Dietrich Bonhoeffer

He was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was born February 4, 1906 and died April 9, 1945.  Dietrich  Bonhoeffer was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing Church.  His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging at Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945, shortly before the war's end.  His view of Christianity's role in the secular word has become very influential.

This weekend I will journey from Prague to Flossenburg concentration camp just over the Czech Republic border in Germany.  I expect that I will complete the  biography of his life that I have been reading, and  then I go to the place where he, along with two hundred thousand other human beings were murdered.

Dietrich  Bonhoeffer made an impact in my life. His words,
read over and over again, created a  desire within me to become a pastor and theologian.

When I was in my twenties I read his book Life Together. It was  about a secret seminary of the Confessing Church to train pastors for German congregations during the oppressive regime of National Socialists. When Hitler was demanding the Old Testament be stripped from the Bible, and Paul's letter's favorable to Jews be stricken, a small minority of Christian theologians went underground, and preserved the teachings of their Lutheran identity.  In Life Together he wrote words and ideas that captivated me with their power and clarity. As a result of this single book, I continued to I read all the books that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, as well as others written about his life.

This weekend I will visit the place where he died and place a flower near the memorial of those who stood beside him in life and death.