Reinhold Lewin

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Reinhold Lewin (born April 3, 1888 in Magdeburg ; died March 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German rabbi .

Life

Reinhold Lewin attended high school in Magdeburg. From 1906 he received rabbinical training at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in Breslau and studied philosophy and history at the University of Breslau , where he received his doctorate in 1912, while working as a teacher at Religious School I in Breslau. From 1912 he was first the second community rabbi in Leipzig and in 1915 was deployed as a field rabbi in the 3rd Army on the Western Front. He was awarded the EK II and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Albrecht I Class with Swords . From 1920 to 1938 he was rabbi in Königsberg . There he became a member of the Kant Lodge. In 1924 he founded the Königsberger Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt and published it until 1938. Around 1925/26 he was deputy chairman of the Association for Jewish Welfare Care . From 1938 he was a rabbi in Breslau. An emigration to the USA failed due to the resistance of the US consulate in Berlin. Lewin, his wife Evie and two children were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 and murdered there. The eldest son was able to emigrate before and fought in the British Army in World War II .

Lewin's preparatory work for his dissertation Luther's position on the Jews. A contribution to the history of Jews in Germany during the Reformation was won in 1910 by the annual competition organized by the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Breslau. In the dissertation he listed all of Luther's important texts on the Jews for the first time. Lewin also dealt in his dissertation with Luther's conflict with the Jewish interpretation of Scripture. Lewin noted a changing attitude in Luther's biography: from a phase of indifference with no practical interest, followed by a phase of proselytizing , Luther switched to hateful anti-Judaism when his plans to proselytize were not approved by the Jews addressed. Lewin's dissertation, on the other hand, has been criticized for its "psychological-biographical" form.

Lewin's study is considered to be the “first comprehensive scientific monograph” on the subject of “ Martin Luther and the Jews ”, which, however, was hardly received scientifically in the German Empire and in the Weimar Republic, but was either hostile or forgotten. Reversing the argument, Lewin was assumed during the Nazi era that he wanted to weaken Luther's opposition to the Jews.

Lewin's investigation was critically received in the 1970s by Johannes Brosseder and at least recognized by Heiko Augustinus Oberman as "fundamental", but she was accused of having ignored Luther's theology when interpreting his writings.

Lewin's writing was reprinted in 1973 and honored in 2002 by Peter von der Osten-Sacken , who dedicated his study of Martin Luther and the Jews to the memory of Reinhold Lewin. Von der Osten emphasized the “sensitive and just interpretation” of Luther's anti-Judaic writings.

Fonts (selection)

Title page (1911, 1973)
  • Luther's Position on the Jews: A Contribution to the History of the Jews in Germany during the Reformation Age . Dissertation Wroclaw. Berlin 1911
  • Quarterly bibliographic report for Jewish literature . Kaufmann, Leipzig 1914 [only one issue has appeared]
  • The Jewish legislation of Friedrich Wilhelm II . In: Monthly for the history and science of Judaism , 1917
  • The war as a Jewish experience . Lecture. In: Monthly for the history and science of Judaism, 1919. Schatzky, Breslau 1919, pp. 1–14.
  • What did German Jewry lose through the Peace of Versailles? In: CV newspaper , 1919
  • Moses and Kant . Lecture given on the second day of the Pesach Festival 5684 (April 20, 1924) in the New Synagogue in Königsberg. Hartungsche Buchdruckerei, Königsberg 1924, 7 pages

literature

  • Lewin, Reinhold , in: Julius Carlebach , Michael Brocke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis , part 2. Saur, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-24874-0 , pp. 394f.
  • Peter von der Osten-Sacken : Martin Luther and the Jews - re-examined on the basis of Anton Margaritha's “Der gantz Jüdisch Glaub” (1530/31). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-17-017566-1
  • Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . ed. from the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 231
  • Ernst G. Lowenthal : Juden in Preussen , Reimer, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-496-01012-6 , p. 137
  • Guido Kisch : Necrologue Reinhold Lewin 1888–1942 , in: ders. Selected writings. 2. Research on the legal, economic and social history of the Jews: with a directory of Guido Kisch's writings on the legal and social history of the Jews. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1979, ISBN 3-7995-6017-3 , pp. 438-440. First in: Historia iudaica; a journal of studies in Jewish history, especially in legal and economic history of Jews , 1946, pp. 217-219

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Guido Kisch: Necrologue Reinhold Lewin 1888-1942 , 1979 (1946), pp. 438-440
  2. ↑ a b Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis , 2009, p. 394f.
  3. ↑ March 1943 according to BHdR, according to Kisch in 1942
  4. ↑ a b c d e Peter von der Osten-Sacken: Martin Luther and the Jews , 2002, pp. 15-17
  5. ↑ Peter von der Osten-Sacken: Martin Luther and the Jews , 2002, p. 38, fn. 140; P. 276
  6. ↑ Peter von der Osten-Sacken: Martin Luther and the Jews , 2002, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Lewin, Reinhold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH March 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp