Abstract / DOI
Stumbling Blocks on the Road to the Quincentenary of the Reformation 2017. Since the inauguration of the so-called «Luther Decade» in 2008, one topic has been discussed more than any other: Martin Luther’s antisemitism, in particular his tract on «The Jews and their Lies», written in 1543. Since 1945, since the end of the Nazi regime, German Protestants have had to come to terms with the fact that National Socialists had used Luther as a key witness in support of their policy of persecution and extermination. For several decades, the question was not confronted squarely. It was not until November 2015 that the Synod of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) unequivocally distanced itself from Luther’s antisemitic diatribes.