Bonhoeffer – Part 1 – The Biography

I thought of writing a few posts about Dietrich Bonhoeffer since he’s become popular again with the printing of Eric Metaxas new book “Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”.  In order to give a brief biographical sketch the following is a summary of his life I wrote for a paper during my MA.

To briefly summarize the relevant history, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and Lutheran minister who was a co-founder of the Confessing Church.[1]  Amidst the myriad of Protestant churches in Germany, the Confessing Church was the body of pastors and laity (both Reformed and Lutheran) who rejected the Aryan Paragraph, the German Christians, and the Nazi domination of the Protestant churches.[2]  This church operated an illegal seminary where Bonhoeffer taught and opposed the politics and the ideology of the Reich.[3]  Between 1935 and 1937, the Nazis began to take stricter measures against the Confessing Church, arresting or forcing many of the ministers into exile, and in 1939 Bonhoeffer took a teaching post in New York to escape.[4]  Eventually he decided that he had to go back to his country if he ever hoped to be able to speak with moral authority after the war, and not simply use his privileged position to escape the problems of Germany.[5]  Returning and accepting a post in Abwehr, a German military intelligence organization, Bonhoeffer began working with the German military resistance to the Nazis, using his ecumenical connections to pass information to George Bell, the Anglican bishop of Chichester.[6]  There remains debate over how involved Bonhoeffer was in the March 1943 attempt to assassinate Hitler, as well as the extent of the knowledge the Gestapo had of his involvement, but after an SS raid on Abwehr, Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 officially for opposing Nazi policy concerning Jews.[7] He remained imprisoned but initially received special treatment due to his social status and popularity, until the July 20 Plot, at which point increased punishment of resisters began.[8]  Ultimately he was sent to Buchenwald, and subsequently to Flossenbürg, where he was hanged on April 9, 1945.[9]

With the help of the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, and his student (and in-law) Eberhard Bethge, the story of Bonhoeffer spread, and he was widely acclaimed to be a martyr by Protestants and Catholics alike.[10]  His friend and colleague Reinhold Neibuhr at Union Seminary in New York told of his exploits, and being the premier American theologian at the time, interest in this German academic and alleged-saint began.[11]