23 September 1888 A.D. Gerhard Kittel Born—German Lutheran Theologian & Open Anti-Semite
23
September 1888 A.D. Gerhard Kittel Born—German Lutheran Theologian &
Open Anti-Semite
Gerhard Kittel (September
23, 1888, Breslau – July 11, 1948, Tübingen) was a German Protestant theologian, lexicographer of biblical
languages, and open anti-Semite.[1] He is best known in academic circles for his Theologisches
Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament).
The son of acclaimed Old Testament scholar Rudolf
Kittel, he married Hanna Untermeier in 1914, but there were no
children from the union. In May 1933 he joined the National Socialist German
Workers Party. A Professor of
Evangelical Theology and New Testament at the University of Tübingen, he published "scientific" studies depicting the Jewish people as the
historical enemy of Germany, Christianity, and European culture in general.
In 1945, after Hitler's Third Reich capitulated to the
Allies, Kittel was arrested by the French occupying forces, removed from office
and interned at Balingen. William
F. Albright wrote the International War
Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg in early 1946, "In view of the terrible
viciousness of his attacks on Judaism and the Jews, which continues at least
until 1943, Gerhard Kittel must bear the guilt of having contributed more,
perhaps, than any other Christian theologian to the mass murder of Jews by
Nazis."
Nonetheless, in 1946 Kittel was released pending his
trial. He was forbidden to enter Tübingen until 1948, however. From 1946 to
1948 he was a Seelsorger (soul carer) in Beuron. In 1948 he was allowed
back into Tübingen, but died that year before the criminal proceedings against
him could be resumed.
Literary works
·
Die Oden Salomos
überarbeitet oder einheitlich, 1914
·
Jesus und die
Rabbinen, 1914
·
Die Probleme des
palästinensischen Spätjudentums und das Urchristentum, 1926
·
Urchristentum,
Spätjudentum, Hellenismus, 1926
·
Die
Religionsgeschichte und das Urchristentum, 1932
·
Founder and
co-editor of the "Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament",
5 vols., 1933-1979
·
Christus und
Imperator, 1939
References
External links
·
Christof Dahm (1992). "Kittel, Gerhard". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm. Biographisch-Bibliographisches
Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German) 3. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1544–1546. ISBN 3-88309-035-2.
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