Lutheran Ping!
Posted on 09/15/2009 10:08:52 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Wittenberg, Holy Roman Empire, 1517. A young monk marches up to the castle church and nails a piece of parchment to the massive wooden door. He is Martin Luther, and the parchment is his famous 95 theses, written in Latin. With this document, an open challenge to the power and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the brash cleric sets off one of the greatest upheavals in human history: the Protestant Reformation.
Wittenberg, Germany, 2009. I walk down the long, cobblestone Collegienstrasse to All Saints' Church, the castle church that stands at one end of the street, eager to see the famous door on which Luther's world-changing protest once hung. But as I approach the elaborate iron gate at the church entrance, I come face to face not with an ancient door of wood - it burned in 1760 - but with a stolid portal of heavy dark metal, permanently engraved with the text of Luther's theses, in Old German.
So much for authenticity.
Still, the door is beautiful, as is everything in this spruced-up town. Twenty-five years ago, Wittenberg was a gray, grimy place in what was then the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Since then, however, it has experienced a miraculous transformation. Today it is a focal point of "Luther tourism," now coming to a head in what Germans have dubbed the Luther Decade. This jubilee began last year, which marked 500 years since Luther arrived in this town to teach theology at the university, and will culminate in 2017, with the 500th anniversary of the posting of his theses.
Retracing Luther's journey While I was writing a book last year on the pivotal years 1520-'36, I found myself longing to retrace Luther's epic journey in 1521 from Wittenberg to the city of Worms, where he was to face the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, at the famous Diet of Worms to defend himself against the charge of heresy. And so here I was, in early May, standing on a street of charming houses and neat little shops that had all been cleaned and freshly painted in pastel colors. I gazed up at the lofty tower of the church, which dominates Wittenberg. A band of old German script encircled it: a stanza from Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," considered the anthem of the Reformation.
For authenticity, I headed for the Lutherhaus, a treasure trove of Luther relics, books and paintings at the opposite end of Collegienstrasse. This was Luther's home after the Diet of Worms, given to him by his great protector, the elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise. In a tower of the house was the room where Luther experienced his revelation of "justification by faith alone" and planned his challenge to the papacy. That tower no longer exists, but excavators did discover the great reformer's toilet a few years ago. The eager tourist can now peer at it through a little window on the ground floor.
I was more interested in other curiosities in the museum, such as an authentic indulgence form with a blank for the purchaser's name and the price paid. This document, the prod for Luther's anger, entitled the bearer to escape a certain number of days in purgatory, depending on how much he was willing to shell out. There also are various depictions of Luther over the centuries, showing how differently each age came to view the reformer.
"All the world is coming to Wittenberg, I hear," I said to the director of the Lutherhaus.
"Yes," Stephan Rhein replied, "we hope and we fear." When Rhein came to Wittenberg in the early 1990s to consider taking the job at the Lutherhaus, he came with the mayor of his West German town. Wittenberg had only one drab restaurant then, and only one rooming house.
"That is the first and last time I ever had to sleep in the same bed with my lord mayor," Rhein joked. Now he is bracing for the invasion of Lutheran pilgrims for the Luther Jubilee.
The paintings of Lucas Cranach also are prominently on display. Known as the "photographer of the Reformation," Cranach painted Luther many times. Perhaps his most interesting painting here, however, is his epic depiction of the Ten Commandments. In each of its 10 panels, a grotesque monster hovers over a potential sinner.
Knocking back a few Not everything about my visit to Wittenberg was about the mind or the soul, however. With much anticipation I went in search of Luther's pub, the Black Eagle. That is where the reformer went nearly every evening after supper for many rounds of bock beer, entertaining his drinking pals with discourses on such weighty subjects as where the devil resides (on the edges of dark clouds) or what shape he can take (a fly leaving its smudge on the page of a book). At the Black Eagle he spoke his immortal words: "He who drinks much beer sleeps well; he who sleeps well does not sin; and he who does not sin goes to heaven."
To my disappointment, the Black Eagle, too, is a thing of the past. But it has been replaced by the Black Bear, where you can find plenty of dark beer served by lusty maidens dressed in costumes of Luther's day. It was white asparagus season in Germany, and I ordered a delicious creamed asparagus soup off the special Spargel karte, or asparagus menu. The specialty of this watering hole, however, is the potato. No fewer than 63 items on the menu featured the humble tuber, including the one I ordered, called Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth): mashed potato with bacon, onions and apple. I slept well after my heavy meal at the Black Bear.
