WEBVTT

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The swastika has become a symbol of German
hope.

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Whoever reviles this symbol of ours is
reviling our Germany.

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The swastika round the altar radiates
hope.

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The day that is at last about to dawn.

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In the church we have only one altar and
that is the altar of the Most High.

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He who seeks anything other than this must
keep away.

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And in the church we have only one pulpit
and from that pulpit faith in God will be

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preached and no other faith.

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On April 9, 1945, SS officers in the
Flossenberg concentration camp carried out

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Hitler's orders to execute some of the
last remaining enemies of the Reich.

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Among those executed that day was the
39-year-old theologian, Dietrich

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Bonhoeffer, who went to his death
according to a witness.

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Brave and composed, I've hardly seen a man
die so entirely submissive to the will of

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God.

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For still our ancient foe Doth seek to
work us more His craft and power are great

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And armed with cruel hate Yet our God doth
prevail.

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Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy
word, and defend thee.

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Surely His goodness and mercy here daily
attend thee.

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Honor anew, all ye almighty men do,
who with His love doth befriend thee.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's family immigrated
from Nijmegen, Holland in the 16th century

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and settled in the town of Schwabisch
Hall, residing at 7 Klosterstrasse.

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First as goldsmiths, and then from the
17th century as clergy, doctors,

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counselors, and burgomasters.

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Today their portraits adorn the walls of
St. Michael's in Schwabisch Hall.

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On his mother's side, Bonhoeffer's
grandfather, Karl Alfred von Hasse,

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married the countess Clara von Kluckreuth.

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Emperor William II nominated him as court
preacher in Potsdam.

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Two and a half years later, in 1894,
he resigned and moved to Breslau as

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professor of practical theology.

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As a young woman, Dietrich's mother,
Paula von Hasse, insisted on taking a

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teacher's examination and earned her
diploma in 1894.

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Later in life, she would homeschool her
children in their early years.

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Meanwhile, in 1893, having qualified as a
psychiatrist from the University of

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Tübingen, Dietrich's father, Karl von
Hoeffer, also immediately said goodbye to

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Tübingen, moved to Breslau as an assistant
to the famous psychiatrist, Karl Wernicke.

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Four years later, in 1898, he married the
love of his life, Paula von Hasse.

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He had met her a few months earlier at the
home of the physician, Oskar Mayr.

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A blonde, blue-eyed young girl who,
on her first entry into the room,

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captivated me with her easy, natural
manner and her open gaze.

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This first sight of the woman who was
later to become my wife has become etched

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on my memory as an almost mystical moment
that decided my life.

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In Breslau, Dietrich's father,
Karl von Hoeffer, first worked as a

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university teacher and then as head of a
clinic.

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Dietrich and his twin sister, Sabine,
were born in Breslau on February 4th,

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1906.

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They were the sixth and seventh out of
eight children.

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The parents were not enthusiastic
Christians.

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They did not send their children to attend
any church services.

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For occasions like baptisms, they invited
grandfather von Hasse or other clergy in

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the family to conduct the ceremonies at
home.

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The children were particularly fond of
playing let's pretend and their favorite

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game, performing baptisms.

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In 1912, Karl von Hoeffer was called to
the Friedrich Wilhelm University in

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Berlin.

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As director of the university nerve
clinic, the Charité, he took over the

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leading chair of psychiatry and neurology
in Germany.

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In spite of his busy schedule,
Karl von Hoeffer always found time to be

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with his children, playing with them and
reading to them.

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After early years of homeschooling,
Dietrich entered the grammar school in

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1913.

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But the summer of 1914 brought an end of
an era and at the same time, a farewell to

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childhood.

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Dietrich von Hoeffer was 8 years old when
the First World War began on August 2,

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1914.

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Two years later in 1916, the family moved
to the Grunwald area of Berlin and resided

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at 14 Bungenheimstrasse.

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Nine-year-old Dietrich was very interested
in the war and kept a record of German

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advances.

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We heard of the deaths of the grown-up
cousins and fathers of our classmates,

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so we would lie awake long after our
prayers and singing and try to imagine

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being dead and of eternal life.

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Every evening we tried to get nearer to
eternity.

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It seemed to us to be very long and eerie.

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Soon the war was approaching their home
and family.

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Dietrich's brothers Karl Friedrich and
Walter were drafted.

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Dietrich had a special message for Walter
on the eve of his departure.

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Now as you leave, we say, God speed you on
your journey.

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As Walter got ready to leave, the mother
whispered words of love.

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It's only space that separates us.

