (with whom he has no issues) and Jews who practice Judaism (whom he excoriates viciously).
The tract specifically acknowledges that many early Christians, including prominent ones, had a Judaic background.
Evolution of Luther's views
Main article: Martin Luther and antisemitismMedieval Church and the Jews
Early in his life, Luther had argued that Jews had been prevented from converting to Christianity by the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure gospel by the Catholic Church, and he believed they would respond favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that Jesus was born a Jew was committing heresy.
Luther's first known comment about Jewish people is in a letter written to Reverend Spalatin in 1514:
Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working – or rather playing – from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.
In 1519, Luther challenged the doctrine Servitus Judaeorum ("Servitude of the Jews"), established in Corpus Juris Civilis by Justinian I in 529. He wrote: "Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. ... What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them – that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?"
In his commentary on the Magnificat, Luther is critical of the emphasis Judaism places on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. He states that they "undertook to keep the law by their own strength, and failed to learn from it their needy and cursed state". Yet, he concludes that God's grace will continue for Jews as Abraham's descendants for all time, since they may always become Christians. "We ought ... not to treat the Jews in so unkindly a spirit, for there are future Christians among them."
In his 1523 essay That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, Luther condemned the inhuman treatment of Jews and urged Christians to treat them kindly. Luther's fervent desire was that Jews would hear the gospel proclaimed clearly and be moved to convert to Christianity. Thus he argued:
If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery ... If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are ... If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.
Against the Jews
In August 1536, Luther's prince, John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm. An Alsatian shtadlan, Rabbi Josel of Rosheim, asked a reformer, Wolfgang Capito, to approach Luther in order to obtain an audience with the prince, but Luther refused every intercession. In response to Josel, Luther referred to his unsuccessful attempts to convert Jews: "I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good Lord." Heiko Oberman notes this event as significant in Luther's attitude toward Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther's career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews"; yet, Oberman contends that Luther would have denied any such "turning point". Rather he felt that Jews were to be treated in a "friendly way" in order to avoid placing unnecessary obstacles in their path to Christian conversion, a genuine concern of Luther.
Paul Johnson writes that "Luther was not content with verbal abuse. Even before he wrote his anti-Semitic pamphlet, he got Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from Brandenburg in 1543."
Michael Berenbaum writes that Luther's reliance on the Bible as the sole source of Christian authority fed his later fury toward Jews over their rejection of Jesus as the messiah. For Luther, salvation depended on the belief Jesus was Son of God, a belief that adherents of Judaism do not share. Graham Noble writes that Luther wanted to save Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance", which produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own brand of Christianity". (Noble, 1–2) When they did not convert, he turned on them.
History since publication
The prevailing scholarly view since the Second World War is that the treatise exercised a major and persistent influence on Germany's attitude toward its Jewish citizens in the centuries between the Reformation and the Holocaust. Four hundred years after it was written, the Nazis displayed On the Jews and Their Lies during Nuremberg rallies, and the city of Nuremberg presented a first edition to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, the newspaper describing it, on Streicher's first encounter with the treatise in 1937, as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.
Against this view, theologian Johannes Wallmann writes that the treatise had no continuity of influence in Germany, and was in fact largely ignored during the 18th and 19th centuries. Hans Hillerbrand argues that to focus on Luther's role in the development of German antisemitism is to underestimate the "larger peculiarities of German history".
In May 1948, antisemite Gerald L. K. Smith published an English translation called "The Jews and Their Lies", which was published under the name "Christian Nationalist Crusade".
Since the 1980s, some Lutheran church bodies have formally denounced and dissociated themselves from Luther's vitriol about Jews. In November 1998, on the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria issued a statement: "It is imperative for the Lutheran Church, which knows itself to be indebted to the work and tradition of Martin Luther, to take seriously also his anti-Jewish utterances, to acknowledge their theological function, and to reflect on their consequences. It has to distance itself from every anti-Judaism in Lutheran theology."
See also
Notes
- Attributed to multiple sources:
References
- "M. Luther, Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, WA 53, 417-552" (PDF). pthu.nl (in German).
- Deutsch, Gotthard (1906). "Luther, Martin". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. pp. 213–215. Retrieved 4 March 2024. See also the note supra referring to Robert Michael.
- Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 342.
- Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 343.
- Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, Luthers Werke. 47:268–271; Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971).
- Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, cited in Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.
- ^ Wallmann, Johannes (Spring 1987). "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century". Lutheran Quarterly (1): 1:72–97.
The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented antiSemitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion.
- ^ Ellis, Marc H. (Spring 2004). "Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism". Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies. p. 14. Archived from the original (PPT) on 2007-07-10.
- ^ "Christians and Jews: A Declaration of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria". 24 November 1998.
- Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, 154, 167, 229, cited in Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 111.
- Michael, Robert, Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 112.
- Luther, Martin. The Jews and Their Lies, (Publisher: Christian Nationalist Crusade, 1948).
- Luther, Martin (1543). Von den Jüden und iren Lügen [On the Jews and their lies]. Christianity-Revealed.com (published 2011). Retrieved 2019-04-05.
If God is to become gracious also to them, the Jews, they must first of all banish such blasphemous prayers and songs, that boast so arrogantly about their lineage, from their synagogues, from their hearts, and from their lips, for such prayers ever increase and sharpen God's wrath toward them . However, they will not do this, nor will they humble themselves abjectly, except for a few individuals whom God draws unto himself particularly and delivers from their terrible ruin.
