Martin Luther, Das 38. und 39. Kapitel Ezechiel vom Gog, Wittenberg 1530 (Landesbibliothek Coburg, Lu Ia 1530,27)

The text printed 1530 in Wittenberg by Nickel Schirlentz during the year of Luther’s stay in Coburg constitutes the fundamental source for the identification of the Ottomans with the biblical nations of Gog and Magog. According to the New Testament, they would go to war as allies of the devil but then be vanquished by Christ.

The print has been preserved in the collection of Luther’s works initiated by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) which was originally located as a memorial collection and exhibition at the Veste Coburg (Coburg Fortress).

Since the conquest of Constantinople in the year 1453, the wars of aggression and conquest undertaken by the Ottoman Empire had become a serious threat to the West. After the Ottomans had not only conquered large territories in the Near and Middle East and had brought the entire Balkans including the Greek peninsula under their rule, they laid siege to Vienna in 1529.

Luther’s intensive engagement with the so-called “Turkish threat” must be seen in this context. In addition, his understanding of history was entirely traditional. He was convinced to be living in the fourth and final era at the end of which apocalypse would put an end to the world. For such theses, Holy Scripture was the frame of reference. Luther recognised the harbingers of the end of days listed by the Prophets and in John’s Book of Revelation in contemporaneous events. Therefore, the “Turk”, called by Luther by this term without differentiation, developed for the reformer together with the pope whom he considered as the “antichrist” into an additional enemy stereotype.

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