With his customary theatricality, Luther set out in a covered wagon from Wittenberg on Palm Sunday 1521, accompanied by several fellow Augustinian monks. His 320-mile journey to Worms took 23 days, and along the way he preached in various churches to enthusiastic and ever-larger crowds. His first stop was Leipzig. That city today is bustling and modern, bearing few signs of the devastating firebombing it suffered in World War II. It promotes itself as the city of Johann Sebastian Bach and highlights the world-class musical events that take place in its storied concert hall, the Gewandhaus. Felix Mendelsohn's Reformation Symphony No. 5 is regularly performed there, as is Bach's Reformation cantata, inspired by Luther's great hymn.
Over the years, Luther visited Leipzig 17 times. Even in his day, when it was a town of only 10,000, it was well known for its trade fair because it was a crossroads for trading routes between Russia and Paris. It also was a center of German publishing, where the printer Melchior Lotter churned out Luther tracts and indulgence forms with equal vigor. Luther's German translation of the New Testament sold out immediately at a Leipzig fair in September 1521. In a classy Old World restaurant called the Thueringer Hof, you can see an original note Luther wrote to the owner, thanking him for his contribution of 100 guilders to the Reformation cause. And the owner of the Auerbachs Keller, the subterranean drinking hall off the central market that's famously described in a scene in Goethe's "Faust," is said to have been a friend of Luther's and to have remarked that the reformer was "worthy of immortality." A prized possession of the Leipzig History Museum, the symbol of Luther's discarding of the tradition of priestly celibacy, is the wedding ring of his wife, the former nun Katharina von Bora.
Two years before his journey to Worms, in June 1519, Luther had a famous debate over Catholic theology in Leipzig with a renowned academic, Johann Eck. Historians generally agree that Luther lost on points. The heavyweight bout took place in the great hall of the Pleissenburg Castle in central Leipzig. That old pile had been torn down at the end of the 19th century, replaced by the current town hall. Another authentic relic gone. And not the only one. A monumental statue of Luther with his fellow reformer, Philipp Melanchthon, had once graced a downtown square, but the Nazis tore it down toward the end of World War II and used the metal for bullets.
On to Weimar, Erfurt After Leipzig, I was finally on back roads that meandered languidly over the gentle rolling hills of Thuringia, a patchwork of lush green and mustard-yellow fields stretching to the horizon. For a few hours I tarried in Naumburg, another jewel of a town where Luther had preached on his way to Worms and in whose cathedral he later consecrated the first evangelical bishop of the region. On the town's expansive market square, under brilliant afternoon sunshine, I enjoyed an impressive dessert at an ice cream shop that offered 53 concoctions of fruit, ice cream and liquor. Soon my mind started wandering.
And it wandered still further when I reached Weimar. In front of the classy Elephant Hotel, where Adolf Hitler had been a frequent guest in the 1930s, a crowd had gathered around an elegant couple in a Rolls-Royce who seemed to evoke perfectly the aristocratic spirit of the 1920s. The famous hotel's art deco design also fit the retrograde feel of the place.
There is so much history, art and culture in Weimar that it was hard to stay focused on Luther. Though he preached in the castle church on the way to Worms, he now takes a back seat here to Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Liszt and Bach. Largely because of Goethe, who so symbolizes German culture, Weimar has always been a special case and has been largely untouched by the vagaries of history. But it has its dark side. Before I moved on, I drove five miles up the hill and spent several hours at the Buchenwald concentration camp, three weeks before President Barack Obama made the same grim pilgrimage.
A day later, in the old town of Erfurt, I went in search of Martinshoernchen, Erfurt's unique testimonial to the reformer. It's a flaky croissant filled with fruit jam, and generally it's available only on St. Martin's Day, Nov. 11. But the local tourism officials are pushing Erfurt's bakers to produce it year-round. St. Martin's Day celebrates another Martin, St. Martin of Tours, a 5th-century saint who clove his garment with a sword and gave half to a freezing soldier, then dreamed that Jesus was wearing half of his coat.
In Luther's time, Erfurt was the fourth-largest town in the German-speaking world. With a population of 24,000, it was twice the size of Frankfurt and Leipzig, and its university had the largest student body in central Europe. Luther studied law there until a terrifying thunderstorm persuaded him to switch from the law to the ministry, much to his father's dismay. Erfurt University closed in 1816, but the cathedral, where Luther was ordained, and the Augustinian monastery, where he lived and gave his first sermon, still stand. On his journey to Worms, Luther preached here to a church so packed that its balcony nearly collapsed under the weight of the throng, forcing his admirers to jump out the windows.
