Editing Dietrich Bonhoeffer (section)

== Anti-Nazism ==
Bonhoeffer's promising academic and ecclesiastical career was dramatically knocked off course by the Nazi ascent to power on 30 January 1933. He was a determined opponent of the regime from its first days. Two days after Hitler was installed as [[Chancellor of Germany|chancellor]], Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address in which he attacked Hitler and warned Germany against slipping into an idolatrous cult of the ''[[führer]]'' (leader), who could very well turn out to be ''verführer'' (misleader, seducer). His broadcast was abruptly cut off, though it is unclear whether the newly elected Nazi regime was responsible.<ref>[[Eberhard Bethge]], ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer'', pp. 259–60</ref>

In November 1932, two months before the Nazi takeover, there had been an election for [[presbyter]]s and [[synod]]als (church officials) of the German ''Landeskirche'' (Protestant mainstream churches). This election was marked by a struggle within the Old-Prussian Union Protestant Church between the pro-Nazi [[German Christians (movement)|''Deutsche Christen'' (German Christian) movement]] and Young Reformers, who were interested in following the Gospel teachings of Jesus—a struggle that threatened to explode into [[Schism (religion)|schism]]. In July 1933, Hitler unconstitutionally imposed new church elections. Bonhoeffer put all his efforts into the election, campaigning for the selection of independent, non-Nazi officials who were dedicated to following Christ.

Despite Bonhoeffer's efforts, in the July election an overwhelming number of key church positions went to the ''Deutsche Christen''.<ref>Elizabeth Raum, ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer'', p. 72</ref> The Deutsche Christen won a majority in the Old-Prussian general synod and all its provincial synods except [[Evangelical Church of Westphalia|Westphalia]], and in synods of all other Protestant church bodies, except for the Lutheran churches of [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria|Bavaria]], [[Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover|Hanover]], and [[Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg|Württemberg]]. The anti-Nazi Christian opposition regarded these bodies as uncorrupted "intact churches", as opposed to the other so-called "destroyed churches".

In opposition to [[Gleichschaltung|Nazification]], Bonhoeffer urged an interdict to stop offering all pastoral ceremonial services (baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals, etc.), but [[Karl Barth]] and others advised against such a radical proposal.<ref name="MetaxasBonhoeffer"/> In August 1933, Bonhoeffer and [[Hermann Sasse]] were deputized by opposition church leaders to draft the "Bethel Confession,"<ref name="Obendiek 1992 57">Enno Obendiek, "Die Theologische Erklärung von Barmen 1934: Hinführung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp.&nbsp;52–58 [57]. {{ISBN|3-7858-0346-X}}</ref> as a statement of faith in opposition to the Deutsche Christen movement. Notable for affirming God's fidelity to Jews as His chosen people, the "Bethel Confession" was eventually so watered down to make it more palatable that ultimately Bonhoeffer refused to sign it.<ref>David Ford, ''The Modern Theologians'', p. 47</ref>

In September 1933, the nationalist church synod at [[Wittenberg]] voluntarily passed a resolution to apply the [[Aryan paragraph]] within the church, meaning that pastors and church officials of Jewish descent were to be removed from their posts. Regarding this as an affront to the principle of baptism, [[Martin Niemöller]] founded the ''[[Pfarrernotbund]]'' (Pastors' Emergency League). In November, a rally of 20,000 Deutsche Christens demanded the removal of the Jewish [[Old Testament]] from the Bible, which was seen by many as [[heresy]], further swelling the ranks of the Pastors Emergency League.<ref>Robert P. Ericksen. (2012). Complicity in the Holocaust. [Online]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from: Cambridge Books Online {{doi|10.1017/CBO9781139059602}} [Accessed 15 April 2016]. pp. 26–27</ref>

Within weeks of its founding, more than a third of German pastors had joined the Emergency League. It was the forerunner of the ''Bekennende Kirche'' ([[Confessing Church]]), which aimed to preserve historical, Biblically based Christian beliefs and practices.<ref>Robert P. Ericksen. (2012). Complicity in the Holocaust. [Online]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from: Cambridge Books Online {{doi|10.1017/CBO9781139059602}} [Accessed 15 April 2016]. pp. 26, 28, 29, 95</ref> The [[Barmen Declaration]], drafted by Barth in May 1934 and adopted by the Confessing Church, insisted that Christ, not the ''führer'', is the head of the Church.<ref name=ushmm>{{Citation | url = https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/dietrich-bonhoeffer/1933-1940 | publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | title = Dietrich Bonhoeffer | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160605083356/https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/dietrich-bonhoeffer/1933-1940 | archive-date = 5 June 2016 | df = dmy-all }}.</ref> The adoption of the declaration has often been viewed as a triumph, although only about 20% of German pastors supported the Confessing Church.<ref name="LittellLocke1990">{{cite book|author1=Franklin Hamlin Littell|author2=Hubert G. Locke|title=The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3wQAQAAIAAJ|date=1 April 1990|publisher=Edwin Mellen Pr|isbn=978-0-7734-9995-9|pages=51–53}}</ref>

