Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and member of the Confessing Church whose opposition to Nazi rule and participation in the resistance led to his execution shortly before the end of the Second World War. His writings on ethics, ecclesiology, and Christian discipleship continue to be widely read and translated.

Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, then in the German Empire, the sixth of eight children of psychiatrist Karl Bonhoeffer and Paula von Hase. He studied theology at Tübingen and the University of Berlin, completing his doctoral dissertation Sanctorum Communio in 1927 under Reinhold Seeberg, and his habilitation Act and Being in 1930.

He spent 1930 to 1931 at Union Theological Seminary in New York and on returning to Germany was ordained and lectured at the University of Berlin. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 he opposed the German Christian movement and helped draft the Bethel Confession. From 1935 he led an underground Confessing Church seminary at Finkenwalde, where he wrote Discipleship (1937) and Life Together (1939).

From 1940 he was involved with the Abwehr-based resistance circle led by Hans Oster and Wilhelm Canaris. He was arrested on April 5, 1943, and held at Tegel and other prisons, where he wrote the letters published posthumously as Letters and Papers from Prison. He was hanged at Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, aged 39.

His name Dietrich derives from Old High German Theodoric, from theod meaning "people" and ric meaning "ruler." Dietrich is a common given name in German-speaking countries.