Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 to Karl Bonhoeffer, a well-known Berlin psychiatrist, and his wife Julie. At that time, more than 70% of Berliners considered themselves to be members of the Protestant Church, but it is estimated that only 5-7% attended church on a regular basis.ii Bonhoeffer’s family was in the latter group; they considered themselves Christians and taught their children basic theology but rarely attended church. Religion was not considered an important part of life in the Bonhoeffer household, but rather “A spirit of rational empiricism and liberalism most strongly characterized family life.”iii His older brothers followed their father into the sciences, but at a young age Bonhoeffer declared his determination to study theology. This decision baffled his family and led to several arguments with his brothers, who were unable to understand his decision to join an institution that seemed to them weak and ephemeral. Bonhoeffer retorted “If the Church is feeble, I shall reform it!”iv
While studying at Berlin, Bonhoeffer became acquainted with the ideas of influential theologian Karl Barth, who “Demanded a revolution turning the attention of theology from human beings toward God in Christ.”v At that time, the faculty of the university was dominated by a liberal theological movement that saw Christianity and the Bible as a cultural and traditional establishment, rather than as a living faith. Bonhoeffer, however, joined the theological movement that under the Nazi regime would come to be known as the Confessing Church, which held as its primary conviction that the Bible, and not man, is the highest authority for all Christians. As he studied, Bonhoeffer worked to form the theology that would later guide his decisions both before and during the war. He believed that the Church and the Christian community should not be relegated to the periphery of life, but become an essential part of the way people live. In Life Together he wrote
Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this … What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been … united for eternity.vi
This belief in the importance of this community, which he called “The extraordinary, the ‘roses and lilies’ of the Christian life,”vii was a major part of what led to his break with the Nazi party.
Bonhoeffer’s great struggle for the integrity of the German Church began in 1933 when Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor and the Nazi party came into power. His first run-in with the new regime came only a few days after Hitler assumed power. Bonhoeffer gave a speech on the radio entitled “The Younger Generation’s Altered View of the Concept of the Fuhrer,” which distinguished between a leader and a misleader and was taken off the air before it was completed.viii This incident set the tone for Bonhoeffer’s future interactions with the new government.
Some of Bonhoeffer’s strongest objections to the Nazis stemmed from the anti-Semitism that was already evident in the early days of the regime. Stephen Plant writes “Bonhoeffer was one of a very few within the Confessing Church who considered solidarity with the Jews, and not just Jews who had converted to Christianity, a matter on which the Church must stake its life.”ix For example, Bonhoeffer believed that the Church would be committing an act of heresy if it conformed to the Nazi regulation that banned Jews from holding civil office, which in Germany included the clergy.x Bonhoeffer strongly opposed this ordinance, denying “That membership of a Church can ever be based on race.”xi This was not the only law that the Nazi state attempted to impose on the church. One of its first moves was an attempt to organize all German organizations—including the Catholic and Protestant churches—under the central government.
Many German Christians viewed the consolidation of the Church under the Nazis positively, as a way to unite the “patchwork” of churches into “A single national Church.”xii Others, like Bonhoeffer, insisted that the church must remain separate from the state and be allowed to determine spiritual affairs without interference from secular authority.xiii These two parties quickly separated as Hitler called for the election of a Reich Bishop. At first Hitler’s agenda was thwarted by the defeat of his candidate for the position. The results of this election, however, were soon overturned and the state quickly took over the governance of the Church.xiv One historian estimates that only 36% of pastors in the Berlin area were allied with the Confessing Church that stood in opposition to Hitler.xv Bonhoeffer was among them. He continued to preach against following Hitler unquestioningly, believing that such devotion ought to be reserved for God. He reminded his congregation
God’s victory means … reducing the world and its clamor to silence; it means crossing through all of our ideas and plans, it means the Cross. The Cross above the World … The Cross of Jesus Christ, that means the bitter scorn of God for all human heights … [and] the rule of God over the whole world.xvi
He also lectured at the Berlin University, where he was now a professor, but his stance quickly made him unpopular with the Nazis and in the fall of 1936 he lost his license to lecture there.xvii As conditions in Germany worsened, Bonhoeffer wrote “Only one thing has force and permanence, and that is Christ Himself. Only he who shares in Him has the power to withstand and overcome. He is the centre and the strength of … the Church … but also of humanity, of reason, of justice and of culture.”xviii He continued to work at a seminary known as the House of Brethren until being banished from Berlin less than two years later,xix and in 1941 he was denied the right to publish materials on the grounds that he was engaging in “Subversive activities.”xx
During his time at the House of Brethren, Bonhoeffer wrote two books published in English as Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship. In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote
Neither failure nor hostility can weaken the messenger’s conviction that he has been sent by Jesus … For this is no way they have chosen themselves, no undertaking of their own. It is, in the strict sense of the word, a mission. With this the Lord promises them his abiding presence, even when they find themselves as sheep among wolves, defenseless, powerless, sore pressed and best with great danger. Nothing can happen to them without Jesus knowing of it.xxi
