Antisemitische Lutherflorilegien. Hinweise und Materialien zu einer fatalen Rezeptionsgeschichte

This article investigates a specific group of sources, namely the florilegia which contain citations from Luther's works dealing with Jews. The first examples of these collections date back to the confessional age. During the 19th century, the medium exercised great influence and had begun with three publications by protestant theologians who had collected quotations from Luther's anti-Jewish pamphlets of 1543 in particular. Luther was discovered by anti-Jewish publicists in the 1880s and in several cases their reference to him was combined with sharp polemics against the contemporary Lutheran church, which then in turn came under attack for suppressing the anti-Semitic Luther. From the 1920s onwards, Lutheran theologians began to publish literature and florilegia affirming Luther's hatred against Jewish people. The 'advice' to burn down synagogues, contained in his tract »On The Jews and Their Lies« (1543), was published several times before the so-called »Reichskristallnacht« of November 9th 1938, during which Nazis destroyed Jewish property and synagogues.