In Euro Crisis, Germany Looks to Martin Luther

"To understand the Germans, we should read into their rich history, and in particular the mark left by Martin Luther and the “mighty fortress” he built with his Protestantism."

German Austerity’s Lutheran Core

By STEVEN OZMENT

Published: August 11, 2012

IF there’s one nationality the rest of the world thinks it readily and totally understands, it is the Germans. Combine their deep involvement with Nazism and anti-Semitism and, voilà! — 2,000 years of gripping, complex history vanishes. 

Illustration by Miles Donovan, images by Lucas Cranach/Hulton Archive — Getty Images, and Markus Schreiber/Associated Press

Since the beginning of the euro crisis, this reductionism, which can be found inside Germany as much as outside it, has come in the form of sifting through the fatal legacy of the Weimar era, the years of promising democracy that began in the defeat and humiliation of World War I and ended with the Nazi takeover in 1933.

Sigue:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/in-euro-crisis-germany-looks-to-martin-luther.html?_r=4