Bonhoeffer - a Short History

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Ð'- A Short History

The Early Years

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born 6 February 1906, the sixth child of an upper middle class Berlin family. His mother Paula home-schooled the children and his father, Karl, was a professor of psychiatric medicine at the University of Berlin.

His Early Years as Theology Student (1923-1931)

Bonhoeffer was recognized at an early age as possessing an exceptional intellect and at age 17 he began his study of theology at the Universities of TÐ"јbingen and Berlin (1923-1927). Having completed his necessary theological studies, he was ordained into the Evangelical (Lutheran) ministry and served as a pastor-trainee at a German church in Barcelona, Spain (1928-1929).

Following his time in Spain Bonhoeffer continued his theological studies as a graduate student at the University of Berlin. In 1930 he traveled to the United States to study for a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York City as an exchange student.

Teacher/Pastor & The Christian Ecumenical Movement

In 1931 he returned to Germany and at age 27 became a lecturer at the University of Berlin. The early 1930s saw the rise of the German National Socialist Party led by Adolph Hitler which was fiercely racist and nationalistic. However, Bonhoeffer's Christian faith was clearly heading him in the opposite direction, toward a position of Christian internationalism or "ecumenism." In 1931 he attended an ecumenical conference in Cambridge, England, and was appointed a European youth secretary of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches.

The Anti-Hitler "Confessing Church"

In quite marked departure from the rest of the German protestant pastors, Bonhoeffer was not enthusiastic about Hitler's accession to power in January 1933 as German Chancellor. Bonhoeffer quickly became deeply involved in the work of the Young Reformers, an anti-Hitler opposition group within the State Church. However as the State Church became more pro-Hitler, Bonhoeffer and others, formed a new party within the church, the Pastors' Emergency League. This would soon develop into the "Confessing Church" a group of German clergy who stood strongly against the position of the pro-Hitler State Church.

Bonhoeffer left Germany in 1933 under the cloud of his opposition to Hitler and for 18 months pastored two small German congregations in London. In early 1935, Bonhoeffer was persuaded by friends in the German Confessing Church to return to Germany to offer seminary training to a group of young pastors at Finkenwald. He also resumed his teaching duties at the University of Berlin.

Hitler Strikes Back

Bonhoeffer made no efforts to hide his adamant opposition to Hitler's New Order. He speculated frequently about the German future without its Dictator, and in general spoke out often and strongly against the State Church's support of the Nazis. He was soon removed from his teaching duties at the University.

In 1937 the Gestapo also closed down the Finkenwald seminary. But Bonhoeffer continued up until 1940 to direct student training (illegally) by placing students in work-study internships with pastors sympathetic with the position of the Confessing Church. Throughout this period Bohnoeffer was haunted by a fear that he was witnessing in Germany a moral collapse within the church that would deservedly bring on the wrath of God.

Facing the possibility of being drafted into the German army, Bonhoeffer in early 1939 again left the country, returning to the United States. But he remained in the States only a few weeks before he made the fateful decision to return to Germany to become an active part of the illegal opposition to Hitler, part of a group planning the rebuilding of a reformed, renewed, rehabilitated post-Nazi Germany. However,