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Walter was wounded by a mortar on the
western front and was moved to a field

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hospital.

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My dearest ones, I am thinking of you with
great longing, my dearest ones,

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minute by minute of the long days and
nights so far away.

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Yours, Walter.

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This letter was written only three hours
before Walter died on April 28th,

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1918.

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Dietrich was given the Bible Walter had
received at his confirmation.

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From then on, Dietrich never let this
Bible out of his possession.

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As the war dragged on, Germany became a
spectacle of deprivation and despair.

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The German army and its allies had
collapsed and were in retreat on all

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fronts.

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By November, the Kaiser had become
increasingly unpopular.

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On 9 November, 1918, he abdicated the
throne, paving the way for the Weimar

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Republic.

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The offer of peace must be transmitted
immediately.

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The army cannot wait another 48 hours.

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Two days later, Germany surrendered to an
agonizing defeat.

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Followed by the Versailles Treaty,
which imposed humiliating terms on a proud

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people who could not believe that they had
reached their nadir.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his way toward
theology in a very secular atmosphere.

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Unlike theologians who came from the homes
of ministers and theological teachers and

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later discovered that there is a world
outside, Bonhoeffer one day set out from

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the world to discover the church.

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Surprisingly, this happened at the age of
14.

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He declared to his family in a very
matter-of-fact manner that he decided to

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become a theologian and join the ministry.

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His family reacted with a mixture of
consternation, loathing and pity.

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What a contrast to his brothers,
a physicist and the other, a lawyer.

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When pressed to defend his decision and
subjected to ridicule, Dietrich vehemently

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declared, You may chop off my head,
but I shall still believe there is a God.

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His father would write at a later date
concerning this decision of Dietrich.

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When you decided to devote yourself to
theology, I sometimes thought to myself

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that a quiet, uneventful minister's life,
as I knew it, would really almost be a

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pity for you.

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In 1921, Dietrich bought the first two
volumes of Edward Myers, The Origin and

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Beginnings of Christianity.

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Although he was still at school,
he put Theol before his name.

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Dietrich, at the age of 17, left for
Tübingen to follow his commitment.

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And according to his twin sister,
Sabine, Our childhood was now over,

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and our paths diverged.

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Dietrich's grandmother resided in
Tübingen.

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His father and older brothers had studied
there.

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It was a family custom.

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Dietrich studied at the seminary in
Tübingen for a year before moving on to

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the University of Berlin.

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However, his study in Tübingen began under
the shadow of inflation.

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He wrote to his father on October 27,
1923.

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Every meal costs a thousand million marks.

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Dietrich stayed in Tübingen only till the
spring of 1924.

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Von Heffer's career is inconceivable
without Berlin as its center.

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All the other places in his life,
Breslau, Tübingen, Barcelona, New York,

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London, doubtless influenced him.

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But Berlin of the 20s and 30s,
with all its variety, shaped him.

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In 1924, during his doctoral work at the
University, Dietrich von Heffer discovered

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the writings of the eminent theologian
Karl Barth, who in later years would join

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him in the struggle against the
Nazification of the Church.

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Though studying to become a theologian,
von Heffer was a pastor at heart with a

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deep passion for parish work.

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He preached his first sermon on October
18, 1925 at the Stamsdorfer Church in

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Berlin.

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His mother was in the audience,
eagerly waiting to hear her 19-year-old

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son deliver his first sermon.

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But she was astonished to hear him attack
the spirituality and the piety they were

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accustomed to.

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He preached the futility of good works
when scrutinized by the Most High God.

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Christianity means decision, change,
denial, yes, even hostility to the past.

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We are unprofitable servants.

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We have done that which was our duty to
do.

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His doctoral thesis, The Communion of
Saints, laid the foundation of his

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theology by declaring that the Church is
Christ, existing as community.

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God established the reality of the Church,
of mankind, pardoned in Jesus Christ.

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Not religion, but revelation.

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Not a religious community, but the Church.

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That is what the reality of Jesus Christ
means.

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That 1927 Christmas was very special for
the von Heffer family.

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In the space of a year, Carl Friedrich
qualified as a lecturer.

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Klaus completed his civil service
training.

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And Dietrich, at the very young age of 21,
gained his doctorate.

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This all happened in 1927.

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For the first time since Walter's death,
Carl von Heffer wrote in the New Year's

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Diary again.

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This Christmas we had all the surviving
children together again.

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The Schleissers and the Donanes are with
us.

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Klaus, Carl Friedrich and Dietrich.

