Once again, the traditional picture of Luther makes him out to be a man opposed to warfare of any kind. Did he not prohibit any armed resistance even to unjust tyrants? Are there not many truly Christian passages in his writings such as “Armed resistance can in no way be reconciled with Scripture”?
But he did that only, once more, as long as it suited his purpose. In his later years he took a completely different attitude, and again his chief argument, in order to explain his contradictions, was the double-life theory. “A Christian is neither prince nor commoner nor anything whatever in the personal world. Hence whether resistance is permissible to a ruler as a ruler, let them settle according to their own judgment and conscience.” And again” “As a Christian, man has to suffer everything and not resist anybody. As a member of the State, the same man has to rob, murder, and fight with joy, as long as he lives.” Not frightfully logical—but then logic was never a strong point with Dr. Martin.
There is a very marked development in his attitude towards war. First of all he recommends what is nowadays called “armaments.” “It is necessary to be ready to encounter a power which might suddenly arise.”
Then he declares himself in favour of a defensive war. Next he explains that in a defensive war “the prince has not to wait until the other side attacks him”. Indeed, “it is the duty (of the prince) to strike before the opponent does.” He goes even further. “Defensive wars are not merely just as self-defence, but they are also a revenge.” “A war declared out of revenge, is a just and orderly work” (“Table Talk”, 3478). As one of his most recent commentators explains: “Indeed by this elaboration and enlargement of the conception of `defensive war’ Luther allows in the end any war, which has to be started as a necessity of state. The Christian narrowing down which Luther attempted at first, he himself declared as no longer valid.”
For instance, he advocates a war against the Turks. “We shall not prevail against the Turks unless we slay them in time, together with the priests, and even hurl them to death.” Professor Grisar comments on this passage, “Neither in this nor in similar passages is there any question of defence against force, but rather advocacy of bloody aggression.”
As usual, the prince acts by the will of God. “God the Almighty can order the prince at any time to begin a war.” “The sword and the power are in the service of God.” “The prince, who knows that God wants him to start a war, must do so without any external appearance of justification. He then acts rightly and obeys the will of God.”
Luther is at great pains to prove that “Christ himself and John the Baptist praised war,” and he comes to the conclusion that “wars are right and divine”. “According to Scripture, it has been ordained by God to make war and to strangle.”
Here we might find a spiritual explanation of the German atrocities. “It is Christian and a work of love not to go slowly in a war. One must cut the throats of one’s enemies, pillage them, burn them, do everything that may do them harm until one has beaten them” (W11, 277). “Only a simpleton argues that it is not Christian to strangle and to rob and that it is no work of love. But in truth it is a work of love” (W19, 625). Why, I ask myself so often, are these passages in Luther—which are so much more frequent than his earlier peaceful declarations—never mentioned, never quoted? Is one afraid of speaking the truth, of quoting the Reformer’s own words? Can one explain them away?
“A war,” Luther says repeatedly, “is only a very small misfortune”. “For what else is war than to punish wrongdoers and to keep peace? If one punishes a thief, murderer, or bigamist one punishes one single criminal. But if one goes to war one punishes a whole bunch of wrongdoers.” “What else is a war but to punish injustice and wrong? Why does one go to war unless it is to produce peace and obedience?”
So much for the justification of war. As soon as the prince decides to go to war, his slaves—i.e., the people—have to follow him. “If the authorities order war, then the people have to fight and obey, not as Christians but as members and obedient people of the secular power” (W19, 629). “It is the duty of the people to follow their leaders in war; to sacrifice body and belongings.” “The general duty of obedience towards the State includes the special duty to do military service.” “The authorities can force the people—as long as they are physically fit—to give their military service.”
Luther knows no longer any horrors of war. “One should not look at war how it strangles, burns and fights. This way to look at it is narrow and childish. Children behave like that. They only see how a doctor amputates a hand or a leg; they do not see that the doctor does so in order to save the whole body. One has to take the same view about war; one has to look at it with manly eyes . . ; then it will be proved that it is a holy and necessary task, as necessary as eating, drinking, or anything of that kind” (W19, 626).
Brother Martin admonishes “the Christians as faithful and obedient servants and with great joy to go to wars, to beat, murder, rob, and to commit any kind of damage as long as they can. Then they are certain to be true Christians.” “No one must think that the world is governed without blood. The worldly sword must be red and blood rusty.” “I myself, Martin Luther, do my best by prayer and if needs be, with the fist.”
“As soon as Luther talks of war,” comments Deutelmoeser, “one notices everywhere how he enjoys fighting.” “These warrior-virtues, which every Christian ought to possess, have nothing whatsoever to do with the peaceful morality of the Sermon on the Mount.” “The old warrior spirit is alive in Luther which since the days of the Cherusci and the Migration has been the characteristic of the people of the Reich.”
Towards his end, Luther was even prepared to glorify an unjust war. “What is undertaken in real confidence in God, ends well, even though it should be mistaken and sinful.” Gott mit uns was the war-cry of the Germans ever since Luther, too well remembered in this generation when peaceful countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium have been invaded. “Luther allowed himself again and again to clamour for war,” says Grisar. “With the glorification of war, soldiers, and weapons, Luther countenances all consequent victories of the Reich—from Gustavus Adolphus until the World War”—this is a recent statement with which everybody who has read Luther, and not merely believed in some unreal legend, has unfortunately to agree. Interpretations are difficult and might be contradicted. The Reformer’s own words cannot be denied or turned about. The Germans are not born with a love for war, but ever since Luther’s day the beauty of war has been preached to them from all the pulpits of Protestant Germany.
From Martin Luther: Hitler’s Spiritual Ancestor, (1945), pp. 65-68.