Dietrich Bonhoeffer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (February 2008)
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Born February 4, 1906
Breslau
Died April 9, 1945 (age 39)
Flossenbürg concentration camp
Nationality German
Education Doctorate in theology
Occupation Pastor, professor, theologian
Religious beliefs Lutheran (Confessing Church)
Children (none)
Parents Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer IPA: [ˈdiːtrɪç ˈboːnhøfɐ] (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plots planned by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually executed by hanging.[1]

Contents

[edit] Family and youth

Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia. He and his sister Sabine were twins and the sixth and seventh of eight children. His brother Walter was killed during World War I. His sister was married to Hans von Dohnanyi and was mother of the conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi and the later mayor of Hamburg, Klaus von Dohnanyi. His father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a prominent German psychiatrist in Berlin; his mother, Paula, home-schooled the children. Though he was initially expected to follow his father into the field of psychology, Dietrich decided at an early age to become a theologian and later a Christian pastor. His parents supported his decision. He attended college in Tübingen and later at the University of Berlin, where he received his doctorate in theology at the age of only 21. As Dietrich was under 25 at the time [per church regulations], he was unable to be ordained. This, however, gave Dietrich the opportunity to go abroad. He then spent a post-graduate year abroad studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. During this time, he would often visit the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where he became acquainted with the African-American Spiritual. He amassed a substantial collection of these spirituals, which he took with him when he went back to Germany.

[edit] Return to Germany

During World War II, Bonhoeffer played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church, which opposed the anti-semitic policies of Adolf Hitler. He was among those who called for wider church resistance to Hitler's treatment of the Jews. While the Confessing Church was not large, it represented a major source of Christian opposition to the Nazi government in Germany. After the unsuccessful July 20 Plot in 1944, Bonhoeffer's connections with the conspirators were discovered. He was moved to a series of prisons and concentration camps ending at Flossenbürg.[2]

[edit] Confessing Church

After his visit to America, the Confessing Church would play a large role in Bonhoeffer's life, or rather Bonhoeffer would play a large role in the life of the Confessing Church, as he was one of its founders. Although Bonhoeffer started out as a Lutheran, he became frustrated with the "liberal theology" of the established Church after discussing it with his friend Karl Barth, an eminent theologian. Barth believed that "liberal theology" (understood as a movement emphasizing personal experience and societal development, not necessarily carrying a political orientation) minimized Scripture, reducing it in many ways to a mere textbook of metaphysics while sanctioning the deification of human culture. Barth and Bonhoeffer often discussed and debated rationalist and Hegelian-derived theology against Reformation doctrine, and over time Barth began to win Bonhoeffer over. Although Bonhoeffer would never totally throw aside liberal theology, he did feel it was too constraining, and held it in many ways responsible for the lack of relevance within the Church. Bonhoeffer and Barth became two of the main figures associated with the "neo-orthodox" movement within German- and English-speaking Protestantism in the mid-20th century.

[edit] Imprisonment and Execution

Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1931, where he lectured on theology in Berlin and wrote several books. A strong opponent of Nazism, he was involved, together with Martin Niemöller, Karl Barth and others, in establishing the Confessing Church. In August 1933, he co-authored the Bethel Confession with Hermann Sasse and others. Between late 1933 and 1935, he served as pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London: St. Paul's and Sydenham. While Bonhoeffer desired a trip to India to discover non-violent resistance with Gandhi, he returned to Germany to head a seminary for Confessing Church pastors which had been made illegal by the Nazi regime, first in Finkenwalde and then at the von Blumenthal estate of Gross Schlönwitz, which was closed at the outbreak of World War II. The Gestapo also banned him from preaching; then teaching; and finally any kind of public speaking. During this time, Bonhoeffer worked closely with numerous opponents of Adolf Hitler.

In 1939, Bonhoeffer joined a secret group of high-ranking military officers based in the Abwehr, or Military intelligence Office, who wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by killing Hitler. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 after money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland was traced to him. He was charged with conspiracy and imprisoned in Berlin for a year and a half.

In Flossenbürg, Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at dawn on 1945 April 9, just three weeks before the liberation of Berlin and one month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The manner of execution was, like other executions associated with the July 20 Plot, so brutal and graphic that even Wehrmacht soldiers were loathe to watch. Bonhoeffer was stripped of clothing in his cell, tortured and ridiculed by the guards, and led naked into the execution yard. The lack of sufficient gallows to hang thousands of Germans after the July 20 Plot had caused Hitler and Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels to seize on the idea of using meathooks from slaughterhouses[3] and slowly hoisting the victim to dangle from an incrementally tightening noose formed of piano wire.[4] The asphyxiation is thought to have taken approximately half an hour.[5]

Also hanged with Bonhoeffer were conspirators Abwehr chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Canaris' deputy General Hans Oster, military jurist General Karl Sack, [6] General Friedrich von Rabenau, businessperson Theodor Strünck, and German resistance (anti-Nazi) fighter Ludwig Gehre.[7]

[edit] Legacy

From the Gallery of 20th Century Martyrs at Westminster Abbey — l. to r. Mother Elizabeth of Russia, the Revd Martin Luther King, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From the Gallery of 20th Century Martyrs at Westminster Abbey — l. to r. Mother Elizabeth of Russia, the Revd Martin Luther King, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer is commemorated as a theologian and martyr by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Church of England and the Church in Wales on April 9.

