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Martyrs |
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| Dietrich
Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), |
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“This is the end. For me it is the beginning of a new life.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, the sixth child of Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer. In 1923 he began his theological studies in Tübingen. After his exams he first became vicar in Barcelona, then an assistant at the Institute of Theology at the University of Berlin. After getting his post-doctoral lecture qualification he went to New York for further education at the Union Theological Seminary. There he became acquainted with the philosophy of pacifism and met a church that was concerned with social and political matters, a church that was concerned about the poor (it was the time of the world economic crisis.) These experiences had a significant impact on Bonhoeffer’s picture of the church – a church called to be active in social and political areas. After his return to Germany he started working with youth and students as a Protestant pastor. In 1933 he clearly spoke out against Hitler’s dictatorship. Before the elections to parliament he warned, “A victor of Hitler’s party will have unforeseen consequences – not only for the development of the German people, but for the development of the whole world, as well.” He was one of the first in the Church to protest against the discrimination of Jews, he appealed to the Church to give a clear statement against fascism. He joined the “Church of Confessors“ that was forming and which became an alternative to the German people’s church. The government saw Bonhoeffer as an enemy of the state and a pacifist and shut the seminary of Finkenwalde over which Bonhoeffer had presided for a short time. In the underground Bonhoeffer saught allies to halt Hitler’s dictatorship and he connected with the “Office of Armed Forces“ abroad in the person of Wilhelm Canaris. Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced a moral dilemma: “Is an assault against Hitler, whom he calls an antichrist, a transgression of the commandment: ‘Thou shall not kill’? “ However he didn’t follow his plan. On April 5, 1943, under the false pretence that he was misusing his position for political purposes, he was arrested and sent to Berlin-Tegel jail. There he witnessed to the Gospel as a compassionate prisoner who lived out his vocation in the smallest deed. After a failed assault on Hitler, Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death “as a conspirator” and he was transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, then to Flossenburg where he was hanged on April 8, 1945. Before his death he was heard to say, “This is the end. For me it is the beginning of a new life”. |
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