=== Ministries in London ===
When Bonhoeffer was offered a parish post in eastern Berlin in the autumn of 1933, he refused it in protest at the Nationalist policy, and he accepted a two-year appointment as a pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London: the [[United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany|German Lutheran Church]] in Dacres Road, [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]],<ref name="ushmm" /><ref>{{Cite web|title = Open charities | url = http://opencharities.org/charities/290945|website=Opencharities.org}}</ref> and the German Reformed Church of St Paul's, Goulston Street, [[Whitechapel]].<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/germanchurches.html | title = German churches | publisher = STGite | place = UK | access-date = 7 January 2014 | archive-date = 7 January 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140107113714/http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/germanchurches.html | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | title = Dietrich Bonhoeffer Kirche (German Church, Sydeham) | publisher = AIM25: Archives in London and the M25 area | place = UK | url = http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=12592&inst_id=118 | access-date = 17 May 2012 | archive-date = 5 November 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131105021336/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=12592&inst_id=118 | url-status = dead }}.</ref> He explained to Barth that he had found little support for his views on devotion to literally following the words of Jesus—even among friends—and that "it was about time to go for a while into the desert". Barth regarded this as running away from a real battle. He sharply rebuked Bonhoeffer, saying, "I can only reply to all the reasons and excuses which you put forward: 'And what will now happen to the people of the German Church?'" Barth accused Bonhoeffer of abandoning his post and wasting his "splendid theological armory" while "the house of your church is on fire", and chided him to return to Berlin "by the next ship".<ref>Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works: London 1933–1935'', p. 40</ref>

Bonhoeffer, however, 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. He continued his involvement with the Confessing Church, running up a high telephone bill to maintain his contact with Martin Niemöller. In international gatherings, Bonhoeffer rallied people to oppose the Deutsche Christen movement and its attempt to amalgamate Nazi nationalism with Christianity. When Bishop {{Interlanguage link|Theodor Heckel|de}}—the official in charge of German Lutheran Church foreign affairs—traveled to London to warn Bonhoeffer to abstain from any ecumenical activity not directly authorized by Berlin, Bonhoeffer refused to abstain.<ref name="Dietrich Bonhoeffer p. 19">Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ''A Testament to Freedom,'' ed. Geffrey B. Kelly, p. 19</ref>

=== Underground seminaries ===
In 1935, Bonhoeffer was offered a coveted opportunity to study non-violent resistance under [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in his [[ashram]]. However, remembering Barth's rebuke, Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany instead, where he was the head at an underground seminary in [[Szczecin-Zdroje|Finkenwalde]] for training Confessing Church pastors. As the Nazi suppression of the Confessing Church intensified, Barth was driven back to Switzerland in 1935; Niemöller was arrested in July 1937; and in August 1936, Bonhoeffer's authorization to teach at the University of Berlin was revoked after he was denounced as a "pacifist and enemy of the state" by Theodor Heckel.[[File:Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Skulptur an der Hauptkirche Sankt Petri (Hamburg).JPG|thumb|upright|Memorial of Bonhoeffer in front of [[St. Peter's Church, Hamburg|St. Peter's Church]], Hamburg]] Bonhoeffer's efforts for the underground seminaries included securing necessary funds. He found a great benefactor in [[Ruth von Kleist-Retzow]]. In times of trouble, Bonhoeffer's former students and their wives would take refuge in von Kleist-Retzow's Pomeranian estate, and Bonhoeffer was a frequent guest. Later he fell in love with Kleist-Retzow's granddaughter, [[Maria von Wedemeyer]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/februaryweb-only/33.0a.html|title=Bonhoeffer in Love|author=Wendy Murray Zoba|work=ChristianityToday.com|date=February 2001 }}</ref> to whom he became engaged three months before his arrest in 1943. By August 1937, [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] leader [[Heinrich Himmler]] had decreed the education and examination of Confessing Church ministry candidates illegal. In September 1937, the [[Gestapo]] closed the seminary at Finkenwalde, and by November 27 pastors and former students were arrested. It was around this time that Bonhoeffer published his best-known book, ''[[The Cost of Discipleship]],'' a study on the [[Sermon on the Mount]] in which he attacked "cheap grace" as a cover for ethical laxity against the virtues of "costly grace".

