Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his twin sister, Sabine, were born in Breslau, Germany, on February 4, 1906. Six years later, the Bonhoeffer family moved to the beautiful city of Berlin—the capital of Germany and, at the time, the cultural capital of the world. At just 14 years old, Bonhoeffer decided he wanted to become a theologian and began his studies three years later at Tübingen University. He soon transferred to the prestigious Berlin University in 1924. It was there, in 1927, that Dietrich received his degree in theology, graduating summa cum laude after writing and defending his doctoral thesis, Sanctorum Communio (The Communion of Saints). Over the next several years, Bonhoeffer taught, preached, wrote theology, and completed his second dissertation, Act and Being.

When the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s, Germany quickly became a one-party, totalitarian dictatorship that actively persecuted its Jewish population. At this time, the German Christian Church faced a moral crossroads: would they risk becoming enemies of the state by resisting the Nationalist movement, or would they take the path of least resistance and align themselves with Hitler and the Nazi Party? While many Christians conformed, Bonhoeffer chose to resist.

In 1933, Bonhoeffer stood up for the persecuted Jews, delivering a politically provocative radio broadcast on the subject and writing a pro-Jewish article titled The Church and the Jewish Question. He organized the Pastor’s Emergency League, which opposed the Nazi regime's Aryan Clause. This infamous clause declared, among other hateful stipulations, that “non-Aryans” could not be members of the German Reich Church and must be excluded by forming separate “Jewish Christian” congregations. The clause also stated that Jews were no longer suitable for public ministry or business ownership—paving the way for the Nationalist belief that Jews were no longer suitable to live.

As the German Christians began to adopt this Aryanized version of Christianity and align under one pro-Nazi Protestant church, Bonhoeffer and his fellow pastors drafted confessions to separate themselves from this growing movement. They became known as the Confessing Church. One such document, the Bethel Confession, was drafted in 1933, and the more widely circulated Barmen Declaration followed in 1934, largely authored by Swiss theologian Karl Barth. The Barmen Declaration drew sharp distinctions between the Confessing Church and the German Protestant Church by affirming that Christ—not a Führer—is the head of the Church and by rejecting the subordination of the Church to the state. This stance put Bonhoeffer and his fellow Confessing Church members in direct opposition to the Nazi Party.

Bonhoeffer remained undeterred. In 1935, he founded a seminary at Zingsthof near the Baltic Sea, later relocating it to Finkenwalde, where he trained ministers for the Confessing Church. By 1936, Bonhoeffer had been declared a pacifist and enemy of the state. His teaching license was revoked, and he was forbidden from publishing. In 1938, he was banned from living or working in Berlin.

As the drumbeats of World War II grew louder, Bonhoeffer briefly fled to the United States in June 1939, considering employment as a lecturer. However, he soon returned, writing, “I will 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.” Bonhoeffer chose to return and suffer alongside his fellow Christians.

Prohibited from teaching, preaching, or writing, Bonhoeffer used family connections to join the German army as an intelligence officer. Unbeknownst to his superiors, he also worked as a spy and undercover resister. In this role, he traveled to Italy, Switzerland, and Scandinavia under the guise of supporting the German cause while secretly seeking international support for a coup against Hitler. Bonhoeffer also helped rescue Jews by arranging for false foreign papers through trusted German officials, hoping to spare them from deportation to concentration camps.

Ultimately, Bonhoeffer’s resistance efforts led to his arrest in April 1943. Accused of opposing the German cause, misusing his intelligence position, helping pastors evade military service, and rescuing Jews, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned. Following the failed July 20, 1944, assassination attempt on Hitler, Bonhoeffer’s connections to the conspirators sealed his fate. In October 1944, he was transferred to a Gestapo prison and later moved to Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, where, following Hitler’s orders, he was executed in April 1945.

Ten years after his death, the SS doctor who oversaw Bonhoeffer’s execution wrote:

I was most deeply moved by the way this unusually lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain God heard his prayer. At the place of his execution, he again said a short prayer and climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost 50 years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Through it all, Bonhoeffer loved and served God and others. He never stopped reflecting on the Christian mission and the cost it demands. Bonhoeffer did his time on earth well, and his life and writings continue to inspire us.