57 Facts About Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church.

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Adolf Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for one-and-a-half years.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged on 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on 4 February 1906 in Breslau, then Germany, into a large family.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's father was Karl Bonhoeffer, a psychiatrist and neurologist, noted for his criticism of Sigmund Freud; and his mother Paula Bonhoeffer was a teacher and the granddaughter of Protestant theologian Karl von Hase and painter Stanislaus von Kalckreuth.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer learned how to play the piano at age 8, and composed the songs performed at the Philharmonic at age 11.

At age 14, Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to pursue his education in theology despite the criticism of his older brothers Klaus, a lawyer, and Karl, a scientist.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer took Hebrew as an elective in school and attended many evangelical meetings, moved by the toils of war and hungered children.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his studies at Tubingen and eventually moved to the University of Berlin, where he submitted his successful dissertation: Sanctorum Communio.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer moved to America with the interest of attaining a Sloane Fellowship at New York City's Union Theological Seminary.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the students as lacking interest in theology and would "laugh out loud" when learning a passage from Luther's Sin and Forgiveness.

The nationalistic Dietrich Bonhoeffer later changed his view after seeing a film about the horrors of war.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's promising academic and ecclesiastical career was dramatically knocked off course by the Nazi ascent to power on 30 January 1933.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a determined opponent of the regime from its first days.

Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address in which he attacked Hitler and warned Germany against slipping into an idolatrous cult of the Fuhrer, who could very well turn out to be Verfuhrer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's broadcast was abruptly cut off, though it is unclear whether the newly elected Nazi regime was responsible.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer put all his efforts into the election, campaigning for the selection of independent, non-Nazi officials.

Notable for affirming God's fidelity to Jews as His chosen people, the Bethel Confession was so watered down to make it more palatable that Dietrich Bonhoeffer ultimately refused to sign it.

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was offered a parish post in eastern Berlin in the autumn of 1933, he refused it in protest at the nationalist policy, and accepted a two-year appointment as a pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London: the German Lutheran Church in Dacres Road, Sydenham, and the German Reformed Church of St Paul's, Goulston Street, Whitechapel.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not go to England simply to avoid trouble at home; he hoped to put the ecumenical movement to work in the interest of the Confessing Church.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his involvement with the Confessing Church, running up a high telephone bill to maintain his contact with Martin Niemoller.

In international gatherings, Dietrich Bonhoeffer rallied people to oppose the Deutsche Christen movement and its attempt to amalgamate Nazi nationalism with the Christian gospel.

In 1935, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was offered a coveted opportunity to study non-violent resistance under Gandhi in his ashram.

However, remembering Barth's rebuke, Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany instead, where he was the head at an underground seminary in Finkenwalde for training Confessing Church pastors.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer found a great benefactor in Ruth von Kleist-Retzow.

In times of trouble, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's former students and their wives would take refuge in von Kleist-Retzow's Pomeranian estate, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a frequent guest.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent the next two years secretly traveling from one eastern German village to another to conduct "seminary on the run" supervision of his students, most of whom were working illegally in small parishes within the old-Prussian Ecclesiastical Province of Pomerania.

In February 1938, Dietrich Bonhoeffer made an initial contact with members of the German Resistance when his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi introduced him to a group seeking Hitler's overthrow at the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was particularly troubled by the prospect of being conscripted.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer worried about consequences his refusing military service could have for the Confessing Church, as it was a move that would be frowned upon by most Christians and their churches at the time.

Back in Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was further harassed by the Nazi authorities as he was forbidden to speak in public and was required regularly to report his activities to the police.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer presumably knew about various 1943 plots against Hitler through Dohnanyi, who was actively involved in the planning.

Under cover of the Abwehr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer served as a courier for the German resistance movement to reveal its existence and intentions to the Western Allies in hope of garnering their support, and, through his ecumenical contacts abroad, to secure possible peace terms with the Allies for a post-Hitler government.

In May 1942, he met Anglican Bishop George Bell of Chichester, a member of the House of Lords and an ally of the Confessing Church, contacted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's exiled brother-in-law Leibholz; through him feelers were sent to British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.

Dohnanyi and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were involved in Abwehr operations to help German Jews escape to Switzerland.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer intended Ethics as his magnum opus, but it remained unfinished when he was arrested.

On 13 January 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had become engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer, the granddaughter of his close friend and Finkenwalde seminary supporter, Ruth von Kleist Retzow.

Ruth had campaigned for this marriage for several years, although up until late October 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer remained a reluctant suitor despite Ruth being part of his innermost circle.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had first met his would-be fiancee Maria when she was his confirmation student at age eleven.

Once he was in prison Maria's status as a fiancee became invaluable, as it meant she could visit Dietrich Bonhoeffer and correspond with him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made Eberhard Bethge his heir, but Maria, in allowing her correspondence with Dietrich Bonhoeffer to be published after her death, provided an invaluable addition to the scholarship.

One of those guards, a corporal named Knobloch, even offered to help him escape from the prison and "disappear" with him, and plans were made for that end but Dietrich Bonhoeffer declined it, fearing Nazi retribution against his family, especially his brother Klaus and brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi, who was imprisoned.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death on 8 April 1945 by SS judge Otto Thorbeck at a drumhead court-martial without witnesses, records of proceedings or a defense in Flossenburg concentration camp.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed there by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was stripped of his clothing and led naked into the execution yard where he was hanged with six others: Admiral Wilhelm Canaris; General Hans Oster, Canaris's deputy; General Karl Sack, a military jurist; businessman Theodor Strunck; and German resistance fighter Ludwig Gehre.

Eberhard Bethge, a student and friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, writes of a man who saw the execution:.

One terms the Fischer-Hullstrung story as "unfortunately a lie," citing additional factual inconsistencies; for example, the doctor described Dietrich Bonhoeffer climbing the steps to the noose, but at Flossenburg the gallows had no steps.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the first martyr to be so recognized who lived after the Reformation, and is one of only two as of 2017.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that Christians should not retreat from the world but act within it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed that two elements were constitutive of faith: the implementation of justice and the acceptance of divine suffering.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer insisted that the church, like the Christians, "had to share in the sufferings of God at the hands of a godless world" if it were to be a true church of Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that Christians are instructed to strive to follow his word exactly, only then after we truly strive to the best of our ability should God's grace comes into play.

Cheap grace Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains is a forgetting to strive in knowing that God's grace is there anyway.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer uses the example of the rich man who asks Jesus how he can enter the kingdom of heaven.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that Christians are too quick to assume that Jesus did not mean literally to leave everything and follow him, that instead, it was a heart matter or another reason.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that God says exactly what he means, and that we need to follow simple obedience more by simply following Gods commands as they are said.