Gerhard Kittel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1888-09-23)23 September 1888 |
| Died | 11 July 1948(1948-07-11) (aged 59) Tübingen, Germany |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Spouse | |
| Parent | Rudolf Kittel |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Kiel[1] |
| Thesis | Die Oden Salomos, überarbeitet oder einheitlich[1] (1912) |
| Doctoral advisor | Johannes Leipoldt [arz;de][1] |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | |
| Sub-discipline | New Testament studies |
| School or tradition | Lutheranism |
| Institutions | University of Tübingen |
| Doctoral students | Walter Grundmann[2] |
| Influenced | |
Gerhard Kittel (23 September 1888 – 11 July 1948) was a GermanLutheran[1]theologian andlexicographer ofbiblical languages. He was an enthusiastic supporter of theNazis[5] and an openantisemite.[6] He is known in the field ofbiblical studies for hisTheological Dictionary of the New Testament.[7]
Kittel was born on 23 September 1888 inBreslau, Poland.[citation needed] The son ofOld Testament scholarRudolf Kittel,[8] he married Hanna Untermeier in 1914, but there were no children from the union.[citation needed] In May 1933, he joined theNazi Party.[7] He had had no previous involvement in politics but called the party "a völkisch renewal movement on a Christian, moral foundation".[9]
On 3 May 1945, afterNazi Germany capitulated to the Allies, Kittel was arrested by the French occupying forces.[7] He was subsequently removed from office and interned atBalingen.[10] In his own defence, Kittel maintained his work was "scientific in method" and motivated by Christianity, although it may have appearedantisemitic to some.[11] He attempted to distinguish his work from the "vulgar antisemitism of Nazi propaganda" likeDer Stürmer andAlfred Rosenberg,[11] who was known for his anti-Christian rhetoric,völkisch arguments and emphasis onLebensraum.[12] Kittel characterized his work as an "attempt to grapple with the problem of Jewry and theJewish question".[11]
Martin Dibelius, a GermanProtestant theologian atHeidelberg, wrote that Kittel's works related to ancientJudaism "are of purely scientific character" and "do not serve the Party interpretation of Judaism".[13] He said further that Kittel deserved "the thanks of all who are interested in the scientific study of Judaism".[14]
Claus Schedl, who attended Kittel's lectures on the Jewish Question in the winter of 1941–1942 in Vienna, said that "one heard not a single word of malice" and that "Professor Kittel truly did not collaborate".[14] Schedl says that Kittel was one of very few scholars who promoted an opinion on the Jewish Question other than the official one.[14] Kittel himself said his goal was to combat the myths and distortions of extremist members of the Nazi Party.[11]
Annemarie Tugendhat was a Christian Jew whose father had been taken to the concentration campWelzheim in 1938.[14] She testified that Kittel had strongly objected against the actions being taken against Jews, with his work on the Jewish Question not based on the racial theories of Nazism but upon theology.[15][page needed]
In 1946, Kittel was released pending his trial, but was forbidden to enterTübingen until 1948. From 1946 to 1948 he was apastor (Seelsorger) inBeuron. In 1948, he was allowed back into Tübingen, but died that year before the criminal proceedings against him could be resumed.[15][page needed] He died on 11 July 1948.[16]
A Professor of Evangelical Theology andNew Testament at theUniversity of Tübingen, he published studies depicting the Jewish people as the historical enemy of Germany,Christianity, andEuropean culture in general. In a lecture of June 1933Die Judenfrage (The Jewish Question), that soon appeared in print, he spoke for the stripping of citizenship from German Jews, their removal from medicine, law, teaching, and journalism, and to forbid marriage or sexual relations with non-Jews – thus anticipating by two years the Nazi government, which introduced itsNuremberg Racial Laws and took away Jewish rights of German citizenship in 1935.[17] A close friend ofWalter Frank,[citation needed] Kittel joined Frank'sReichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands, upon its foundation in 1935.[7] Within this institute he was attached toForschungsabteilung judenfrage.[7]
From 1940 to 1943 Kittel held an Evangelical Theology chair at the university of Vienna. He was replaced at the university of Tübingen by Otto Michel (1903-1993). In March 1943 Kittel suddenly returned to Tübingen to reclaim his theology chair at its university, while still holding his chair at the university of Vienna. This forced Michel to be drafted into theWehrmacht as a lowly private and caused him traumatic humiliations. (See Otto Michel,Anpassung oder Widerstand: eine Autobiographie, Wuppertal & Zurich, Brockhaus Verlag, 1989, pp. 88-98).
William F. Albright wrote that, "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."[18]
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