Old town Erfurt is so inviting for a stroll because only about 5% of the city was destroyed in the war. One of the losses, however, was the Augustinian monastery. In February 1945, a British bomb demolished it, killing 237 people huddled inside. It has been completely restored, perhaps to too fine a polish. Inside, you can see a replica of the cell where Luther lived under the harsh rules of the Augustinian order and where he began to develop his doubts and his anger. "You are a fool," his confessor said to him once. "God is not angry with you, but you are angry with Him."
Dining with special guests Down the road in Eisenach, I stayed at a hotel whose enterprising owner hailed from West Germany. Every Friday and Saturday, he turns his establishment into the "Lutherstube," and the place becomes very bawdy indeed. "Silenzio!" cried a hefty waitress, pounding a big stick on the floor the night I was there. "Are all the cups full?" A three-hour feeding orgy of multiple courses followed. A cow's horn filled with mead was passed around the table, and the oldest person was required to give a toast. If the toast displeased the assemblage, the horn was filled again and the elder was required to drain it down.
At this bacchanal, the owner took on the role of Martin Luther, instructing the diners on the devil's ways in words taken directly from Luther's Tischreden, or table talk.
This was the kind of scene I had hoped to find at the Black Eagle in Wittenberg. My delightful dinner partner for the evening was none other than Luther's wife, Katharina von Bora herself. (Actually she was the much-photographed belle of Eisenach, Alexandra Husemeyer, a guide at the local Lutherhaus who often plays the reformer's wife in re-enactments.) The evening ended with a very large waitress dancing on a tabletop with random guests.
The next day, I drove through the strategic lowlands known as the Fulda Gap. Though my only problem was getting stuck in traffic on a clogged autobahn, NATO military planners had for 50 years imagined a massive Soviet tank attack across this ground. Three hours later, I passed over the Rhine River into Worms.
Coming here on the trail of Luther is largely a symbolic act, because 80% of Worms was destroyed in World War II and hastily rebuilt in the 1950s. Luther arrived on April 16, 1521, and an immense crowd cheered him as he rode into town. The medieval gate through which he entered, called the Martinspforte, has been reconstructed. Down the Kaemmerstrasse (now a shopping arcade), next to Worms Cathedral, once stood the bishop's palace, where Luther's emperor and antagonist, Charles V, awaited him. At this famous confrontation, Luther offered his defense, supposedly ending with the immortal line, "Here I stand. I can do no other." His listeners were unconvinced, but would deliberate over his fate for several days. As Luther left the throne room of the palace, Spanish soldiers followed him hissing, "Burn him!"
If Wittenberg is the hot spot for the Luther Jubilee, Worms is the place where his movement metamorphosed from ecclesiastical to political. A fascinating statue here shows Luther in a heroic stance, one foot in front of the other, above two victims of the Inquisition's fire, Jan Hus and Savonarola.
Like planets in different orbits, the Imperial Cathedral of St. Peter, consecrated in 1110, stands opposite the spare Reformation Church. (The town is split roughly in half between Catholics and Protestants.) On the back wall of the rebuilt evangelical church is a modern frieze of Luther standing before Charles. To the church's longtime pastor, Harald Storch, the Luther Jubilee needs to be clear-eyed and honest about the darker aspects of Luther's life, especially the reformer's negative attitude toward Turks and Mennonites and his vitriol toward Jews, as well as his incitement to the slaughter of peasants in the so-called Peasants War. To do otherwise, said the pastor, "would be a sort of idolatry." Still, it gnawed at him that the Roman Catholic ban on Luther "and all his followers" is still in effect.
Across the street, I asked the provost of the Worms cathedral, Monsignor Engelbert Priess, about this. The subject was clearly a touchy one.
"The time has not yet come to lift the ban," he said.
It seems that authenticity can be both material and mental. The provost spoke with the authentic zeal of a priest intent on protecting the purity of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Church is the One True Church of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church has been thriving for 2,000 years. It is alive with the Holy Spirit because it is the Bride of Christ.
“For did you not know that a Jew is so beloved of God that every time one farts, a thousand Angels dance?” Martin Luther
There are no limits to her breadth. A believer can be alone in the worst of places, with no friends and yet a part of the body. And a member of a church, who does not believe can be not a part of her.
Christ alone is the Author and finisher of her salvation and her only husband.
Very well said
bookmarked
I think you need to reread your scripture a little closer. I don’t think I found the Roman Catholic Church mentioned anywhere in the Bible as being the “one true church”.
Lutheran ping!
I will need to save this quote for facebook status in the future...
Have been to to cities and sites mentioned in the article.
Lot of great history.
I would love to see the Luther sites someday.
While I was stationed over there, I never visited those sites. Too much time spent having fun on our off-duty time.
Next year would be the year to do it--and take in the Oberamergau Passion Play as well.
“The Roman Catholic Church is the One True Church of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church has been thriving for 2,000 years. It is alive with the Holy Spirit because it is the Bride of Christ.”
Some people can’t stand someone enjoying the history of their faith. I wonder why?
Some people can’t stand someone enjoying the history of their faith. I wonder why?
Usually jealousy.
Any Roman Catholic who singles out Luther for anti-Semitism does not know the history of Roman Catholicism during Luther’s time. Below find official papal rulings/bulls, which drastically discriminated against or forced the expulsion of Jews:
Numquam dubitavimus by *Sixtus IV in 1482, empowered Ferdinand of Aragon to appoint inquisitors to extirpate heresy and to prevent Jewish practices among those who had been converted to Christianity. (This led to the total expulsion of Jews from Spain...by the hundreds of thousands)
Cum nimis absurdum by *Paul IV in 1555 established the ghetto in Rome, limited Jewish economic activities, prohibited more than one synagogue in a town, and forbade contact between Jews and Christians.
Hebraeorum gens by Pius V in 1569, a brief, accused the Jews of many evils, including the practice of magic. It ordered the expulsion of the Jews from all papal territory, excepting Rome and Ancona.
Sancta mater ecclesia by *Gregory XIII in 1584, confirming his Vices eius nos of 1577, ordered the Jews of Rome to send 100 men and 50 women every Saturday afternoon to listen to conversionist sermons which were delivered in a church near the ghetto.
It should be noted that, until the atheist Nazis took over, nothing approaching such persecution of Jews as you see above took place in Lutheran lands...
The Nazi party cracked down on atheists; they were not themselves atheists (perhaps you should look to the beam in your own eye as far as lack of historical knowledge).
“We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” Adolf Hitler
I find the quote of Luther about Jew farts HILARIOUS, and quite telling as to the character of the man.
Other than Worms, I’ve seen all the Lutheran sites (Wittenberg, Eisleben, Eisenach, Erfurt, Wartburg castle, etc. )...and they are great! Saxony Anhalt and Thuringia are incredibly scenic. I spent 2 summers studying Reformation history in Wittenberg, and you do get a feeling that something amazing happened there—spiritually, it’s hard to describe, haunted in a good way....and you also understand Luther better (and yes, the beer is fantastic).
Unfortunately, since the heart of Lutheran Germany was in communist eastern Germany—these areas are still some of the most atheistic and secular places in all of Germany.
There is a GREAT need for the good news Luther discovered to be rediscovered by the descendants of Luther’s followers.
If you really do know your history, than you will know that Hitler himself, as well as all the leading Nazis were indeed definitely committed atheists. They were however, happy to use the rhetoric of religious language of defending the Fatherland from godless communists....especially early on. Not acknowledging Hitler as an atheist is either ignorant, or just plain dishonest.
My point is this, Luther’s anti-Semitism was absolutely common and typical for his day—and not at all unique—and the Roman Catholic church before and since has said and done much worse (although granted it is very tolerant today). Technically Luther’s attitude was not even anti-Semitism—as it was against the Jewish religion—not racist; unlike the Nazis, he could care less about someone’s ancestry, only their religion.
And ANY look at the 16th Century will find religious toleration was just an unknown concept at that time...amidst practically everyone.
In the corpus of Luther’s work, “On the Jews and their Lies” was a very minor, small tract—written while Luther was old and quite ill—and which Lutheran Germany totally ignored until the Nazis rediscovered it.
Why focus on the bad stuff, when the good of Luther’s work, that 98%, was so much greater and world changing?
Anti-Semitism existed long before, and long after, Luther—and probably will continue until Jesus comes....and Martin Luther cannot be held accountable for other peoples’ sins.
As for Luther’s jokes about farts somehow reflecting character? If you know anything at all about Luther you’ll know he had terrible digestive problems...which he commented and joked about all the time. Rich German food and beer is gassy stuff! Juvenile jokes do not bad character make...
