Luther's Big Bang

Der lutherische Urknall; Die Franzosen und die Deutschen (The French and the Germans) is a recent book by Martin Graff. Having been a perfectly bilingual Lutheran pastor by education in Alsace, Graff became a radio speaker, author, filmmaker, and political comedian. He is well known here in Freiburg as Gedankenschmuggler (a smuggler of thoughts), writing a periodic column in the Badische Zeitung (BZ) in a mixed German-French idiom. I like his wit and foresight, in particular when he holds a mirror up to his compatriots and to us, the neighboring Germans.

When Graff's new book was announced, I was unsure whether to buy it. However, on the last day of September, a review in the BZ got me excited when the author mentioned that Graff regards Luther's Protestantism as a precursor to liberty, a statement I found difficult to swallow.

I left my breakfast table and walked downtown to buy the book. The two biggest bookshops did not have it in stock, but before I ordered the book from Amazon, I found one copy in a small bookshop on Bertoldstraße. Already on the streetcar, I started reading the introduction and was fascinated. This intriguing book about post-war French-German history brings back old memories of milestones in the relationship between our two countries. Graff supports his text with ample citations in German and French.

Now, having finished the book, I must admit that there are many repetitions, but what disconcerted me throughout was that Graff kept criticizing the political system and situation in France more than that in Germany. Comparing President François Hollande's appeals with President Joachim Gauck's speeches is not fair, since the former governs France, whereas the latter is just a figurehead under our constitution. By the way, Joachim Gauck, too, changed his profession from a Lutheran pastor to Germany's Federal President.

The founder of the French Socialist Party, Jean Jaurès, had once called Luther père de la liberté (Father of liberty), and Graff is heavily biased, being a Lutheran pastor. However, Luther had asked that anybody be authorized to read God's Word in the Bible. A layman does not require a Catholic priest to enter into contact with God when Luther states Sola fides, sola gratia (Only the belief leads to grace). While the German Protestants emancipated themselves from the Pope and the Curia, they remained political subjects rather than citizens.

According to Graff, modern French citizens are no better off than the Germans before 1919. Although France is the fatherland of human rights (Was this not the United States?), it is, in reality, only the home of their declaration. According to Graff, France's present political hierarchy mirrors the old Church hierarchy.

Luther, was he the father of liberty? Having published his 95 Theses against the indulgence trade in 1517, Luther had to face many disputes with no positive results. In 1520, threatened by ban and proscription, Luther had his back to the wall and played his last trump card. He published his treatise An den Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation). To this paper he added his Gravamina (grievences) addressing the nobility: Wie kommen wir Deutschen dortzu, das wir solche reuberey, schinderey unserer güter von dem babst leyden mussen? hat das kunigreich zu Franckreich sichs erweret, warumb lassen wir Deutschen uns alszo narren und effen? (How come that we Germans must suffer robbery and drudgery of our goods by the pope? The French Kingdom successfully fought against it. Why are we Germans fooled and "aped"?) It was Luther's financial argument that eventually convinced Germany's local rulers.

In fact, the political influence of the Catholic Church in France was always less than in German territories. In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu, a prince of the Roman Church, even went so far as to argue that the interests of a state and religion are totally different. It was the beginning of the separation of the throne and altar in France. Richelieu wrote: A state must follow Christian principles, but a state is a polity without an immortal soul and may therefore do things that simple Christians are not allowed to do. The salvation of human beings becomes true in the afterlife; however, states will perish with this world, meaning their well-being is now or never. Louis XIV's absolute monarchy became emancipated when the young monarch ousted Cardinal Mazarin in 1651, taking the reins of the kingdom into his own hands.

Luther considered all authorities as being enacted by God. When authorities are bad, they must be regarded as a divine punishment, as a spiritual examination of the people. Such a situation does not justify either riotous assemblies or revolts being the work of the devil (niemalen rotterey noch aufruhr, denn die sind Teufelswerk).

Against the Catholic Church, Luther needed the support of the local princes who had converted to Protestantism. In the absence of a hierarchical structure for the New Church, Luther made the princes defenders of the Protestant faith, creating the unfortunate association of Throne and Altar that poisoned German politics until the bitter defeat of the 2nd Reich in 1918. 

One of the poets of the German Revolution, Ludwig Börne, sarcastically concluded already in 1849 that the Reformation had become consumptive, so German liberty subsequently died of tuberculosis, with Luther as the undertaker.

Luther, the father of liberty?

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