Language:
German
Year of publication:
2012
Titel der Quelle:
Dialog דו-שיח
Angaben zur Quelle:
88 (2012) 32-39
Keywords:
Kittel, Gerhard,
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1945
;
Christianity and antisemitism History 1933-1945
Abstract:
Gerhard Kittel (1888-1948), who was from 1933 professor of New Testament studies at the universities of Tübingen and Vienna, and editor of the "Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament", provided theological and historical arguments for Nazism's antisemitic ideology. In 1933 he joined the Nazi Party. At the same time he lectured on the necessity to deprive the Jews of German citizenship as a response to what he considered the "worsening of the Jewish question" due to the strong influence of modern Judaism on German culture. He also advocated the establishment of a Jewish Christian Church and a Jewish Christian theology, so that, in case of baptism, the Jews would remain separate from Aryan Christians. His stance evoked criticism by Jewish intellectuals, such as Herbert Loewe and Martin Buber. From 1936 onward he published several articles under the aegis of the Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands, Forschungsabteile Judenfrage. In those articles, Kittel differentiated between the religion of the Old Testament and later Judaism, contending that the latter had its foundation in the Talmud, in the dispersion of the Jews, and in the racial mix with other peoples, all of which led to the emergence of a "world Judaism", an international entity aimed at dominating the world. These points of view coincided with Nazi propaganda against the Jews and with libels such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
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