Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) didn’t live long, but he left an example that has inspired generations.
Born right into a prosperous German family, Bonhoeffer decided he can be a theologian at a young age and gained a sterling academic repute in his early twenties. Overseas experiences made Bonhoeffer’s faith greater than just mental and convinced him to fight against corrupt governments and inequality. When the Nazi regime took over Germany, Bonhoeffer joined church leaders who refused to follow the federal government’s censorship and anti-Semitic policies. During World War II, Bonhoeffer was actively involved in underground church operations to offer solid teaching and German resistance work to undermine the Nazis. The resistance work connected Bonhoeffer to a failed Hitler assassination attempt, and he was executed in 1945.
In 1998, Bonhoeffer was one in all 10 Christians who were commemorated as Twentieth-century martyrs in Westminster Abbey, his statue next to Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Oscar Romero.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Dnalor 01
Dead before he was 40 years old, Bonhoeffer’s words and actions have helped many consider their relationship to God and the way Christians can live out their allegiance to Christ.
10 Important Events in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life
1906: Bonhoeffer is born in Breslau, Germany, along with his twin sister Sabine.
1920: Bonhoeffer declares at 14 years old that he desires to be a theologian when he grows up.
1930: Comes to New York to review at Union Theological Seminary for a yr. Bonhoeffer is invited to attend Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, transforming his spiritual outlook.
1933: Gives a radio address warning young Germans to not idolize their leaders, two days after Hitler has grow to be Chancellor.
1935: Bonhoeffer starts teaching at Finkenwalde seminary. He writes a study of the Sermon on the Mount that becomes his book The Cost of Discipleship during this era.
1939: Union Theological Seminary’s Reinhold Niebuhr sponsors Bonhoeffer returning to America. He stays in New York for 2 weeks before returning to Germany.
1940: Gestapo shut down the underground seminary. By this point, Bonhoeffer is working for the Abwehr, a military intelligence group that hides German resistance activities.
1943: Bonhoeffer is arrested for helping smuggle Jews into Switzerland.
1944: Operation Valkyrie, the plot to kill Hitler, fails. The Gestapo discovers Abwehr plans for the assassination, showing Bonhoeffer was involved within the plot.
1945: Bonhoeffer, Abwehr leader Wilhelm Canaris, and five other men hanged in Flossenbürg Concentration Camp.
10 Important Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an excellent deal during his lifetime, from sermons to poetry to an unfinished play and novels (included in Letters and Papers from Prison). Nearly every little thing he wrote has been published since his death, including an unfinished philosophy book titled Ethics. Here are a few of the many inspiring quotes from Bonhoeffer’s work:
1. “It shouldn’t be simply to be taken as a right that the Christian has the privilege of living amongst other Christians. Jesus Christ lived within the midst of his enemies.” Life Together
2. “Does not our preaching contain an excessive amount of of our own opinions and convictions and too little of Jesus Christ?” The Cost of Discipleship
3. “Who stands fast? Only the person whose final standard shouldn’t be his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who’s able to sacrifice all this when he is named to obedient and responsible motion in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God—the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life a solution to the query and call of God.” Letters and Papers from Prison
4. “We can only achieve perfect liberty and luxuriate in fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety.” The Cost of Discipleship
5. “Prayer doesn’t simply mean to pour out one’s heart. It means relatively, to search out the approach to God and to talk with him, whether the guts is full or empty. No one can try this on one’s own. For that, one needs Jesus Christ.” Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible
6. “The man who despises one other won’t ever have the option to make anything of him. Nothing that we despise in the opposite man is entirely absent from ourselves.” Letters and Papers from Prison
7. “Man at his origin knows just one thing: God. It is simply within the unity of his knowledge of God that he knows of other men, of things, and of himself.” Ethics
8. “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is roughly than this… we belong to 1 one other only through and in Jesus Christ.” Life Together
9. “I think that God will give us all of the strength we want to assist us to withstand in all time of distress. But he never gives it upfront, lest we should always depend on ourselves and never on him alone.” Papers and Letters from Prison
10. “For Christians, the start of the day mustn’t be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day’s work. At the edge of the brand new day stands the Lord who made it.” Life Together
10 Things You Should Know about Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Given how much Bonhoeffer did and said in his short life, it’s hard to narrow down his life to simply 10 items. However, listed below are the highlights, a few of which are not mentioned in the typical summary of his life:
1. He said he didn’t grow to be a Christian until after he became a pastor. Bonhoeffer announced he can be a theologian when he was 14 and built a powerful academic record when he got his doctorate at 21 years old. However, Bonhoeffer’s faith either became distant after his childhood, or it had been mostly mental from the beginning. Either way, his faith was a bit impersonal in 1930, when he spent a yr at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. He wasn’t expecting a life-changing trip—he needed to be 25 years old before he may very well be ordained and needed something to do within the yr of waiting. In New York, fellow seminarian Frank Fisher invited Bonhoeffer to attend the Abyssinian Baptist Church. Bonhoeffer described his time there as a spiritual awakening and said he didn’t truly grow to be a Christian until his time in America.