The Nazi party platform calls for a “positive Christianity” of whatever faith, to be the religion of the State.
It is not the juvenile nature of the “joke” that reveals Luther's character to me; it is his utter jealousy and small mindedness.
And yes, Luther made quite an impact in history. A positive impact (overall) in my estimation; but he was not a man worthy of unadulterated admiration; he was rather petty and petulant (as well as flatulent).
Hitler was a baptized Catholic was never publicly renounced his faith or was excommunicated.
What??? Are you nuts? Never publicly renounced Christianity???? Just a small sampling of what Hitler said:
11th-12th July, 1941
"National Socialism and religion cannot exist together....
"The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity....
"Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things."
10th October, 1941
"Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure."
14th October, 1941, midday
"The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity....
"Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse.... "...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little....
"Christianity the liar....
"We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State."
19th October, 1941, night
"The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity."
The list of of anti-religious/anti-Christian quotes could go on for pages and pages...
For whatever their reasons, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't publically excommunicate people anymore...they rely on a thing called "latia sententia" (silent excommuniation) of un-repented-of mortal sins (see Ted Kennedy, unfortunately).
Hitler never even pretended to practice Roman Catholicism as an adult.
Hitler, and all the top Nazis utterly rejected belief in any form of the Judeo-Christian God, and while some (including Hitler himself) may have had some weird neo-pagan beliefs of their own imagination--elevating the German state to that of a god....they rejected any traditional understanding of God. That makes them, by definition, atheists.
The Nazi party platform calls for a “positive Christianity” of whatever faith, to be the religion of the State.
Ridiculous...Do you know how to spell P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A? Please see the direct quotes above--whatever the public/lying official statements the Nazis said about religion.
It is not the juvenile nature of the “joke” that reveals Luther's character to me; it is his utter jealousy and small mindedness.
You are correct, Hitler was bigoted against Jews...no on has disputed or defended that. However, clearly you have not read Luther's other works--he makes digestive jokes all the time, usually about himself: "When I fart in Wittenberg, maybe they'll hear it in Rome!" He was from peasant stock, born in the late middle ages...it was a rough/redneck world. Given his enormous place in history, I've never heard any historian accuse Luther of pettiness or small-mindedness.
And yes, Luther made quite an impact in history. A positive impact (overall) in my estimation; but he was not a man worthy of unadulterated admiration; he was rather petty and petulant (as well as flatulent).
I don't think anyone here, myself, or this article, is giving Luther "unadulterated admiration." This was just a positive discussion about Luther--and then someone like yourself brings up about the only thing most people today remember at all about Luther: that he (like practically all Europeans of his day) was anti-Jewish.
Correction, this should have read:
You are correct, LUTHER was bigoted against Jews...no on has disputed or defended that. However, clearly you have not read Luther’s other works—he makes digestive jokes all the time, usually about himself: “When I fart in Wittenberg, maybe they’ll hear it in Rome!” He was from peasant stock, born in the late middle ages...it was a rough/redneck world. Given his enormous place in history, I’ve never heard any historian accuse Luther of pettiness or small-mindedness.
Got a PUBLIC pronouncement wherein the Nazi party or Hitler renounced Christianity and embraced atheism (the ideology they claim to have “stamped out” in Germany)?
No. You do not.
As you admit the “propaganda” or public face of the Nazi party called for a “positive Christianity”.
So how could the Nazi's, as a movement, been “atheist” if they recruited converts using “propaganda” that expounded upon the usual “Christian” reasons for hating Jews? (”avenge my saviors blood upon the Cross” Adolf Hitler).
Failure to recognize the Holocaust as the last (hopefully) European pogrom against Jews; perpetuated by people who were baptized as Christians, worshiped in Christian churches, and had Nazi issued belt buckles with “God is with us”, and went to war with CROSSES painted on their war equipment - is an attempt at revisionism.
The Confessing Church movement was as persecuted as any other group--and more Christian Poles and Ukrainian civilians were purposely killed in the death camps than even Jews. About 20 million civilians (according to U. of Hawaii expert on democide http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/ ) were purposely murdered--of which, as we all know around 6 million were Jews. One can do the math--and know that the majority of the 14 million others were (culturally at least) Christian.
The whole idea that the Nazis were Christian--is a serious lying myth--pushed today by fanatical atheists such as Richard Dawkins or Bill Maher.
