Martin Luther letter critical of Jews is up for auction

A letter written nearly 500 years ago by Martin Luther in which he refers to Jews as "devils incarnate" during a tirade against a former ally is up for auction, but Luther scholars warn that the man responsible for the Reformation should not be called anti-Semitic.

The single-page letter, with writing on both sides, is expected to sell for at least $300,000 at the auction being conducted by Boston-based RR Auction that concludes Wednesday.

"Martin Luther items don't come to auction often, and this is in incredibly great shape for a 500-year-old letter," said Robert Livingston, RR's executive vice president.

The letter was written around September 1543 to a top official at Berlin's St. Nicholas Church in response to a letter from the official requesting Luther's interpretation of some Biblical verses by which former Luther friend Johann Agricola justified his positive treatment of Jews in what is now Germany.

In his reply, Luther tells Georg Buchholzer that he has done well to preach against the Jews and should continue to do so, ignoring Agricola, who Luther accused of being a habitual liar.

"For these Jews are not Jews, but devils incarnate who curse our Lord," Luther wrote, according to RR Auction's translation.

Luther, whose Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 triggered the Protestant Reformation and seismic rift in Christianity that still exists, sympathized with Jews early on because of the poor way they were treated by the Catholic Church, said Eric Metaxas, author of the 2017 book "Martin Luther."
"Luther plays a part in this grim history," Brown said via email. "Yet as appalling as Luther's intolerance of his Jewish contemporaries was, Luther was not an anti-Semite. His criticism of Judaism was rooted in theological disagreement over the reading of shared Scriptures, not in racial animus."