Von den Juden und ihren Lügen. On the Jews and their Lies. Anti-Semitism

Von den Jüden und iren Lügen, Zum andernmal Gedruckt vnd mehr dazu gethan.Wittemberg Lufft 1543. 128 pages. 18.5 cm. Bound in a 15th century leaf. 17th century inscription on the inside board. This is Panzer 3425.This work is printed in the same year as the first edition but enlarged, as the title indicates. Title page lower margin cut. Else good.
German religious reformer and founder of the Lutheranism movement, Martin Luther grew increasingly hostile towards the Jews following their refusal to accept his religious reformations.

In the present work, the most virulent of Luther's anti-Semitic attacks, he subjects the Jews to a torrent of vile abuse. His practical suggestions range from forced labor to outright banishment: "First, their synagogues should be set on fire and what ever does not burn up should be covered over with dirt so that no one may ever be ale to see a cinder or stone of it. Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed..And this ought be done for the honour of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians and that we have not wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing and blaspheming."

Due to Luther's vituperative anti-Jewish polemics, the Lutheran church retained all the superstitious abhorrence of the Jews inherited from the medieval Catholic church.On Luther's conception of the Jews in this work, see J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews- The Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism (1983) p.183 et