Language:
English
Year of publication:
2009
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
23,3 (2009) 441-460
Keywords:
Luther, Martin,
;
Meyer-Erlach, Wolf,
;
Christianity and antisemitism History 1500-1800
;
Church history 20th century
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
The Protestant theologian Wolf Mayer-Erlach (1891-1982) was regarded as a specialist on Luther. A member of the Nazi Party and the Deutsche Christen movement, he did much to harness Luther's anti-Jewish treatises in support of Nazi antisemitic ideology and policies. After a brief discussion on Luther's "On the Jews and Their Lies", sketches Meyer-Erlach's biography and dwells on his theology and anti-Jewish ideas. The latter combined anti-Judaism with antisemitism (in Gavin Langmuir's definition). Meyer-Erlach viewed Jews through a prism of irrational fantasy; seeking to address events unfolding in Germany, he advocated a distorted version of Luther's own non-rational argumentation on Judaism. After the war Meyer-Erlach claimed that under Hitler's dictatorship he had been against Nazism and antisemitism, but his claim seems implausible.
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