Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1906–45),German Protestant theologian and pastor who was one of the first to protest against Nazi domination of the church in his country. For a short time he worked in London as a pastor to the German community, but when Christians who were resisting the Nazis founded their own seminaries he returned to prepare candidates for ordination, and was banned from teaching at the University of Berlin for doing so. In 1939, after coming into conflict with the Gestapo, he was persuaded to leave for the USA. But he soon returned, convinced that if he were to play a role in the eventual spiritual renewal of his country he could not remain outside it during the time of its greatest crisis.

In May 1942 he met George Bell, the bishop of Chichester, in Stockholm with proposals from the conspirators against Hitler. They wanted to bring about a negotiated peace once Hitler had been overthrown, but the proposals were rejected by the British Foreign Office. He was imprisoned in Berlin in April 1943 and then moved to Buchenwald. During this time he wrote his Letters and Papers from Prison (published in English in 1953) in which he proposed a ‘religionless Christianity’; many of his writings have also been translated into English. He was executed at Flossenbürg on 5 April 1945. See also Germany, 9; German Christians; religion; and Schwarze Kapelle.