- Luther, Martin (1543). Von den Jüden und iren Lügen [On the Jews and their lies]. Christianity-Revealed.com (published 2011). Retrieved 2019-04-05.
I advise that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest.
- Luther, Martin (1543). Von den Jüden und iren Lügen [On the Jews and their lies]. Christianity-Revealed.com (published 2011). Retrieved 2019-04-05.
they did not know at that time that it was God's word; but now they have been informed of it these fifteen hundred years. All right, let them even now hear and believe it, and all will be simple.
- Luther, Martin (1543). Von den Jüden und iren Lügen [On the Jews and their lies]. Christianity-Revealed.com (published 2011). Retrieved 2019-04-05.
For more than one hundred years after Jesus' resurrection there were always bishops in Jerusalem from the tribe of the children of Israel, a of whom our Eusebius mentions by name (Eccl. Hist., Bk. 4, ch. 5). He begins with St. James the apostle and enumerates about fifteen of them, a of whom preached the gospel with great diligence, performed miracles and lived a holy life, converting many thousands of Jews and children of Israel to their promised Messiah who had now appeared, Jesus of Nazareth; apart from these there were the Jews living in the Diaspora who were converted together with the Gentiles by St. Paul, other apostles, and their disciples. This was accomplished despite the fact that the other faction, the blind, impenitent Jews the fathers of the present-day Jews raved, raged, and ranted against it without letup and without ceasing, and shed much blood of members of their own race both within their own country and abroad among the Gentiles . The peoples, that is, not only the Jews but also the Gentiles, are in perfect accord in their obedience ; they have become one people, that is, Christians.
- ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, pp. 8–9.
- Martin Luther, "Luther to George Spalatin" Archived 2007-07-02 at the Wayback Machine, in Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporaneous Letters, trans. Henry Preserved Smith (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), 1:29.
- Martin Luther, The Magnificat, trans. A. T. W. Steinhaeuser, in Luther's Works (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 21:354.
- Russell Briese, "Martin Luther and the Jews", Lutheran Forum 34 (2000) No. 2:32.
- Luther, Magnificat, 21:354f.
- Martin Luther, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew", trans. Walter I. Brandt, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 200–201, 229.
- Martin Brecht, Martin Luther (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336.
- Luther's letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther and the Jews (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to "Luther and the Jews". Archived from the original on 2005-11-04. Retrieved 2017-03-21.. This paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.
- Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (New York: Image Books, 1989), p.293.
- cf. Luther's "Warning Against the Jews (1546)" (1546); original German text: Weimar Ausgabe 51:194–196; J. G. Walch, Dr. Martin Luthers Sämmtliche Schriften, 23 vols. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1883), 12:1264–1267).
- Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews, p. 242.
- Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews", Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.
- Michael, Robert (2006). "Chapter 4: The Germanies from Luther to Hitler". Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 105–151.
- ^ Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2007). "Martin Luther". Encyclopædia Britannica.
is strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German antisemitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history.
- "Nuremberg Trial Proceedings". Avalon Project. April 19, 1946. p. 318. Archived from the original on 2006-03-21.
- "Q&A: Luther's Anti-Semitism". Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Archived from the original on 2003-12-26.
- "Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community". Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 18 April 1994. Archived from the original on 2012-07-29.
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (16 July 1995). "A statement of the ELCIC to the Jewish Community in Canada" (PDF).
- General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B. (28 October 1998). "Time to Turn: The Evangelical [Protestant] Churches in Austria and the Jews".
Bibliography
- Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978. ISBN 0-687-16894-5.
- Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther, 3 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. ISBN 0-8006-0738-4, ISBN 0-8006-2463-7, ISBN 0-8006-2704-0.
- Gavriel, Mardell J. The Anti-Semitism of Martin Luther: A Psychohistorical Exploration. Ph.D. diss., Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 1996.
- Goldhagen, Daniel. Hitler's Willing Executioners. Vintage, 1997. ISBN 0-679-77268-5.
- Gritsch, Eric W. Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgement. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8028-6676-9.
- Halpérin, Jean, and Arne Sovik, eds. Luther, Lutheranism and the Jews: A Record of the Second Consultation between Representatives of The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation and the Lutheran World Federation Held in Stockholm, Sweden, 11–13 July 1983. Geneva: LWF, 1984.
- Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987. ISBN 0-06-091533-1.
- Kaennel, Lucie. Luther était-il antisémite? (Luther: Was He an Antisemite?). Entrée Libre N° 38. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1997. ISBN 2-8309-0869-4.
- Kaufman, Thomas. Lesley Sharpe and Jeremy Noakes trans. Luther's Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-19-873854-1.
- Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0-8066-2240-7.
- Oberman, Heiko A. The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8006-0709-0.
- Roynesdal, Olaf. Martin Luther and the Jews. Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1986.
- Rupp, Gordon. Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure? In Reply to Peter F. Wiener. London: Lutterworth Press, 1945.
- Siemon-Netto, Uwe. The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth. Peter L. Berger, Foreword. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0-570-04800-1.
- Siemon-Netto, Uwe. "Luther and the Jews". The Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:16–19. (PDF)
- Steigmann-Gall, Richard. The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-82371-4.
- Tjernagel, Neelak S. Martin Luther and the Jewish People. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0-8100-0213-2.
- Wallmann, Johannes. "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." Lutheran Quarterly 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.
- Wiener, Peter F. Martin Luther: Hitler's Spiritual Ancestor, Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1945;
External links
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gotthard Deutsch (1901–1906). "Martin Luther". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906 ed.). New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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