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Next year he will probably be in
Barcelona.

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In 1928, von Heffer began his vicariate as
an assistant pastor to a German-speaking

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congregation of the German Evangelical
Church in Barcelona, Spain.

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As part of the internship requirement
toward ordination.

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Von Heffer was shocked at the state of
apathy of his congregation, which was made

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up of German businessmen and their
families, who lived self-centered lives,

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totally blind to the abject poverty that
surrounded them.

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He tried to stir his parishioners to
compassion.

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God wanders among us in human form,
speaking to us in those who cross our

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paths, be they stranger, beggar,
sick, or even in those nearest to us in

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everyday life.

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Becoming Christ's demand on our faith in
Him.

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In December 2nd, 1928, von Heffer
introduced his sermon on the text of

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Revelation 3.20.

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Behold, I stand at the door and mock.

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To von Heffer, the Advent season was the
season of joy and hope that he had

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experienced each year at home with his
family.

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When the Advent comes and we sing and hear
again the old Christmas carols,

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then gently there steals upon us a special
feeling.

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It is a kind of homesickness.

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And it is a longing for a home beyond the
clouds, for our eternal Father's home.

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For He has promised that He will come.

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Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

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And we call to Him, Yes, come soon,
Lord Jesus.

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Amen.

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On February 17th, 1929, Dietrich von
Heffer returned to Berlin to begin work on

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his habilitation thesis.

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This was a necessary step to a career as
an academic theologian.

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In 1930, his thesis, Act and Being,
was accepted.

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God is not free of man, but for man.

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Christ is the word of God's freedom.

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A letter from the dean at the Friedrich
Wilhelm University, dated 1st August 1930,

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inducted Dietrich von Heffer as a
lecturer.

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Von Heffer was only 24.

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Meanwhile, in 1929, Joseph Goebbels was
appointed head of propaganda for the

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National Socialist Party, which at that
time commanded a meager 2.8% of the votes.

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At the end of March 1930, Heinrich Brüning
became chancellor for the first time.

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This marked the beginning of the emergency
measures.

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It was the last attempt to save the Weimar
Republic.

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On September 5th, 1930, von Heffer set
sail on a voyage to America, bound for the

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Union Theological Seminary in New York.

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The seminary had offered him the Sloan
Fellowship.

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On his arrival, von Heffer was overwhelmed
with New York.

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If you really try to enjoy New York to the
full, you can wear yourself out.

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However, he soon saw the other side,
the distress of unemployment.

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Since the crash of 1929, the Great
Depression was in full swing, leaving the

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economy in ruins.

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His experience here in America was very
different from his student days in

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Germany.

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Unemployment was much higher than what he
had seen in Germany.

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There was abject poverty, and homelessness
was real.

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In the streets, crime and fighting was
rampant.

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One sensed a general air of
disillusionment.

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Von Heffer cultivated a deep friendship
with Reverend Frank Fisher, a black

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student from Alabama, whose experiences
exposed von Heffer to the reality of

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racism.

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He was very deeply impressed by the
vibrant faith and spirituality of these

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black Christians in the ghetto of Harlem,
where he taught Sunday school at the

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Abyssinian Baptist Church, and discovered
how Christianity was related to the

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struggle for human rights.

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It was here in New York that something
decisive happened, which reshaped von

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Heffer's life and vocation.

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He met John Le Serre, a French pastor and
deeply committed pacifist.

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We were asking ourselves quite simply what
we wanted to do with our lives.

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He said he would like to become a saint,
and I think it's quite likely that he did

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become one.

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At the time, I was very impressed,
but I disagreed with him and said,

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in effect, that I should like to learn to
have faith.

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Under Le Serre's influence, von Heffer
began to look beyond nationalism and

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became an ardent worker for international
peace and friendship through the churches

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in Europe.

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Therefore, the church knows nothing of any
sanctity of war.

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War is a struggle for life using
dehumanized means.

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The church that prays to our Father
appeals to God only for peace.

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Through more conversations with Le Serre,
von Heffer was drawn afresh to the Sermon

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on the Mount.

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This led to the major transition in his
life.

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Von Heffer progressed from being a
theologian to becoming a Christian.

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For the first time, I discovered the Bible
I had often preached.

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I had seen a great deal of the church and
talked and preached about it, but I had

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never become a Christian.

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I had never prayed, or prayed only very
little.

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I was quite pleased with myself.

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Then the Bible, and in particular the
Sermon on the Mount, freed me from that.

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Since then, everything has changed.

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It was a great liberation.

