Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and participated in the German resistance movement against the Nazis. He was involved in plots planned by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. March 1943, he was arrested, and imprisoned and eventually hanged, just before the end of the Second World War in Europe. He was born in Breslau, Germany into a middle to upper-class professional family. His brother Walter was killed during World War I. Though he was initially expected to follow his father into the field of psychology, Dietrich decided at an early age to become a minister. His parents supported his decision. He attended college in Tübingen, where he received his doctorate in theology from the University of Berlin. he was only 24 years old and was unable to be ordained. You have to be 25. However, Dietrich then went abroad. He spent a post-graduate year studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. During this time, he often visited the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where he became acquainted with the musical form called the African-American Spiritual. He collected a large collection of these spirituals, which he took with him back to Germany.
Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1931, where he lectured on theology in Berlin and wrote several books. He was involved with Martin Niemöller, Karl Barth and others, and set up the Confessing Church. Between late 1933 and 1935, he served as pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London. St. Paul and Sydenham. He returned to Germany to head an illegal seminary for Confessing Church pastors. The Gestapo, or Secret Police, banned him from preaching, then teaching, and then finally any kind of public speaking. Bonhoeffer then worked closely with numerous opponents of Adolf Hitler.
During World War II, Bonhoeffer played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church. This church opposed the anti-semitic policies of Adolf Hitler. He was among those who called for more action towards Hitler's treatment of the Jews. This Confessing Church was not large, but it represented the opposition to the Nazi government in Germany. They such things as hide Jews from the Nazi regime.
In 1939, Bonhoeffer joined a hidden group of high-ranking military officers based in the Military Intelligence Office. They wanted to overthrow the Nazis by killing Hitler. He was arrested in April 1943 after money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland was traced to him. He was charged with conspiracy and put in prison in Berlin for a year and a half. After the unsuccessful July 20 Plot in 1944, Bonhoeffer's connections to the conspirators against Hitler were discovered. He was moved to a series of prisons and concentration camps. Here, he was hanged at dawn on April 9, 1945, just three weeks before the freeing of the city. His brother and 2 brothers-in-law were also hanged for being part of the conspiracy. All four of them were forced to strip and forced to walk naked to the gallows pole.
A Man of Faith
I consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer a martyr for his faith; in the mid-1990s, the German Government officially absolved him of any "crimes" he might have committed against the Nazis. Are they really crimes if you are fighting for something so right. It is hard to imagine Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a criminal. He had deep respect for human life, but he committed himself in his plots to assassinate Hitler.
Bonhoeffer's work came to full fruition only after his death. The International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society is a nonprofit and scholarly faith organization to preserve the memory and enhance the knowledge of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his mission. I found this movie on the internet but have not actually found the video. You might want to check it out and let me know if you find it as I continue to look for it. Click on the movie cover to go to the imdb site.
"The failure of reasonable people is appalling; they cannot manage to see either the abyss of evil or the abyss of holiness. With the best intentions they believe that, with a little reason, they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the joints. In their defective vision they want to be fair to both sides, and so they are crushed between the colliding forces without having accomplished anything at all. Bitterly disappointed that the world is so unreasonable, they see themselves condemned to ineffectiveness. They withdraw in resignation or fall helplessly captive to the stronger party. More appalling is the bankruptcy of all ethical fanaticism. Fanatics believe that they can face the power of evil with the purity of their will and their principles. But the essence of fanaticism is that it loses sight of the whole evil, and like a bull that charges the red cape instead of the one holding it, fanatics finally tire and suffer defeat. Fanatics miss their goal. Though their fanaticism serves the lofty goals of truth or justice, sooner or later they are caught in small and insignificant things and fall into the net of their more clever opponent."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Ethics 78
Sources:
http://www.bonhoeffer.com/bon2.htm>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo>
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessing_Church>
http://www.dbonhoeffer.org/>
imdb.com>