Dietrich Bonhoeffer

German theologian

• Born: February 4, 1906
• Birthplace: Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland)
• Died: April 9, 1945
• Place of death: Flossenbürg, Germany

Bonhoeffer defined the concept of Christian discipleship, especially as it related to the church in Germany during the 1930’s. He provided a unique combination of theology and political ethics that made him a leader in German resistance to Adolf Hitler and also led to his untimely death at the hands of the Nazis in 1945.

Early Life

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (DEE-trik BAHN-hawf-ehr) was born in Breslau, Germany, in an area that is now Wrocław, Poland. His father was Karl Bonhoeffer, a well-known physician and psychiatrist. There were eight children in the family, of whom Dietrich and his twin sister, Sabine, were the sixth and seventh, respectively. The family soon moved to Berlin, where Karl became professor of psychiatry at the University of Berlin. It was there that Dietrich spent his childhood.

The realism that later characterized the philosophy and theology of Bonhoeffer was imparted to him by his father and through the influence of his mother, who was from one of the leading intellectual families in Germany. The family home became a meeting place for friends and neighbors representing some of the most brilliant minds of the day. Included were Adolf von Harnack, an eminent historian of Christian doctrine, and Ernst Troeltsch, a philosopher and theologian. Their influence helped place Bonhoeffer in the liberal spectrum of Christian theology as well as at the forefront of the ecumenical movement.

At the age of sixteen, Bonhoeffer dedicated his life to the study of theology and to service in the Lutheran Church. He entered the University of Tübingen in 1923 and was matriculated at the University of Berlin the following year. He remained in Berlin for the completion of his formal education. During his years at the university, Bonhoeffer became a follower of the post-World War I theology of Karl Barth, soon to become known as neoorthodoxy. These ideas enhanced Bonhoeffer’s realism and helped him to accept the tremendous suffering and destruction of the recent conflagration, as well as Germany’s lowered status in the community of nations.

When Bonhoeffer was twenty-one, he presented his doctoral dissertation to the faculty at Berlin. It was entitled Sanctorum Communio: Eine dogmatische Untersuchung zur Soziologie der Kirche. After it was published in 1930, the work was praised by such scholars as Barth.

Bonhoeffer left Berlin in 1927 to serve two years as an assistant minister to a German-speaking congregation in Barcelona, Spain. He proved to be a tremendous help and encouragement to the church and its elderly pastor. Back in Berlin in 1929, Bonhoeffer soon became a lecturer in systematic theology at the university. Before settling into the routine, however, he went to the United States for a year of additional study at Union Theological Seminary in were chosen. Somewhat surprised by the lack of interest in serious theology on the part of American students at the seminary, Bonhoeffer was impressed by their social concern for the poor and needy. Bonhoeffer was well prepared for his life’s work when he returned to Berlin in 1931. He was ready to face the challenges to Germany and the world in the person of Hitler.

Life’s Work

By the time Bonhoeffer began his full-time lecturing, he was identified with the ecumenical movement, seeking to unite Christians around the world, and also with the ideas of Barth, whom Bonhoeffer soon met at a seminar in Bonn. At first, the students at the university were skeptical about the youthful professor, but they were soon drawn to him by the depth and relevance of his views. Bonhoeffer’s first book, Schöpfung und Fall (1937; Creation and Fall, 1997), was an outgrowth of these early lectures.

Bonhoeffer’s rising popularity in Berlin coincided with the rising popularity of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party throughout the country. The Bonhoeffer family had been deeply affected by the defeat of Germany in 1918 and by the humiliation of the nation in the Treaty of Versailles, but they strongly opposed the ultranationalistic philosophy and the superior-race ideology of the Nazi Party. Even while outside the country, Dietrich was kept informed about the growing Nazi influence, particularly as it related to the Jews. His twin sister, Sabine, was married to Gerhard Leibholz, whose father was a Jew, although Gerhard had been baptized as a Lutheran.

Bonhoeffer was soon dismayed by the paralysis of the German Christians regarding Nazi ideology. His realism, as well as his theology, compelled him to speak out against that ideology. On February 1, 1933, two days after Hitler had become chancellor of Germany, Bonhoeffer addressed the German public on radio and urged them not to adopt an ultranationalistic leader who could easily become a national idol. The broadcast was cut off the air before the speech was completed. In the minds of Nazi leaders, Bonhoeffer was already a marked man.

Most Lutheran leaders succumbed to Nazi pressure and formed the German Christian Movement, a vital part of German nationalism. Bonhoeffer and a minority formed what became known as the Confessing Church , seeking to purify the church through discipline. These leaders were shocked by parallels being drawn between Jesus and Hitler. Unable to accept such ideas, Bonhoeffer went to Great Britain in the fall of 1933, answering the call to pastor two German-speaking congregations in South London. During his eighteen months there, he studied the Sermon on the Mount and the idea of Christian discipleship. The result was his best-known book, Nachfolge (1937; The Cost of Discipleship , 1948). In this absorbing volume, Bonhoeffer criticized what he called the cheap grace being preached in many churches. He defined cheap grace as “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.” Bonhoeffer then advocated costly grace that “is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. . . . Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son.”