Bonhoeffer spent the next two years secretly traveling from one eastern German village to another to conduct a "seminary on the run" supervising the continuing education and work of his students, most of whom were working illegally in small parishes within the old-Prussian [[Ecclesiastical Province of Pomerania]]. The [[von Blumenthal]] family hosted the underground seminary on its estate of [[Słonowice, Pomeranian Voivodeship|Groß Schlönwitz]]. The pastors of Groß Schlönwitz and neighbouring villages supported the education of young men who voluntarily housed these seminarians (among whom was [[Eberhard Bethge]], who later became his best friend and edited Bonhoeffer's ''Letters and Papers from Prison'') and employing them as [[vicar]]s in their congregations.<ref name="Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1996, p. 51">''Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pfarrer, Berlin-Charlottenburg 9, Marienburger Allee 43: Begleitheft zur Ausstellung'', corr. a. ext. ed., Kuratorium Bonhoeffer Haus (ed.), Berlin: Erinnerungs- und Begegnungsstätte Bonhoeffer Haus, 1996, p. 51.</ref>

In 1938, the Gestapo banned Bonhoeffer from Berlin. In the summer of 1939, the seminary was able to move to Sigurdshof, an outlying estate ([[Folwark|Vorwerk]]) of the [[von Kleist]] family in [[Tychowo, Sławno County|Wendisch Tychow]]. In March 1940, the Gestapo shut down the underground seminary there following the outbreak of [[World War II]].<ref name="Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1996, p. 51" /> Bonhoeffer's semi-monastic communal life and teaching at the underground Finkenwalde seminary formed the basis of his books, ''The Cost of Discipleship'' and ''Life Together''.

Bonhoeffer's sister, Sabine, along with her Jewish-classified husband {{ill|Gerhard Leibholz|de}} and their two daughters, escaped to England by way of Switzerland in 1938.<ref>{{Citation | contribution-url = https://www.pbs.org/bonhoeffer/timeline.html | publisher = PBS | title = Bonhoeffer | contribution = Timeline}}.</ref>

=== Return to the United States ===
In February 1938, Bonhoeffer made an initial contact with members of the [[German resistance to Nazism|German resistance]] when his brother-in-law [[Hans von Dohnányi]] introduced him to a group seeking Hitler's overthrow at the [[Abwehr]], the German military intelligence service.

Bonhoeffer also learned from Dohnányi that war was imminent. He was particularly troubled by the prospect of being conscripted. As a committed Christian pacifist opposed to the Nazi regime, he could never swear an oath to Hitler and would never commit any violence or fight in Hitler's army, though refusal to do so was potentially a capital offense. He worried also about consequences his refusing military service could have for the Confessing Church, as it was a move that would be frowned upon by most nationalist Christians and their churches at the time.<ref name="Dietrich Bonhoeffer p. 19" />

It was at this juncture that Bonhoeffer left for the United States in June 1939 at the invitation of [[Union Theological Seminary (New York City)|Union Theological Seminary]] in New York. After much inner turmoil, he soon regretted his decision and returned after only two weeks<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dietrich-Bonhoeffer|title=Dietrich Bonhoeffer|first=Franklin|last=Sherman|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=19 January 2024 }}</ref> despite strong pressures from his friends to stay in the United States. He wrote to [[Reinhold Niebuhr]]:
{{blockquote|I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America this time. I must live through this difficult period in our national history along with the people of Germany. 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&nbsp;... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that a future Christian civilization may survive, or else willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization and any true Christianity. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from a place of security.<ref>[[Eberhard Bethge]], ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Eine Biographie'', p. 736</ref>}}

=== Abwehr agent ===
[[File:Bonhoeffer-Haus Studienzimmer.jpg|thumb|Bonhoeffer's study]]
Back in Germany, 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. In 1941, he was forbidden to print or to publish anything. In the meantime, Bonhoeffer had joined the Abwehr. Dohnányi, already part of the Abwehr, brought him into the organization on the claim that his wide ecumenical contacts would be of use to Germany, thus protecting him from conscription to active service.<ref name=nyrb /> Bonhoeffer presumably knew about [[Operation Spark (1941)|various 1943 plots]] against Hitler through Dohnányi, who was actively involved in the planning.<ref name=nyrb>{{cite news|title=The Tragedy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnányi|url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/oct/25/tragedy-dietrich-bonhoeffer-and-hans-von-dohnanyi/ | access-date =12 October 2012|newspaper=The New York Review of Books|date=25 October 2012| first1 =Elisabeth | last1 = Sifton| first2=Fritz | last2 = Stern}}</ref> In the face of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and other minorities, the full scale of which Bonhoeffer learned through the Abwehr, he concluded that "the ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself from this whole affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to survive and live for Truth."<ref>Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1997) ''Letters and Papers from Prison''. New York: Touchstone. p. 7.</ref> He did not justify his action but wrote, "When a man takes guilt upon himself in responsibility, he imputes his guilt to himself and no one else. He answers for it... Before other men he is justified by dire necessity; before himself he is acquitted by his conscience, but before God he hopes only for grace."<ref>Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ''[[Ethics (Bonhoeffer)|Ethics]]'', p. 244</ref> (In a 1932 sermon, Bonhoeffer said, "The blood of martyrs might once again be demanded, but this blood, if we really have the courage and loyalty to shed it, will not be innocent, shining like that of the first witnesses for the faith. On our blood lies heavy with guilt, the guilt of the unprofitable servant who is cast into outer darkness."<ref>Bethge, ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography'', 1975, p. 155</ref>)