The following are English translations of Bonhoeffer's works, which were all originally written in German:

The first volume in the Fortress Press critical edition of Bonhoeffer's work gathers his one hundred earliest letters and journals from after the First World War through his graduation from Berlin University. It also contains his early theological writings up to his dissertation. The seventeen essays include works on the patristic period for Adolf von Harnack, on Luther's moods for Karl Holl, on biblical interpretation for Professor Reinhold Seeberg, as well as essays on the church and eschatology, reason and revelation, Job, John, and even joy. Rounding out this picture of Bonhoeffer's nascent theology are his sermons from the period, along with his lectures on homiletics, catechesis, and practical theology.
  • Barcelona, Berlin, New York: 1928–1931, translation of Barcelona, Berlin, Amerika: 1928–1931. Fortress Press: not yet released.
  • Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church Clifford Green (editor); Reinhard Krauss (translator); Nancy Lukens (translator). Fortress Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8006-8301-3.
Bonhoeffer's dissertation, completed in 1927 and first published in 1930 as Sanctorum Communio: eine Dogmatische Untersuchung zur Soziologie der Kirche. In it he attempts to work out a theology of the person in society, and then, particularly, in the church. Along with enlightening us about his early positions on sin, evil, solidarity, collective spirit, and collective guilt, the volume unfolds a systematic theology of the Spirit at work in the church and what this implies for questions of authority, freedom, ritual, and eschatology.

Social Christianity

Christian cross

Important figures
Edward Bellamy  · Tony Benn
Phillip Berryman
Dorothy Day  · Toni Negri
Leo Tolstoy  · Mary Ward
Gustavo Gutiérrez


