“Dark, Depressing Riddle”: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of the Volk in the Theology of Paul AlthausRyan Tafilowski
It is rare that a study of a German Protestant theologian during the Third Reich speaks to today’s political sensibilities. The Lutheran Paul Althaus was a strong advocate of a “unique spiritual vitality” (p. 50) of the German people. Construing Germans as an ethnically distinct group endowed with a...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2021
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| In: |
Holocaust and genocide studies
Year: 2021, Volume: 35, Issue: 2, Pages: 289-291 |
| Review of: | ‘Dark, Depressing Riddle’ (Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019) (Krondorfer, Björn)
"Dark, depressing riddle" (Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019) (Krondorfer, Björn) |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | It is rare that a study of a German Protestant theologian during the Third Reich speaks to today’s political sensibilities. The Lutheran Paul Althaus was a strong advocate of a “unique spiritual vitality” (p. 50) of the German people. Construing Germans as an ethnically distinct group endowed with a divine mission, he wrote in 1927, “Our people [Volk] have had to endure the deepest questions of humanity more painfully and more profoundly than any other.… Our people have testified to God throughout history, in which God has entrusted it with something unique.” It is no surprise that Althaus embraced Hitler’s rise to power, for he saw the hand of God in the election of a strong nationalist. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-7937 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Holocaust and genocide studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/hgs/dcab024 |