Did many of those who participated in the Holocaust profess to be (cultural) Christians? Sure--Christianity was all of Europe's history after all...and the 3rd Reich was a propaganda-supported dictatorship.
But the leadership and the philosophy of the Nazi party--all propaganda aside--was anything BUT Christian.
It's pretty hard to be a mass murderer after all, and honestly believe that one day you'll have to account for yourself to God. Show me all the other mass-murderer leaders of the 20th Century (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.) --who killed far more civilians than any killed in all previous centuries--and I'll show you people, like Hitler and his henchmen, who ALL rejected God.
The Nazis claimed to have “stamped out” atheism in Germany.
Their party platform called for a “positive Christianity”.
The Nazi's were the ideological inheritors of a longstanding antisemitism within European Christianity (of which Luther was a famous proponent and promoter of); I point this out so that such sentiments can be EXCISED from Christianity.
Just as with alcoholism, first one must admit that there IS a problem. Denial of the problem doesn't provide a solution.
The antisemitic propaganda of the 3rd Reich was mostly about “Avenging our saviors blood upon the cross”, as well as the usual anti-capitalist ravings against “international bankers”.
Why try to deny that the vast majority of rank and file Nazi's thought of themselves as Christians?
Do you also deny that the other European pogroms against Jews were perpetuated by those who thought of themselves as Christians?
From Martin Luther's “On the Jews and their Lies”
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. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly_and I myself was unaware of it_will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about,blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), itwould be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.
In Deuteronomy 13:12 Moses writes that any city that is given to idolatry shall be totally destroyed by fire, and nothing of it shall be preserved.If he were alive today, he would be the first to set fire to the synagogues and houses of the Jews. For in Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 he commanded very explicitly that nothing is to be added to or subtracted from his law. AndSamuel says in I Samuel 15:23 that disobedience to God is idolatry. Now the Jews’ doctrine at present is nothing but the additions of the rabbis and the idolatry of disobedience, so that Moses has become entirely unknown among them (as we said before), just as the Bible became unknown under the papacy in our day. So also, for Moses’ sake, their schools cannot be tolerated; they defame him just as much as they do us. It is not necessary that they have their own free churches for such idolatry.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might belodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them the fact that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in whichsuch 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. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuteronomy 17:10) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: “what they teach you inaccord with the law of the Lord.” Those villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16:18, “You are Peter,” etc., inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the right to teach.
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they arenot lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home. I have heard it said that a rich Jew is now traveling across the country with twelve horses his ambition is to become a Kokhba devouring princes, lords, lands, and people with his usury, so that the great lords view it with jealous eyes. If you great lords and princes will not forbid such usurers the highway legally, some day a troop may gather against them, having learned from this booklet the true nature of the Jews and how one shoulddeal with them and not protect their activities. For you, too, must not and cannot protect them unless you wish to become participants in an their abominations in the sight of God. Consider carefully what good could come from this, and prevent it.
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, theyhave no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they havestolen and robbed from us an they possess. 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. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
But when they boast that Moses allowed or commanded them to exact usuryfrom strangers, citing Deuteronomy 23:20 apart from this they cannot adduce as much as a letter in their support we must tell them that there are two classes of Jews or Israelites. The first comprises those whom Moses, in compliance with God's command, led from Egypt into the land of Canaan. To them he issued his law, which they were to keep in that country and not beyond it, and then only until the advent of the Messiah. The other Jews are those of the emperor and not of Moses. These date back to the time ofPilate, the procurator of the land of Judah. For when the latter asked them before the judgment seat, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is calledChrist?” they all said, “Crucify him, crucify him!” He said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” They shouted in reply, “We have no king but Caesar!”[Matt. 27:22; John 19:15]. God had not commanded of them such submission to the emperor; they gave it voluntarily.
But when the emperor demanded the obedience due him, they resisted andrebelled against him. Now they no longer wanted to be his subjects. Then he came and visited his subjects, gathered them in Jerusalem, and then scattered them throughout his entire empire, so that they were forced to obey him. From these the present remnant of Jews descended, of whom Mosesknows nothing, nor they of him; for they do not deserve a single passage or verse of Moses. If they wish to apply Moses’ law again, they must first return to the land of Canaan, become Moses’ Jews, and keep his laws. There they may practice usury as much as strangers will endure from them. But since they are dwelling in and disobeying Moses in foreign countries underthe emperor, they are bound to keep the emperor's laws and refrain from the practice of usury until they become obedient to Moses. For Moses’ law has never passed a single step beyond the land of Canaan or beyond the people of Israel. Moses was not sent to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, or any other nation with his law, but only to the people whom he led from Egyptinto the land of Canaan, as he himself testifies frequently in Deuteronomy. They were expected to keep his commandments in the land which they would conquer beyond the Jordan.