Under cover of the Abwehr, Bonhoeffer served as a courier for the German resistance movement to reveal its existence and intentions to the Western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] in hope of garnering their support. Through his ecumenical contacts abroad, he hoped to secure possible peace terms with the Allies for a post-Hitler government. In May 1942, he met Anglican [[George Bell (bishop)|Bishop George Bell]] of [[Chichester]], a member of the [[House of Lords]] and an ally of the Confessing Church, contacted by Bonhoeffer's exiled brother-in-law Leibholz; through him feelers were sent to British Foreign Secretary [[Anthony Eden]]. However, the British government ignored these, as it had all other approaches from the German resistance, considering all Germans to be the enemy.<ref>Slack, "George Bell", SCM, 1971, pp. 93–94</ref> In addition, British war policy was to conduct area bombing of civilian cities, [[George Bell (bishop)#Supporter of the German resistance|which Bell opposed]], a view that had become unpopular in Britain. Dohnányi and Bonhoeffer were also involved in Abwehr operations to help German Jews escape to Switzerland. During this time, Bonhoeffer worked on his book ''[[Ethics (Bonhoeffer book)|Ethics]]'' and wrote letters to keep up the spirits of his former students. He intended ''Ethics'' as his ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]'', but it remained unfinished when he was arrested. On 5 April 1943 Bonhoeffer and Dohnányi were arrested and imprisoned.

=== Imprisonment ===
On 13 January 1943 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, Bonhoeffer remained a reluctant suitor despite Ruth being part of his innermost circle. He considered that his responsibilities during wartime made it the wrong time to marry.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer|last=Reynolds|first=Diane|publisher=Wipf & Stock|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4982-0656-3|location=Eugene, Oregon|page=289}}</ref> A large age gap loomed between Bonhoeffer and Maria: he was 36 to her 18. Bonhoeffer had first met her when she was his confirmation student at age 11.<ref>{{cite book|author=Koehn|title=Forged In Crisis: The Making of Five Courageous Leaders.|year=2017|pages=336}}</ref> As was considered proper at the time, the two had spent almost no time together alone prior to the engagement and did not see each other between becoming engaged and Bonhoeffer's 5 April arrest. Once he was in prison, however, Maria's status as his fiancée became invaluable, as it meant she could visit Bonhoeffer and correspond with him. While their relationship was troubled,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer|last=Reynolds|first=Diane|publisher=Wipf & Stock|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4982-0656-3|location=Eugene, OR|pages=380}}</ref> she was a source of food and smuggled messages.<ref>{{Cite book|title=No Ordinary Men|last=Sifton|first=Elisabeth|publisher=New York Review Book|year=2013|isbn=978-1-59017-681-8|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/noordinarymendie0000sift/page/55 55]|url=https://archive.org/details/noordinarymendie0000sift/page/55}}</ref> Bonhoeffer made Eberhard Bethge his heir, but Maria, in allowing her correspondence with Bonhoeffer to be published after her death, provided an invaluable addition to this scholarship.

For a year and a half, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned at [[Tegel Prison]] awaiting trial. There he continued his work in religious outreach among his fellow prisoners and guards. Sympathetic guards helped smuggle his letters out of prison to Bethge and others, and these uncensored letters were posthumously published in ''Letters and Papers from Prison''. 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; eventually Bonhoeffer declined it, fearing Nazi retribution against his family, especially his brother Klaus and brother-in-law Dohnányi, who was also imprisoned.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Bonhoeffer, Dietrich |editor2=Kelly, Geffrey B. |title=A Testament to Freedom|page=43}}</ref>

On 4 April 1945, the bulk of the diaries of Admiral [[Wilhelm Canaris]], head of the Abwehr, were discovered, and in a rage upon reading them, Hitler ordered that the other Abwehr members be executed.<ref name="PlottingHitler">{{cite book|year=1994|author=[[Joachim Fest|Fest, Joachim]]|isbn=978-0-297-81774-1|title=Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933–1945|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|title-link=Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933–1945}}</ref> Bonhoeffer was led away just as he concluded his final Sunday service and asked an English prisoner, [[Sigismund Payne Best|Payne Best]], to remember him to Bell if Best should ever reach his home: "This is the end—but for me it is the beginning of Life!"<ref name="Eberhard Bethge p. 927">{{cite book|author=Bethge, Eberhard |title=Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography|page=927}}</ref>