Martin Luther Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Posthumous influence within Nazism == [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-60015-0002, Dresden, Denkmal Martin Luther, Frauenkirche, Ruine.jpg|thumb|The statue outside the [[Frauenkirche, Dresden|Frauenkirche]] in [[Dresden]] after the [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|bombing of the city in World War II]]]] Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet.<ref>Gritsch, 113–114; Michael, 117.</ref> According to the prevailing opinion among historians,<ref name=Wallman1 /> his anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany,<ref name=":1">Berger, Ronald. ''Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach'' (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28; [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Johnson, Paul]]. ''A History of the Jews'' (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242; [[William Shirer|Shirer, William]]. ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).</ref> and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an "ideal underpinning" for the Nazis' attacks on Jews.<ref name="Grunberger1971" /> Reinhold Lewin writes that anybody who "wrote against the Jews for whatever reason believed he had the right to justify himself by triumphantly referring to Luther." According to Michael, just about every anti-Jewish book printed in [[Nazi Germany]] contained references to and quotations from Luther. [[Heinrich Himmler]] (albeit never a Lutheran, having been brought up Catholic) wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in 1940.<ref>Himmler wrote: "what Luther said and wrote about the Jews. No judgment could be sharper."</ref> The city of [[Nuremberg]] presented a first edition of ''On the Jews and their Lies'' to [[Julius Streicher]], editor of the Nazi newspaper ''[[Der Stürmer]]'', on his birthday in 1937; the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.<ref>[[Marc H. Ellis|Ellis, Marc H]]. [http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/PowerPoints/Christian%20Anti-Semitism%20(part%202).ppt Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710100514/http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/PowerPoints/Christian%20Anti-Semitism%20%28part%202%29.ppt |date=10 July 2007 }}, (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14. {{cite web|url=http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/hh.htm |title=Hitler and the Holocaust|publisher=Baylor University|access-date=22 April 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060422212116/http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/hh.htm |archive-date=22 April 2006}}.</ref> It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the [[Nuremberg Rally|Nuremberg rallies]] and quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by E.H. Schulz and R. Frercks.<ref>See Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," ''History Review'' (2002) No. 42:1–2.</ref> On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the [[yellow badge]], "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According to [[Daniel Goldhagen]], Bishop [[Martin Sasse]], a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly after [[Kristallnacht]], for which [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]], professor of the history of the church at the [[University of Oxford]] argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint."<ref>Diarmaid MacCulloch, ''Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700''. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666–667.</ref> Sasse applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On 10 November 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 Buttner (ed), ''Die Deutschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich'', p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen, ''Hitler's Willing Executioners'' (Vintage, 1997)</ref> {{Quote box|"There is a world of difference between his belief in salvation and a racial ideology. Nevertheless, his misguided agitation had the evil result that Luther fatefully became one of the 'church fathers' of anti-Semitism and thus provided material for the modern hatred of the Jews, cloaking it with the authority of the Reformer."|author=[[Martin Brecht]]<ref>Brecht 3:351.</ref>|width=25%|align=left}} At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther's influence is whether it is [[anachronism|anachronistic]] to view his work as a precursor of the racial antisemitism of the Nazis. Some scholars see Luther's influence as limited, and the Nazis' use of his work as opportunistic. [[Johannes Wallmann (theologian)|Johannes Wallmann]] argues that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that there was no continuity between Luther's thought and Nazi ideology.<ref>Wallmann, 72–97.</ref> [[Uwe Siemon-Netto]] agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther's work.<ref>[[Uwe Siemon-Netto|Siemon-Netto]], ''The Fabricated Luther'', 17–20.</ref><ref name="SiemonNetto2">[[Uwe Siemon-Netto|Siemon-Netto]], "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.</ref> [[Hans J. Hillerbrand]] agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors in [[History of Germany|German history]].