Antisemitism was not uncommon in Germany back in Luther’s time, or Europe in General. Look up Johann Eck-he was a staunch Catholic, adversary of Luther and the Reformation, and virulent ant-semite himself. In 1541 he published “Against the Defense of the Jews “(German: Ains Juden-büechlins Verlegung). In it he opposes the position of the Nuremberg reformer Andreas Osiander,who sought to refute medieval superstition that Jews murdered Christian children, desecrated the eucharistic Host, and poisoned wells. Eck called Osiander a “Jew-protector” and “Jew-father”, and no fewer than nineteen times reviled the Jews, and called them “a blasphemous race”.
“Antisemitism was not uncommon in Germany back in Luther’s time”
Sure. I agree.
But to use the “everybody’s doing it” as a defense to Luther’s conduct and writings doesn’t work past kindergarten.
He was THE foul antisemite who set forth the plan for the extermination of the Jewish People in Europe that the Nazis followed.
See above, by God’s grace.