This foreshadowed the coming years in Germany. As the war was getting underway, Bonhoeffer had one last opportunity to escape the impending disaster. In June 1939, Bonhoeffer helped his sister and her Jewish husband to leave Germany and travelled with them to London before going on to New York. His friends urged him to stay where he would be safe, but Bonhoeffer refused. He wrote to one friend
I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the Christian people of Germany … Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation … I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make that choice in security.xxii
Though this choice was clear to Bonhoeffer, he struggled with the decision of how he would be involved in the resistance movement. Ultimately, he concluded “It is never in thinking of myself, but it is always in thinking of the call of Christ, that I shall be set free for genuine responsibility.”xxiii
Bonhoeffer spent some of his time during the years of the war writing his book Ethics. André Dumas says “The writings in the second period of Bonhoeffer’s life are markedly different in tone from those of the first. No longer is he writing university theses … Instead he is preaching to church people about confessional obedience in the Nazi era. Nazism could easily put up with harmless ‘being’ of faith so long as it was not expressed in the ‘act’ of obedience.”xxiv Bonhoeffer believed in the “immediacy” of obedience, that is, that Christians are called to obey Christ without hesitation. In The Cost of Discipleship, he wrote “The call of Jesus made short work of all … barriers, and created obedience. That call was the Word of God himself, and all that it required was single-minded obedience.”xxv He also emphasized the commonality of obedience and faith as inseparable because each proceeds from the other, and thus both are essential to the Christian life.xxvi This decision to remain always obedient is what drew Bonhoeffer to join the resistance even though his life was at stake.xxvii Despite the danger of his position, Bonhoeffer found peace in “Following Jesus,” which he described as “A discipleship which will liberate all mankind from all man-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience.”xxviii Bonhoeffer chose his course and Ethics was never completed, for he was still working on the manuscript on the day of his arrest.
Bonhoeffer was not a soldier, but in 1941 he became a civilian member of the German Military Intelligence.xxix Operating within the Nazi organization, he was able to pass along information to the Allies as well as help Jews leave Germany for Switzerland.xxx As the years went on, he became more and more involved in the resistance movement. He wrote in Ethics “Conscience is unwilling to sacrifice its integrity to any other value, and it therefore refuses to incur guilt for the sake of another man … A responsibility which would oblige a man to act against his conscience would carry within it its own condemnation.”xxxi Bonhoeffer’s conscience impelled him to the decision to become involved not only in the initial open resistance to Hitler but also in a life of secret opposition. As the Second World War progressed and the Nazis continued to win, Bonhoeffer knew that the resistance had little chance of a swift victory.
On April 5, 1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested for evading conscription and helping Jews to escape from Germany. While in jail, Bonhoeffer continued to write prolifically, producing poetry and a play in addition to writing many letters to his family and friends. By all accounts, Bonhoeffer’s spirit was never oppressed by his captivity, but rather he ministered to and cheered those around him at every opportunity. In his first letter to his parents after his arrest, Bonhoeffer wrote “Strangely enough, the discomforts that one generally associates with prison life, the physical hardships, hardly bother me at all.”xxxii A few weeks later, on his first Easter in prison, he wrote “Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; we lay hold of a great hope.”xxxiii After a year of incarceration, Bonhoeffer was transferred to several different prisons, and at this point he was no longer allowed contact with the outside world. One of his fellow prisoners wrote “Bonhoeffer always seemed to me to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident and profound gratitude for the very fact that he was alive … He was one of the very few persons I have ever met for whom God was real and always near.”xxxiv
Finally, Bonhoeffer’s case came to trial. He was tried in the middle of the night along with several other prisoners and sentenced to death. In The Cost of Discipleship many years before Bonhoeffer had written
If we fall into the hands of men, and meet suffering and death from their violence, we are none the less certain that everything comes from God. The same God who sees no sparrow fall to the ground without his knowledge and will, allows nothing to happen, except it be good and profitable for his children and the cause for which they stand. We are in God’s hands. Therefore, ‘Fear not.’xxxv
According to the testimony of those near him, Bonhoeffer lived out his words until the very moment of this death. When he was called away to his trial, he told a fellow prisoner “This is the end, but for me it is the beginning of life.”xxxvi The prison doctor reported that Bonhoeffer prayed that morning in his cell and then, stripped naked before the scaffold where he was to die, he knelt on the ground and prayed again. Then Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged.
Bonhoeffer gave his life to the resistance against the evil of the Nazi regime because he believed that, as a Christian, he was called to give his obedience to Christ regardless of the consequences. Though he had many opportunities to relent or to flee to safety, Bonhoeffer chose to remain in Germany, responsive to the call he felt from God telling him that his place was with his Church community and with the German people in their time of trouble. Even in prison, Bonhoeffer remained loyal to that call, rejoicing in the freedom that his obedience gave him. Bonhoeffer’s faith gave him the courage he needed to resist the evil that he saw in the world, even at the cost of his own life.