<ref name=HillerbrandEB>Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007. Hillerbrand writes: "His 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 anti-Semitism. 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> Similarly, [[Roland Bainton]], noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote "One could wish that Luther had died before ever [''On the Jews and Their Lies''] was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial."<ref>Bainton, Roland: ''Here I Stand'', (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297</ref><ref>For similar views, see: * Briese, Russell. "Martin Luther and the Jews," ''Lutheran Forum'' (Summer 2000):32; * Brecht, ''Martin Luther'', 3:351; * Edwards, Mark U. Jr. ''Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983, 139; * Gritsch, Eric. "Was Luther Anti-Semitic?", ''Christian History'', No. 3:39, 12.; * Kittelson, James M., ''Luther the Reformer'', 274; * Oberman, Heiko. ''The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation''. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984, 102; * Rupp, Gordon. ''Martin Luther'', 75; * Siemon-Netto, Uwe. ''Lutheran Witness'', 19.<!--needs a proper citation--></ref> However, Christopher J. Probst, in his book ''Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany'' (2012), shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians during the Nazi era used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and their Jewish religion to justify at least in part the antisemitic policies of the National Socialists.<ref>Christopher J. Probst, [http://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/academic-publications/full-list-of-academic-publications/demonizing-the-jews-luther-and-the-protestant-church-in-nazi-germany ''Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311100051/http://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/academic-publications/full-list-of-academic-publications/demonizing-the-jews-luther-and-the-protestant-church-in-nazi-germany |date=11 March 2017 }}, Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-253-00100-9}}</ref> The pro-Nazi Christian group [[Deutsche Christen]] drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer" [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref>"Der Deutsche Luthertag 1933 und die Deutschen Christen" by Hansjörg Buss. In: ''Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte'' Vol. 26, No. 2</ref> Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book ''Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46'' (1983), suggest that since Luther's increasingly antisemitic views developed during the years his health deteriorated, it is possible they were at least partly the product of a state of mind. Edwards also comments that Luther often deliberately used "vulgarity and violence" for effect, both in his writings condemning the Jews and in diatribes against "Turks" (Muslims) and Catholics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/lutherandthejews.html#_ftnref67|title=Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal|author=Dr. Christopher Probst|publisher=The Theologian|access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref> Since the 1980s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=May 2022}} and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=May 2022}}<ref>''Synod deplores and disassociates itself from Luther's negative statements about the Jewish people and the use of these statements to incite anti-Lutheran sentiment'', from a summary of [http://www.ctsfw.edu/bsmith-cts/etext/lcms/Synod/resolutions.pdf Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225041133/http://www.ctsfw.edu/bsmith-cts/etext/lcms/Synod/resolutions.pdf |date=25 February 2009 }}</ref><ref>Lull, Timothy ''Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition'' (2005), p. 25</ref> Strommen et al.'s 1970 survey of 4,745 North American Lutherans aged 15–65 found that, compared to the other minority groups under consideration, Lutherans were the least prejudiced toward Jews.<ref>See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 206. P. 208 also states "The clergy [ALC, LCA, or LCMS] are less likely to indicate anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes [compared to the laity]."</ref> Nevertheless, Professor Richard Geary, former professor of modern history at the [[University of Nottingham]] and the author of ''Hitler and Nazism'' (Routledge 1993), published an article in the magazine ''[[History Today]]'' examining electoral trends in [[Weimar Republic|Weimar Germany]] between 1928 and 1933. Geary notes that, based on his research, the Nazi Party received disproportionately more votes from Protestant than Catholic areas of Germany.<ref>Richard (Dick) Geary, "Who voted for the Nazis? (electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers' Party)", in ''[[History Today]]'', 1 October 1998, Vol. 48, Issue 10, pp. 8–14</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/spenkuch/research/religion_nazis.pdf|title=Special Interests at the Ballot Box? Religion and the Electoral Success of the Nazis|access-date=25 March 2017|archive-date=18 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418075104/https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/spenkuch/research/religion_nazis.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! 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