In the German tradition in particular, the concept of the “hereditary enemy” is related to the Christian concept of the struggle between good and evil. The modern German Erbfeind (“hereditary enemy”) derives from the Middle High German erbevînt, which meant the Devil. Two views of the early modern hereditary enemy can be discerned and will be discussed here: he was either in an eschatological sense the absolute “sworn enemy” of Christe…