Moreover, since priesthood, worship, government with which the greater part, indeed, almost all, of those laws of Moses deal have been at an endfor over fourteen hundred years already, it is certain that Moses’ law also came to an end and lost its authority. Therefore the imperial laws must be applied to these imperial Jews. Their wish to be Mosaic Jews must not be indulged. In fact, no Jew has been that for over fourteen hundred years.
Seventh, I recommend 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, as was imposed on thechildren of Adam (Gen. 3 [:19]). 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., andon 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.
I just automatically defended the Roman Catholic Church because I assumed that the article was anti-Catholic because Alex Murphy posted it.
Hitler rejected his faith in his youth.
On Sundays his mother always went to mass with little Paula. Adolf never accompanied her that far even when she begged him. Pious believer that she was, she appeared to have come to terms with the fact that her son wanted to follow another path; perhaps his father had said something to her.
The Young Hitler I Knew
by August Kubizek
page 95
If he did so he did so in secret.
In 1941 Hitler said “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so,” according to Gerhard Engel, one of his generals
The party he led had as its platform that the religion of the state would be “positive Christianity”.
When speaking to the public he hoped to inspire Hitler spoke of “avenging my saviors blood upon the cross”.
The Hitler that GERMANY knew was, at least publicly, a “Christian”.
Germany was a majority Christian nation before WWII, Germany was a majority Christian nation after WWII. But suddenly DURING WWII they all ‘lost their religion’?
Lost their minds? Yes. But they didn’t stop going to Church, reading the Bible, or following the advice of Martin Luther on what to do about the ‘Jewish problem’ (see said advice upthread).
10th October, 1941, midday:
Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure. (p 43)
14th October, 1941, midday:
The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity.... Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse.... ...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little.... Christianity the liar.... We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. (p 49-52)
19th October, 1941, night:
The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity.
21st October, 1941, midday:
Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer.... The decisive falsification of Jesus' doctrine was the work of St.Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation.... Didn't the world see, carried on right into the Middle Ages, the same old system of martyrs, tortures, faggots? Of old, it was in the name of Christianity. Today, it's in the name of Bolshevism. Yesterday the instigator was Saul: the instigator today, Mardochai. Saul was changed into St.Paul, and Mardochai into Karl Marx. By exterminating this pest, we shall do humanity a service of which our soldiers can have no idea. (p 63-65)
13th December, 1941, midnight:
Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery.... .... When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are immunised against the disease. (p 118 & 119)
14th December, 1941, midday:
Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don't believe the thing's possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself.... Pure Christianity-- the Christianity of the catacombs-- is concerned with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics. (p 119 & 120)
9th April, 1942, dinner:
There is something very unhealthy about Christianity (p 339)
27th February, 1942, midday:
It would always be disagreeable for me to go down to posterity as a man who made concessions in this field. I realize that man, in his imperfection, can commit innumerable errors-- but to devote myself deliberately to errors, that is something I cannot do. I shall never come personally to terms with the Christian lie. Our epoch Uin the next 200 yearse will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity.... My regret will have been that I couldn't... behold ." (p 278)
Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944
Hitler's SECRET conversations?
No matter what Hitler personally believed, he inspired the antisemitic fervor in his followers by admonishing them to “Avenge my saviors blood upon the cross.” and other such rhetoric.
So you maintain that all the Nazi's knew Hitler's secret conversations and also renounced Christianity for atheism (the ideology the Nazi's associated with their foes, and claimed to have “stamped out”)?
The Nazi's were not one man. They were a political party.
The political party's membership was made up of people who thought of themselves as Christians.
The political party's platform called for the state religion to be “positive Christianity”.
The personal and SECRET opinion of one man has little to do with the beliefs of an entire political party.
There was a powerful current of antisemitic thought among some in European Christianity. A previous poster thought that the antisemitism of Luther could be excused based upon that prevalent opinion of his time. And yet this current of thought supposedly completely dried up during the Nazi years in Germany? No. The Nazis were the inheritors of this tradition which Luther expounded upon so eloquently with his talk of farts and who God loves.
I maintained no such thing.
The Nazi's were not one man.