2. He stood against racism. Bonhoeffer’s seminarian friend Frank Fisher was African-American, and Abyssinian Baptist Church was situated in Harlem’s African-American neighborhood. Bonhoeffer saw racism firsthand in that environment and was disgusted by it. One famous story recalls Bonhoeffer, Fisher, and a few friends attended a restaurant where the waiter ignored Fisher. Bonhoeffer and his friends left the restaurant in protest. A firm belief in fighting social injustice and defending the oppressed became key to Bonhoeffer’s theology.
3. He stood against the Nazis from the beginning. When Bonhoeffer got here back to Germany in 1931, every little thing initially seemed high quality. Two years later, Hitler rose to power. Bonhoeffer gave a radio speech two days after Hitler took office, warning people to not idolize their recent leader. For reasons unknown, the address was cut off while Bonhoeffer was talking. Bonhoeffer kept opposing the Nazis, joining the Confessing Church that refused to follow Deutsche Christen rules barring Jews from church membership or leadership positions.
4. He could have escaped the war. Bonhoeffer had two opportunities to flee the violence in Germany. In 1935, he accepted a probability to pastor churches in England. While he used this time to get overseas support for the Confessing Church, Bonhoeffer felt discouraged. When he met Swiss theologian Karl Barth, Barth told him to return to Germany where he was needed most. Four years later, friends helped Bonhoeffer get a post at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Bonhoeffer got here home after two weeks, saying, “I may have no right to take part in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I don’t share the trials of this time with my people.”
5. He wrote about community from personal experience. Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together is a classic guide to how Christians can live in a community. His advice is usually sobering, perhaps since it comes from when Bonhoeffer lived in a challenged Christian community. The Confessing Church was threatened, and Bonhoeffer taught for 2 years at its underground seminary in Finkenwalde. Nazis closed down the seminary in 1937, it moved and was shut down again in 1940.
7. He knew concerning the plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer joined the German government’s military intelligence group, the Abwehr, in 1939. Some were shocked, but Bonhoeffer did it to assist the German underground. Most of his work consisted of missions overseas where he tried to get outside help for the German resistance. However, Bonhoeffer also knew about something else going contained in the Abwehr: Operation Valkyrie, a plot to assassinate Hitler.
8. He got engaged two months before he went to prison. During his early years as a scholar and teacher, Bonhoeffer became friends with Berlin’s Wedemeyer family, giving confirmation classes to 2 of their sons. He stayed involved with the family and have become near their daughter Maria. In January 1943, they were engaged. Some members of the family were joyful, while Maria’s mother was not pleased (possibly since the couple had a big age difference). While Maria’s family kept the engagement private, that they had to announce it within the newspapers two months later. In April 1943, authorities arrested Bonhoeffer for smuggling Jews overseas.
9. He had a probability to flee prison. Bonhoeffer was initially sent to Tegel Prison and spent 18 months there with no trial. In 1944, Bonhoeffer considered escaping, and a guard offered to assist. However, Bonhoeffer’s brother Klaus and his friend Eberhard Bethge were arrested in July 1944, after Operation Valkyrie failed. Bonhoeffer decided not to flee, fearing the Nazis would retaliate against his family and friends.
10. He died just before the war ended. After Operation Valkyrie’s plans were discovered, Bonhoeffer was moved from Tegel Prison to numerous places. He finally ended up in Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in February 1945. He was court-martialed on April 8 without representation and hanged the following day with other Abwehr operatives. World War II history buffs will know lower than two weeks later, on April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945, lower than a month after Bonhoeffer’s execution.
Books to Read about Bonhoeffer
My Dearest Dietrich by Amanda Barratt
The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography by Eberhard Bethge
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness by Janet and Geoff Benge
Cover Photo Credit: Wikipedia
