St Peter’s Anglican Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - April 9

Pastor, Theologian, Germany

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 in Breslau, Germany. He was brought up in a tradition of Christian humanitarianism and liberalism, and quickly developed a great love for life. He studied theology at Tübingen and then Berlin. In 1928 he went as a curate to Barcelona for a year, and then in 1930 became a lecturer in systematic theology in the University of Berlin. A brilliant career as an academic theologian lay ahead of him.

All of this changed when Hitler came to power in 1933. Bonhoeffer regarded National Socialism as an attempt to make history without God. He publicly denounced the political system which seemed to him to make Hitler its idol and god, and resigned his post at the university. He became part of the Confessing Church, those within the German churches who set the sovereignty of Christ above all other loyalties, in particular any loyalty to Adolf Hitler.

Bonhoeffer left Germany for London, where he served as a chaplain to the Lutheran congregation and became deeply involved in the ecumenical movement. When he returned to Germany in 1935 he was forbidden to preach, teach or even enter Berlin. So he went to the Confessing Church’s training college on the Baltic coast and directed this until it was closed by the government. Read more...