Organizations
Catholic Worker Movement
Christian Socialist Movement

Key Concepts
Marxism
Liberation Theology
Praxis School
Precarity
Social justice

Part of a series of articles on Christianity

Christianity Portal

This box: view • talk • edit
Bonhoeffer’s second dissertation, written in 1929–30 and published in 1931 as Akt und Sein, deals with the questions of consciousness and conscience in theology from the perspective of the Reformation insight about the origin of human sinfulness in the “heart turned in upon itself and thus open neither to the revelation of God nor to the encounter with the neighbor.” Here are Bonhoeffer’s thoughts about power, revelation, Otherness, theological method, and theological anthropology.
  • Ecumenical, Academic and Pastoral Work: 1931–1932, translation of Ökumene, Universität, Pfarramt: 1931–1932. Fortress Press: not yet released.
  • Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1–3 John W. de Gruchy (Editor); Douglas Stephen Bax (Translator). Fortress Press, November 20, 1997. ISBN 0-8006-8303-X.
Creation and Fall originated in lectures given by Bonhoeffer at the University of Berlin in the winter semester of 1932–33 during the demise of the Weimar Republic and the birth of the Third Reich. In the book published in 1933 as Schöpfung und Fall, Bonhoeffer called his students to focus their attention on the word of God the word of truth in a time of turmoil.
  • Christology (1966) London: William Collins and New York: Harper and Row. translation of lectures given in Berlin in 1933, from vol. 3 of Gesammelte Schriften, Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1960. retitled as Christ the Center, Harper SanFrancisco 1978 paperback: ISBN 0-06-060811-0
  • London: 1933–1935, translation of London: 1933–1935. Fortress Press: not yet released.
  • The Cost of Discipleship (1948 in English). Touchstone edition with introduction by Bishop George Bell and memoir by G. Leibholz, 1995 paperback: ISBN 0-684-81500-1. Critical edition published under its original title Discipleship: John D. Godsey (editor); Geffrey B. Kelly (editor). Fortress Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8006-8324-2
Bonhoeffer's most widely read book begins, "Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace." That was a sharp warning to his own church, which was engaged in bitter conflict with the official nazified state church, The book was first published in 1937 as Nachfolge (Discipleship). It soon became a classic exposition of what it means to follow Christ in a modern world beset by a dangerous and criminal government. At its center stands an interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount: what Jesus demanded of his followers—and how the life of discipleship is to be continued in all ages of the post- resurrection church.
  • Theological Education at Finkenwalde: 1935–1937, translation of Illegale Theologenausbildung: 1935–1937. Fortress Press: not yet released.
  • Theological Education Underground: 1937–1940, translation of Illegale Theologenausbildung: 1937–1940. Fortress Press: not yet released.
  • Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible James H. Burtness (coauthor); Geffrey B. Kelly (editor); Daniel W. Bloesch (translator). Fortress Press: 1995. ISBN 0-8006-8305-6.
    • The stimulus for the writing of Life Together was the closing of the preacher’s seminary at Finkenwalde. The treatise contains Bonhoeffer’s thoughts about the nature of Christian community based on the common life that he and his seminarians experienced at the seminary and in the “Brother’s House” there. Life Together was completed in 1938, published in 1939 as Gemeinsames Leben, and first translated into English in 1954. Harper SanFrancisco 1978 paperback: ISBN 0-06-060852-8
    • Prayerbook of the Bible is a classic of Christian spirituality. In this theological interpretation of the Psalms, Bonhoeffer describes the moods of an individual’s relationship with God and also the turns of love and heartbreak, of joy and sorrow, that are themselves the Christian community’s path to God.
  • Ethics (1955 in English by SCM Press). Touchstone edition, 1995 paperback: ISBN 0-684-81501-X. Fortress Press 2004 critical edition: Clifford Green (editor); Reinhard Krauss (translator); Douglas W. Stott (translator); Charles C. West (translator). ISBN 0-8006-8306-4.
Written in prison and published in 1943 as Ethik, this is the culmination of Bonhoeffer's theological and personal odyssey. Based on careful reconstruction of the manuscripts, freshly and expertly translated and annotated, the critical edition features an insightful introduction by Clifford Green and an afterword from the German edition's editors. Though caught up in the vortex of momentous forces in the Nazi period, Bonhoeffer systematically envisioned a radically Christocentric, incarnational ethic for a post-war world, purposefully recasting Christians' relation to history, politics, and public life.
  • Fiction from Tegel Prison Clifford Green (editor); Nancy Lukens (translator). Fortress Press: 1999. ISBN 0-8006-8307-2.
Writing fiction—an incomplete drama, a novel fragment, and a short story—occupied much of Bonhoeffer’s first year in Tegel prison, as well as writing to his family and his fiancée and dealing with his interrogation. “There is a good deal of autobiography mixed in with it,” he explained to his friend and biographer Eberhard Bethge. Richly annotated by German editors Renate Bethge and Ilse Todt and by Clifford Green, the writings in this book disclose a great deal of Bonhoeffer’s family context, social world, and cultural milieu. Events from his life are recounted in a way that illuminates his theology. Characters and situations that represent Nazi types and attitudes became a form of social criticism and help to explain Bonhoeffer’s participation in the resistance movement and the plot to kill Hitler.
In hundreds of letters, including letters written to his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer (selected from the complete correspondence, previously published as "Love Letters from Cell 92" Ruth-Alice von Bismarck and Ulrich Kabitz (editors), Abingdon Press (April 1995) ISBN 0-687-01098-5), as well as official documents, short original pieces, and a few final sermons, the volume sheds light on Bonhoeffer's active resistance to and increasing involvement in the conspiracy against the Hitler regime, his arrest, and his long imprisonment. Finally, Bonhoeffer's many exchanges with his family, fiancée, and closest friends, demonstrate the affection and solidarity that accompanied Bonhoeffer to his prison cell, concentration camp, and eventual death.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1990). Geoffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson, editors. Harper SanFrancisco 1995 2nd edition, paperback: ISBN 0-06-064214-9

[edit] Other works about Bonhoeffer

[edit] Books

[edit] Films

[edit] Audio Drama

Focus on the Family Radio Theatre created an audio drama on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1997.[8] Titled "Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom", this three-hour series was highly acclaimed and received a Peabody award for broadcast excellence in 1998. (Tyndale, 1997, 1999, 2007)

[edit] Verse about Bonhoeffer

[edit] Opera

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ [hhttp://christianity.com/Christian%20Foundations/The%20Essentials/11536759/ Dietrich Bonhoeffer Biography]. Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
  2. ^ Photographs of the Flossenbürg concentration camp in April 1945 are available at http://canaris.fotopic.net/p47455018.html, http://canaris.fotopic.net/p47455084.html, and http://canaris.fotopic.net/p47455046.html.
  3. ^ As a prisoner of war Kurt Vonnegut was held in a slaughterhouse in Dresden and survived the 1945 Dresden bombing. Those events formed the background for his famous novel Slaughterhouse Five.
  4. ^ Goebbels had filmed similar earlier hangings. Hitler allegedly enjoyed watching the films, but troops in the field were known to walk out in disgust and nausea when the films were shown. There is no evidence that Bonhoeffer's execution was filmed, but the gruesome impression of it can be deduced from audience reaction to similar meathook executions, with the hopeless victims wriggling in slow asphyxiation in the piano-wire nooses.
  5. ^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/julyplot.html, http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/13767/Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Memories-and-Perspectives/overview, http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2006/02/03/20060203-C1-00.html, http://www.atsweb.neu.edu/holocaust/a_question.htm .
  6. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris
  7. ^ See also the English Wikipedia articles on Bonhoeffer's brother Klaus Bonhoeffer and brothers-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and Rüdiger Schleicher, who were executed elsewhere later in April 1945.
  8. ^ RadioTheatre.org - Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom - Home


Persondata
NAME Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German theologian, pacifist
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Breslau
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1945
PLACE OF DEATH Flossenbürg concentration camp