Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Angaben zur Quelle:
69,3 (2001) 551-575
Keywords:
Luther, Martin,
;
Rosenzweig, Franz,
;
Kien, Peter
;
Ullmann, Viktor
;
Bible. Versions
;
Bible Versions
;
Christianity
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in music
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Terminology
Abstract:
Discusses two "works of art", Franz Rosenzweig's essay "Scripture and Luther" (1926) and Peter Kien and Victor Ullmann's opera "The Emperor of Atlantis". The former implicates German culture, in terms of the founding document of its language and culture, Luther's translation of the Bible, for having no room for Hebrew and, therefore, for the Jews. Rosenzweig had a premonition of a coming rupture of history, but the German translation of the Hebrew Bible that he and Buber were working on eventually became a gravestone for European Jewry, after the latter's destruction by Germans who had gone mad along with their language. "The Emperor of Atlantis" was written for performance in Theresienstadt, but was banned. Both of the authors were killed in Auschwitz, but their work was saved. Death and war are central themes in the opera, which criticizes both modernity and Christianity, and specifically Luther's Christianity for its triumphalism and demonizing of non-Christians.
DOI:
10.1093/jaarel/69.3.551
URL:
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