German activism against 'Luther' film
Diet Simon - 15.12.2003 00:16
Martin Luther hated Jews and dreamt of “a fiery end” for all of them. He despised women. He wanted all “handicapped” people “drowned in the gutter”. He fantasised about murdering revolutionary farmers.
He says all of this in his own writings, claims an activist group based on Giessen, which is agitating against the Hollywood film “Luther” largely funded by American and German Lutheran organisations.
“Without scruples, the reformer could be called a guiding intellectual force (Vordenker) of the Nazis,” the group writes at  http://de.indymedia.org//2003/12/69748.shtml. “His writings document hatred for everything different – Hitler and the Evangelical Church in the Third Reich also saw it like that.”
The group on Friday began exhibitions in the Giessen area and distributing leaflets outside cinemas showing the film. They say information evenings are to follow. “Street theatre actions are planned in and around Giessen and if enough people can be mobilised also outside churches again at Christmas.”
“There’s going to be pressure on Martin Luther in Giessen and surroundings over his repugnant anti-Semitism, his destruction fantasies about the Jews, the handicapped, revolutionary farmers, witches and wizards and his sexist view of women. The silent churches and the religions themselves will also be attacked.”
Some of the Luther quotations the activists have dug up:
"Wie es unmöglich ist, daß die Aglaster ihr Hüpfen und Getzen läßt, die Schlange ihr Stechen: so wenig läßt der Jude von seinem Sinn, Christen umzubringen, wo er nur kann." (“Just as it is impossible…..for the snake to give up its sting, so the Jew does not give up his pursuit to kill Christians wherever he can.”) Fom Tischreden. Erlanger Ausgabe der Werke Luthers, Volume 62, p. 375.
“Darum wisse Du, lieber Christ, und Zweifel nichts dran, daß Du, nähest nach dem Teufel, keinen bittern, giftigern, heftigern Feind habest, denn einen rechten Jüden, der mit Ernst ein Jüde sein will.” (“Therefore know you, dear Christian, that right after the devil you can have no more bitter, more poisonous, fiercer enemy than a proper Jew who wants seriously to be a Jew.”) From Luther: Handbuch der Judenfrage, p. 182.
“Ich will meinen treuen Rat geben. Erstlich, daß man ihre Synagoge oder Schule mit Feuer anstecke, und was nicht verbrennen will, mit Erde überhäufe und beschütte, daß kein Mensch einen Stein oder Schlacke davon sehe ewiglich. Zum andern, daß man auch ihre Häuser desgleichen zerbreche und zerstöre. Denn sie treiben eben dasselbige darin, was sie in ihren Schulen treiben.” (“I wish to give my loyal advice. Firstly, that one should set on fire their synagogue or school, and on whatever will not burn heap earth so that no person would for ever see a stone or ash from it. Moreover, that one break apart their houses ion the same manner for they pursue in them the same as in their schools.”) From Luther: Von den Jüden und ihren Lügen. Erlanger Ausg. Vol. 32 p. 233-238.
“In his theses Luther suggests getting value out of useful Jews – the concentration camps of the Nazis are not far removed from that thought,” the Giessen activists write.
“Seventh [of a seven-point plan], one should give the young, strong Jews and Jewesses a flail, an axe, a spade, …. and spindle and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.”
“So it is no coincidence,” the activists argue, “that Hitler positively cited Luther in 1923. ‘Luther was a great man, a giant. With one push he broke through the twilight, saw the Jew the way we are only now seeing him.’ At the Nuremberg trials of war criminals, the Nazis, [e.g. Julius Streicher], expressly cited Luther’s anti-Jewish writings. Even the churches in the Nazi time based their position on Luther. In the Christmas period of 1941, when the last still living Jews were forced to wear a Star of David on their clothing, seven German regional leaders of Christian churches and the Deutsche Evangelische Kirchenkanzlei declared that ‘As members of the German Volksgemeinschaft the signatory German Evangelical Regiponal Churches and Church leaders stand in the front of this historic defensive struggle, which among other things has made necessary the Reich Police Order about marking the Jews as the born enemies of the world and the Reich, just as Dr. Martin Luther, after bitter experiences raised the demand to take the sharpest action against Jews and to expel them from German lands.’” From Günter Brakelmann/Martin Rosowski (ed.), Antisemitismus, page 108, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1989.
“Women were for Luther, like nearly everyone of his time, a nice accessory for the production of children,” the Giessen activists write. “He also favoured the burning of witches.”
The Giessen activists provide the following quotes:
“Der Tod im Kindbett ist nichts weiter als ein Sterben im edlen Werk und Gehorsam Gottes. Ob die Frauen sich aber auch müde und zuletzt tot tragen, das schadet nichts. Lass sie nur tot tragen, sie sind darum da.” (“Death in childbirth is no more than a dying in noble work and obedience to God. And whether the women carry until they are exhausted and dead in the end, no harm is done. Let them carry until they die, that is what they are there for.”)
“Die größte Ehre, die das Weib hat, ist allzumal, dass die Männer durch sie geboren werden.” (“The greatest honour a woman has is that she gives birth to men.”)
"Die Zauberinnen sollst du nicht leben lassen... Es ist ein gerechtes Gesetz, dass sie getötet werden, sie richten viel Schaden an." (“You must not let the witches live….It is a just law that they be killed, they do much damage.”) From a sermon in 1526, Weimarer Ausgabe 16, p. 551.
Luther was also hostile to the uprising of farmers, the activisists write, “showing his obsequious attitide to authority.”
Quotations provided by the group:
“Ich bin der Meinung: es ist besser, dass alle Bauern erschlagen werden als die Fürsten und Obrigkeiten und zwar deshalb, weil die Bauern ohne Gewalt von Gott das Schwert nehmen: Deshalb gebührt den Bauern keine Barmherzigkeit, keine Geduld, sondern der Zorn und Unwillen Gottes.” (“I am of the opinion that it is better that all farmers are beaten to death than the princes and authorities because the farmers take the sword without authority from God. That is why no mercy, no patience, but the fury and repugnance of God are due to them.”)
“Steche, schlage, würge hie, wer da kann. Bleibst du darüber tot, wohl dir, einen seligeren Tod kannst du nimmer mehr erlangen.” (“Stab, beat, throttle whoever can. Stay you dead for this, you can not achieve a more blessed death.”) From Luther über die aufständischen Bauern, Weimarer Ausgabe 18, p. 357 f.
“Equally disgusting was his veneration of the medieval princes as benefactor of the common people,” write the activists.
They provide following quotes on “the reactionary Luther”:
“Es ist besser, wenn Tyrannen hundert Ungerechtigkeiten gegen das Volk verüben, als dass das Volk eine einzige Ungerechtigkeit gegen die Tyrannen verübt.” (“It is better if tyrants commit a hundred injustices against the people than if the people commit a single injustice against the tyrants.”
“One of the most repugnant prominent persons who is as bad as Hitler in basic positions and in destructive mania is being celebrated all over Germany,” the activists write, and urge people to rise against this with their own ideas. The film is running everywhere, they note, there are churches everywhere, Luther memorials in many places, Luther streets and squares, Luther mountains, schools and universities. The activists write that it’s worth watching the film “not because of what’s in it, but because of what’s left out.” Others call for a boycott of it.
The film is said to be doing exceptionally well in German cinemas. The German actor, Uwe Ochsenknecht, who plays Pope Leo X, declared at the premiere in Munich: “In Germany we lack people with the courage and strength of character of a Martin Luther.”
University teachers have recommended the film for use as teaching material at schools and universities. The evangelical theologian, Thomas Schneider, and his Catholic colleague, Jörg Seiler, of the University of Koblenz-Landau, recommend the film especially to theology students of both denominations and to historians.
They told the epd Protestant news agency that although the balance between artistic freedom and historical exactitude was not always kept, the film did not paint “black and white”. They especially praised the sermon scenes as impressive and authentically documenting Luther’s theology.
The $ 30 million film “Luther” has split the German film industry like the man Luther once split the church, the business daily Handelsblatt wrote. It reported that the insurance company of the American Lutherans, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, and the German Evangelican Church (Evangelische Kirche Deutschland, EKD) co-financed the film. “50 % of the investment sum comes from Thrivent. The other half comes from Germany. But the EKD participates with only 2% through its film company Eikon,” the Handelsblatt quotes Bernd Merz of the EKD. beteiligt“, berichtet der EKD-Rundfunkbeauftragte Bernd Merz.
“There’s always a lot of money in film that you don’t know where it’s from. Most time the money’s there for just one thing, a proper profit,” says Michael Schmid- Ospach, head of the North-Rhine westphalian film promotion board.
In the film and television industry there’s controversial discussion about financiers like churches or corporations. “I regard such co-financing as difficult because then influence will be exerted on how the theme is handled,” comments film producer, Jan Mojto. He made do without Vatican or other church funding for the Munich EOS company’s TV epos, “Pope John XXIII.” He says there were no church investors, either, in the Bible filming in 21 episodes by Leo Kirch.
The Giessen activists offer action materials they have put together:
- A quarto-size flyer downloadable as a PDF from the net.
- A placard series also available as a PDF download. It can be used for exhibitions in cinemas, schools, etc. “Perhaps the one of other church will face up to the debate and uses the A3 placards.”
Exhibitions:
- From Saturday, 12.12.2003 at Kino Traumstern (Lich)
- From Tuesday, 16.12.2003 at Infoladen, Alter Wetzlarer Weg 44 (Giessen)
- In the Projektwerkstatt, Ludwigstr. 11 (Reiskirchen-Saasen)
Information and discussion functions (open to all):
- Sunday, 21.12.2003, after the film (c. 9.45 pm) in the foyer of Kino Traumstern (Lich, Gießener Str. 15)
- Tuesday, 23.12.2003, at the Vokü (delicious food) in the Infoladen ... from c. 9 pm.
- Wednesday, 24.12.2003, anti-Christmas in the Projektwerkstatt ... from about 6 pm with free meal, films and more.
Internet (in German):
- Critical page on Luther: http://www.luther-der-film.de.vu
- The film’s page: http://www.luther-der-film.de (with discussion forum)
- Religious criticism: http://www.projektwerkstatt.de/religion
- Rule criticism, utopias: http://www.herrschaftsfrei.de.vu
- Ideas for creative actions in general: http://www.direct-action.de.vu
Homepage: http://www.luther-der-film.de.vu
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