In 1935, Bonhoeffer was called back to Germany by the Confessing Church to lead a clandestine seminary, eventually located in Finkenwalde, Pomerania. This seems to have been a profitable and pleasant time for Bonhoeffer and the small group of students; in 1937, however, the seminary was closed by the Gestapo. Following the closing, Bonhoeffer became active in the resistance movement dedicated to the overthrow of Hitler. From 1937 to his arrest in 1943, Bonhoeffer lived in temporary places of refuge, such as the Benedictine Abbey at Ettal. His spare time during these years was used to write Ethik (1949; Ethics , 1955). He regarded this work as his greatest contribution as a theologian.

As the clouds of war began gathering over Europe, Bonhoeffer’s friends urged him to leave Germany and continue his work abroad. He did return briefly to London and in June, 1939, visited the United States; he soon felt constrained to return to his homeland. Before leaving, Bonhoeffer wrote to Reinhold Niebuhr, an American neoorthodox leader, and declared, “I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” Taking advantage of one of the last opportunities to do so, Bonhoeffer returned to Berlin on July 27, 1939.

In the spring of 1941, a major conspiracy was organized to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government. Bonhoeffer’s role in this plot was to use his ecumenical contacts in Great Britain and the United States to convince the allies to stop fighting while the overthrow was in progress. The unsuccessful attempt was made in July, 1944, but by then Bonhoeffer had been in prison for more than a year. He was arrested on April 5, 1943, at his parents’ home in Berlin, along with his sister Christel and her husband, for helping smuggle fourteen Jews into Switzerland.

For the next two years, Bonhoeffer wrote and ministered from various German prisons. The writings were later edited and published by his close friend, Eberhard Bethge, under the title Widerstand und Ergebung (1951; Prisoner for God , 1953; also as Letters and Papers from Prison, 1958).

Bonhoeffer’s final days were spent in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg. On April 9, 1945, by a special order from Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) leader Heinrich Himmler, Bonhoeffer was hanged. At about the same time, his brother Klaus and two brothers-in-law were executed elsewhere for resistance activities.

Significance

Bonhoeffer had a clear understanding of the relationship between church and state. He first clarified the difference between state and government. By state, Bonhoeffer meant an ordered community; by government, he meant the power that creates and maintains order. The Nazi system, therefore, was government representing only the rulers and not the full German state. Bonhoeffer believed that the New Testament teaches that the basis of government is Jesus Christ and that only from Christ does government have authority on earth. By this simple concept, Bonhoeffer destroyed the foundation of Nazi ideology, including the exaltation for the German state and the attempt to use the Church as an instrument of governmental power.

This Christocentric view of government was also used by Bonhoeffer to justify the involvement of the Confessing Church in the Resistance. He declared this involvement to be the responsibility of the church because of “the persecution of lawfulness, truth, humanity and freedom” that permeated the Nazi system. Although he was basically a pacifist, this combination of theology and ethics made Bonhoeffer a leading spokesperson for the Resistance. Behind all that Bonhoeffer preached and practiced was his emphasis on discipline, which he urged all Christians and all Germans to follow.

Bibliography

Bethge, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologian, Christian, Man for His Times: A Biography. Rev. ed. Translated by Eric Mosbacher et al., edited by Victoria J. Barnett. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2000. Written by a friend, relative, and associate of Bonhoeffer, this exhaustive biography is a definitive chronicle of Bonhoeffer’s life, theological calling, and ideas about Christianity.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Ethics. Translated by Reinhard Krauss, Charles C. West, and Douglas W. Stott. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2005. Edited and first published by Eberhard Bethge in 1949, this book is taken from essays written by Bonhoeffer between 1940 and 1943. It is the best source on why Bonhoeffer became involved in the Resistance.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Life Together. Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1954. This is an outgrowth of Bonhoeffer’s life in the close-knit seminary community at Finkenwalde between 1935 and 1937.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Letters and Papers from Prison. 1953. Rev. ed. Translated by Reginald H. Fuller, edited by Eberhard Bethge. New York: Macmillan, 1970. This book, originally titled Prisoner for God, gives valuable insights into the life of Bonhoeffer during his last two years.

Bosanquet, Mary. The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. Perhaps the clearest and most objective biography. Much information is from Bonhoeffer’s twin sister and from Eberhard Bethge.

Dramm, Sabine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: An Introduction to His Thought. Translated by Thomas Rice. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007. Dramm explains Bonhoeffer’s major theoretical ideas, including the nature of God and humanity, his views on Jews, and his concepts of discipleship and ethics.

Ott, Heinrich. Reality and Faith: The Theological Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Translated by Alex A. Morrison. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972. This is an exhaustive study of Bonhoeffer’s theology and its impact.

Rasmussen, Larry. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Reality and Resistance. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1972. This is a good summary of how Bonhoeffer’s theology shaped his political ethics and led him into the Resistance.

Robertson, Edwin. The Shame and the Sacrifice: The Life and Martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. New York: Macmillan, 1988. An excellent and later evaluation of Bonhoeffer’s influence. It includes some interesting insights into the Resistance and those who survived.