November 10

©ZDF

Neither am I writing about November 9, Germany's Schicksalstag (day of fate) …

    

In the early morning of November 11, 1918, representatives of the
 German Empire, France, and England signed the armistice
in this railroad car in a clearing near Compiègne.

… nor about November 11, Armistice.

I want to comment on the sandwiched date, particularly on Jerry Coyne's blog of November 10. It lists, as usual, the birthdays of notables, and I was astonished to find the following famous names united on the 10th:

1483 – Martin Luther, German monk, and priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation (d. 1546)
1759 – Friedrich Schiller, German poet, playwright, and historian (d. 1805)
1871 – Winston Churchill, American author and painter (d. 1947)

"Author and painter"? That's how Wikipedia characterizes him!

Here are my observations as Jerry continues his blog commenting on Luther:

He was a rabid anti-Semite, as the quote from Wikipedia by Tovia Singer, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, shows, "Among all the Church Fathers and Reformers, there was no mouth more vile, no tongue that uttered more vulgar curses against the Children of Israel than this founder of the Reformation." Because of this, he, and the entire religion he founded, should be canceled.

Jerry's first statement is utterly true. I commented on Luther's antisemitism in my blog Judenhüte, but a subtler treatment is necessary.

When the Reformation took up speed in German territories, Luther was looking for new followers and wanted to win over the Jews to his side.

First, he reminded Christians of the chosen people: "The Jews are of the blood of Christ, are blood friends, cousins and brothers of our Lord, are the greatest race on earth. Through them, the Holy Spirit has revealed all the books of the Holy Scriptures to the world. They are the children; we, the Christians, are only guests and strangers. In truth, like the woman of Cana, we should be happy to be like dogs eating the falling crumbs from their masters' table."

In 1523, in his paper, "Das Jhesus Christus eyn geborner Jude sey," Luther pointed out in his crude way that in the Middle Ages in the Old Church, there had again and again been religiously motivated pogroms against the Jews, "Our fools and donkey heads, popes, bishops, sophists, and monks, have acted against the Jews in such a way that a good Christian would out of shame rather want to become a Jew. If I had been a Jew and had seen such a rule of scoundrels and gangs teaching the Christian faith, I would have become a Jew before becoming a Christian."

"The popes have behaved toward the Jews like a whore mistress who teaches a girl fornication and then accuses her of not behaving like a virgin. They acted against the Jews as if they were dogs and not men; they have nothing more to announce than to scold them and take their goods ... I hope that if one deals with the Jews in a friendly manner and teaches them correctly from the holy scriptures, they will become true Christians and return to the faith of their cousins, the prophets and patriarchs [who foretold the coming of the Messiah]."

When Luther's hopes did not materialize, he uttered his vulgar curses against the Children of Israel, but canceling Luther's religion would mean canceling all Christian faith.

Mind you, in Germany nowadays, antisemitism is driven by a few ewig Gestrige (people living in the past) and quite many Muslims residing here. Some of them go so far as to push for the eradication of Israel, the Jewish state. "Push and drown  the Jews in the Mediterranean Sea."

Friedrich Schiller indeed was a genius. He was a poet, playwright, and historian. We call him Dichter der Freiheit, a poet of freedom who wrote The Robbers and William Tell.

On Winston Churchill, Jerry got it all wrong when he writes: 

"Author and painter"? That's how Wikipedia characterizes him! But he did paint a lot to relax, and he wasn't a bad painter for a Prime Minister. Here's his "Studio Still Life," from about 1930:

Churchill Winston Spencer, Studio Still Life (CR National Trust, Chartwell)

There are four Winston Churchill on Wikipedia! Jerry confused THE Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) with the American novelist Winston Churchill (November 10, 1871 – March 12, 1947)

Later Jerry noted the blunder, and in an update, he wrote, "Ooops; I didn't read 'American author and painter,' so I assumed that this was THE Winston Churchill, who did paint as PM. Anyway, here's a work by the REAL Churchill: the British one, and as you can see, he wasn't a bad painter. He was a good bricklayer, too."

Churchill Winston Spencer, Studio Still Life (CR National Trust, Chartwell)

Red Baron likes the bricklayer, but aren't we lucky that Jerry didn't mix up Friedrich and Phil. 

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