Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 — April
9, 1945) was a German religious leader and participant in the resistance
movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian,
took part in the plots being planned by members of the Abwehr (Military
Intelligence Office) to assassinate Hitler. He was arrested, imprisoned,
and eventually hanged following the failure of the July 20, 1944,
assassination attempt.
Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) into
a middle to upper class professional family. His father was a psychiatrist
in Berlin; his mother homeschooled the children. At a very young
age, he decided to become a minister. His parents supported his
decision and when he was old enough he attended college in Tübingen,
received his doctorate in theology from the University of Berlin,
and was ordained. He then spent a post-graduate year abroad studying
at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
He returned to Germany in 1931, where he lectured on theology in
Berlin and wrote several books. A strong opponent of Nazism, he
was involved, together with Martin Niemöller, Karl Barth and
others, in setting up the Confessing Church. Between late 1933 and
1935 he served as pastor of two German-speaking protestant churches
in London. He returned to Germany to head an illegal seminary for
Confessing Church pastors, which was closed down in 1937. The Gestapo
also banned him from preaching, teaching, and finally speaking at
all in public. During this time, Bonhoeffer worked closely with
numerous opponents of Hitler.
During World War II, Bonhoeffer played a key leadership role in
the Confessing Church, which opposed the anti-semitic policies of
Adolf Hitler. He was among those who called for wider church resistance
to Hitler's treatment of the Jews. While the Confessing Church was
not large, it represented a major focus of Christian opposition
to the Nazi government in Germany.
In 1939 Bonhoeffer joined a hidden group of high-ranking military
officers based in the Abwehr, or Military Intelligence Office, who
wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by killing Hitler.
He was arrested in April 1943 after money that was used to help
Jews escape to Switzerland was traced to him, and he was charged
with conspiracy. He was imprisoned in Berlin for a year and a half.
After the unsuccessful July 20 Plot in 1944, connections of Bonhoeffer
to the conspirators were discovered, he was moved to a series of
prisons and concentration camps ending at Flossenbürg, where
he was executed by hanging just three weeks before the liberation
of the city. Also executed for their parts in the conspiracy were
his brother Klaus and his brothers-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and
Rudiger Schleicher.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is considered a martyr for his faith; he was
absolved of any crimes by the German government in the mid-1990s.
An oft-quoted line from one of his more widely read books, The Cost
of Discipleship (1937), foreshadowed his death. "When Christ
calls a man, he bids him come and die." His books Ethics (1949)
and Letters and Papers from Prison (1953) were published posthumously.
The theological and political reasons behind his shift from Christian
pacifism, which he espoused in the mid-1930s, to participation in
planning the assassination of Hitler are much debated.
Bonhoeffer's nephew by his sister is the conductor Christoph von
Dohnanyi, son of Hans von Dohnanyi.
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