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May I comment on Robert Rush's quotations in the Motivations of German Soldiers thread? He cites a former Hitler Jugend member who says "We were politically programmed to obey orders" and Helmut Schmidt saying that Germans were more successfully educated in doing their duty than in questioning moral authority. In my view, while both are right, neither goes far enough. I believe that one reason for Germans' nonquestioning of authority goes back to Luther and his theology. Both Luther and John Calvin freed men from papal authority. But while Calvin's theology also permitted resistance to secular authority, as the Puritan revolution in England showed, Luther's opposed it. His teaching that man is saved not by good works but solely by faith raised the specter of anarchy, for each person would justify his or her actions by saying that he or she has the faith. So Luther explicitly taught that on earth men must follow the commands of the constituted rulers. "Even if those in authority are evil or without faith, nevertheless the authority and its power are good and come from God," he declared. "No insurrection is ever right. ... The answer for such mouths [those of rebels] is a fist that brings blood from the nose." Parents in countries pervaded by Lutheranism, such as Prussia, willingly assimilated those ideas to increase and facilitate their control in the family. Thus the belief in obedience to authority established itself in Germany, and once established, persisted. Revolution never succeeded there. The sources for the citations are: Martin Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian, sections 8 and 10; and Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, page 82, and Erik Erikson, Young Man Luther, 235, 236, both quoting Luther. This basis for obedience to authority seems to me to be deeper and more fundamental and therefore more resistant to change than mere political indoctrination. It may also help explain why the characteristic was so widespread. Sincerely, David Kahn
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