Has anyone ever done research on a comparison of Adolf Hitler and Protestant Reformer Martin Luther?

Question

If so, I would love some books or sites that I could use... if not... well I wish I was you. Thanks ladies and gents.

How can you put a thumbs down on it?!?! Its a real research topic!

How is it a wild comparison... if you have ever thought history you know the 1543 work by Martin Luther entitled "The Jews and Their Lies... you should know EXACTLY why there is a comparison... Luther influences Hitler greatly with Luthers own multi-step plan on how to erradicate the Jews...

Answer 1

Why is it that everyone points to Martin Luther as the sole influence or driving force that brought about the National Socialist endeavor to eradicate the Jews in Germany during the 1930's and 40's? A comprehensive study of Europe would preclude:
1. King Edward I in 1290 was the first monarch and England was the first country to expel all Jews out of a European country.
2. The great fear of Jews in Europe was propagated by the fact that Christian governments in the dark ages and Middle Ages did not lend money by charging interest or credit. They understood that the Bible forbid this activity. When Jews took up this task, it was the Christian monarchs that felt uneasy and vulnerable being a debtor and having their people being debtors to a minority group. Thus we get the image of the power hungry Jew that controls the money, economies and banking systems of the world. It wasn't until the later crusades that Christians really got into money lending that involved charging interest or establishing credit systems.
3. The King of France expelled all of its Jews in 1394.
4. In the 12th Century the concept of a "Blood-Libel" takes hold in Europe. Blood Libel was a legend that Jews would kidnap Christian children (usually men) and sadistically murder as a part of their rituals. There were probably real incidents when a child was brutally murdered and the guilt of the community (Christian) was deflected to the Jewish communities. Have you ever heard of the Pilgrimage of little Saint Williams? Probably not, because the Benedictine Monks in England fabricated the story to garner profit from pilgrims.
5. This concept of “Blood-Libel” showed up later in Prague with Christian mobs going into Jewish Ghettos to burn down their homes and kill Jews as retribution.
6. The Franciscan Order of friars formed in the 13th century were a major exponent of anti Semitism in Western Europe.
7. In Italy Jewish communities were labeled Ghettos and stories of conspiracies were formed of Jews working to poison wells and collaborating with Muslims to over take Europe.
8. In 1391 a third of the Jews living in Spain were massacred by Christians. Another third of the Jews living in Spain were forced to convert to Christianity and the term "conversos" was created. Muslims forced to convert in Spain were called "Moriscos).
9. In the 15th century, Spanish Christians created a myth that Jews were “the Fifth Column” in the Muslim conquest of the ancient Christian Kingdoms.
10. In 1490's Queen Isabel formed an alliance with the Dominicans to consolidate power and secure the loyalty of Andalusian nobility by emphasizing a fight against Judaism. This fight pretty much wiped out Jewish and Muslim civilization in Spain.

These are just a bit of the atrocities, discrimination and out right hatred for Jews in Europe. To think that Martin Luther's writings were an influence on the National Socialism's drive to eradicate Jews from Europe is a farce. No one talks about works that came from the Vatican condemning Jews. An certainly no one talks about the German Enlightenment specifically metaphysics that put forward the idea of "Contra Superman" as a driving force that lead to the rise of totalitarianism in Germany. I guess its ok to read and praise Immanuel Kant, but not Martin Luther. The institutionalization of hatred of Jews in Europe goes as far back as the Christianizing of Europe, (most of it well before Martin Luther's time) and continues today. To also insinuate that Martin Luther was the only person putting out these types of views is wrong. The hatred of the Jews in Europe has always been a mentality of the Church and the State.

Also, your "comparison" of Adolf Hitler to Martin Luther is a joke. That sickly drug addict from Austria is no where as good as a man as Martin Luther.

I will leave you with a quote from Heinrich Heine from 1832, 100 years before the rise of the Nazi's. "Christianity -- and that is its greatest merit -- has somewhat mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. ... The old stone gods will then rise from long ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and Thor will leap to life with his giant hammer and smash the Gothic cathedrals. ... Do not smile at my advice -- the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder ... comes rolling somewhat slowly, but .. its crash ... will be unlike anything before in the history of the world. ... At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in farthest Africa will draw in their tails and slink away. ... A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll."

Answer 2

A real research topic. By whom? For what purpose. The question is much the same as comparing and contrasting Dogs and Lemons. What is the basis. We really would need to know more. I taught a lot of college history and I cannot see a root to this.

Answer 3

yes, I heard about several times.The research on comparison was in the New Holocaust Museum in Israel. There was some simbols in the Martin Luther manifestation (don,t remember) about antisemitism