I didn't say they were.
The political party's membership was made up of people who thought of themselves as Christians.
Not all - some.
The personal and SECRET opinion of one man has little to do with the beliefs of an entire political party.
I didn't say they did. His opinions and actions reflect his rejection of Catholicism.
Hitler's SECRET conversations?
What, only the SECRET statements you elect to post are valid?
The Nazi's were NOT atheists. They publicly claimed to have “stamped out” atheism. They associated atheism in numerous public statements with their domestic foes, the communists. Their party platform called for the official faith to be “positive Christianity”.
As a political party the Nazi's were anti-atheist and pro “positive Christianity”.
The Nazi's were inspired to antisemitism by statements of supposed guilt over the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ.
The Nazi's were not inspired to antisemitism by statements in support of atheism.
That is my point. And if Hitler renounced his faith, he, even according to you, did so in “secret conversations”.
Hard to inspire a movement to atheism when you are publicly denouncing it, and claiming to have “stamped it out”.
False. I said opinions and actions.
Your quotes were the “secret ones” from one source that were not published contemporaneously and thus could not POSSIBLY have been what inspired the Nazis.
Can you understand that what is secret cannot possibly be the impetus for a political movment? Only what is public can inspire a political movment. Hitler’s public pronouncements were that atheism needed to be “stamped out” and the blood of Jesus the Christ needed to be “avenged”.
But they thought of themselves as such. Just as did the numerous perpetrators of the long history of pogroms against Jews.
You really should learn what that means.
Here is my statement from post #34: "His opinions and actions reflect his rejection of Catholicism". Do you see the word "actions" in there? I wasn't making a claim based only on his statements.
Pete is a Scotsman and he does X.
Pete is no true Scotsman.
You claim to be able to know that Hitler was ‘no true Catholic’ based upon his opinions and actions.
But that is COMPLETELY BESIDE THE POINT.
The point is that the Hitler Germany knew and elected and followed and were inspired to hate Jews by; represented himself as a Christian.
The point is that as a political party the Nazi party was anti-atheist, anticommunist, antisemitic; and pro a “positive Christianity” (whatever that meant to the racist nitwits).
No it isn't. It addresses the point you raised about Hitler not being excommunicated. He removed himself from the Catholic faith. He didn't need to be excommunicated because he wasn't a practicing Catholic.
‘No need to excommunicate Hitler, he renounced his faith in secret conversations that will be published in a book a few years after his death.’
My statement is true, whatever objections you wish to put up about it. Hitler was baptized Catholic and was never excommunicated. Baptized Catholic? Yes. Never Excommunicated? Yes.
Another poster pointed out that they don't really “do” public excommunications anymore; there is also the fact that the Vatican was “behind enemy lines” for most of the war.
“I just automatically defended the Roman Catholic Church because I assumed that the article was anti-Catholic because Alex Murphy posted it.”
That’s quite a defense: “My church is the best and only. God doesn’t like YOUR church”.
I wonder if you can pull that one off at the pearly gates?
Just like you know of a secret conversation to Gerhard Engel. You seem to keep neglecting his actions. I've already posted evidence that he rejected his faith in his youth. There is no need to excommunicate someone who has already done that to themselves.
Hitler was baptized Catholic and was never excommunicated.
False. His actions resulted in latae excommunication, just as when a Catholic gets an abortion.
Never Excommunicated? Yes.
False.
Another poster pointed out that they don't really “do” public excommunications anymore
The other poster doesn't know what he's talking about. Here're some recent ones:
Latae excommunication does not depend upon the location of enemy lines.
you seem like a fair minded guy.
Pat on the back from a committed Catholic.
Luther was a man. He was right on some things, and wrong on others. He was wrong about this, then again, he wrote that when he was old and sick. Also, as pointed out, anti-semitism was part of Christian Europe indenpendent of him and before he was born.
Not all Nazis.
In fact, Nazi Anti-Semitism was *racial* in nature, not religious. Jews were considered irredemably inferior racially and genetically.
Look at the the Nuremberg Laws which were passed on September 15, 1935 Jews were defined on biological and racial principles. THe National Socialist program stated: “Only racial comrades may be citizens. A racial comrade can only be someone of German blood, without regard to religious confession. No Jew can therefore be a citizen.”
European Jews were pretty secular. Yet that didn’t help them. In fact, of the 6 million Jews killed I have heard that about 1 million of them were Christian-like Edith Stein and Max Jacobs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.