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It became clear to me that the life of a
servant of Jesus Christ must belong to the

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church.

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And step by step, it became plainer to me
how far that must go.

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My strength, my life, my all.

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To

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the surprise of Dietrich Von Heffer,
most Americans blamed their country's

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economic problems on the First World War.

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They harbored resentment against the
Germans and were suspicious that Germany

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was gearing for another war.

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Von Heffer was also astonished to see that
the Americans gave credence to reports of

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Hitler's popularity.

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Buried in his theological pursuits,
Von Heffer had been oblivious of the

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changing political scene in Germany.

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Humiliated by the Versailles Treaty,
Germany was looking for its redemption

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through self-assertion.

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National socialism was attracting both the
populace and the intelligentsia by its

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promises of deliverance, and had competed
successfully against other ideas of

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national resurgence.

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There was talk about the struggle for
freedom, the restoration of the empire

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under a Kaiser, racial purity and
anti-Semitism, communism and the

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opposition to it.

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Earlier, the Nazis were insignificant and
were regarded as an extreme fringe group

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that would soon wither away.

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While Von Heffer was away from Germany in
March 1930, Brüning became chancellor.

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But in a bitter dispute with the
Reichstag, he dissolved it and set new

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elections for September 14th.

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With Joseph Goebbels as their
spokesperson, the National Socialists

24:35.820 --> 24:39.720
increased their representation from 12 to
107 seats.

24:40.240 --> 24:42.760
They were now second only to the Social
Democrats.

24:43.680 --> 24:47.600
Von Heffer's family disliked and
mistrusted Hitler and the Nazis.

24:48.320 --> 24:52.420
They were especially repulsed by the
horrors of Nazi-instigated anti-Semitism.

24:52.420 --> 24:56.480
For Dietrich, anti-Semitism was intensely
personal.

24:57.160 --> 25:02.660
His beloved twin sister, Sabine,
had married Gerhard Liebholz, whose father

25:02.660 --> 25:03.300
was a Jew.

25:04.180 --> 25:09.420
Dietrich remembered how at the engagement
in 1924, his mother had prepared Sabine

25:09.420 --> 25:14.900
for the pain that she would feel as a wife
to see Gerhard's Jewish background impede

25:14.900 --> 25:16.480
his advancement as a lawyer.

25:17.320 --> 25:21.460
Being a Jew in Germany was a disadvantage
even in the pre-Nazi period.

25:22.660 --> 25:26.860
In one of the letters, Sabine described a
nasty incident in the marketplace.

25:27.680 --> 25:30.980
My father-in-law had gone on an excursion
with us.

25:31.620 --> 25:35.960
The AS pressed insolently against the
windows and took up a pretty threatening

25:35.960 --> 25:38.920
attitude of which my father-in-law was the
object.

25:39.700 --> 25:43.920
Very quickly, I took our four-year-old
Marianne, who at that time was

25:43.920 --> 25:48.500
flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, from my lap
and put her on grandfather's knee.

25:48.500 --> 25:53.540
This saved the situation and we were able
to drive on undisturbed.

25:54.540 --> 25:59.340
Klaus Bonhoeffel confirmed these political
changes in a letter to Dietrich dated

25:59.340 --> 26:00.700
November 3rd, 1930.

26:01.480 --> 26:04.460
Politically, the scene has changed a great
deal since you left.

26:05.140 --> 26:09.620
The successes of the National Socialists
have convinced the widest circles that the

26:09.620 --> 26:12.560
democratic regime of the last ten years
has failed.

26:12.560 --> 26:18.400
Domestic politics are used as an
explanation for the consequences of the

26:18.400 --> 26:19.860
world economic crisis.

26:20.640 --> 26:22.560
People are flirting with fascism.

26:24.540 --> 26:28.500
I'm afraid that if this radical wave
sweeps over the educated classes,

26:28.860 --> 26:31.420
all is up for the poets and the thinkers.

26:33.660 --> 26:37.620
Amidst all the intense rivalries between
political parties of all shades,

26:38.060 --> 26:41.600
Germany was in a state of chaos,
which was further aggravated by the

26:41.600 --> 26:45.480
collapse of one of the largest German
banks in July 1931.

26:46.400 --> 26:50.460
Millions lost their jobs and the country
plunged into economic despair.

26:52.800 --> 26:57.000
The National Socialists exploited this
discontent by appealing to the national

26:57.000 --> 26:58.520
pride of the German people.

26:59.280 --> 27:04.080
Unlike the atheistic Communist Party,
which most vehemently opposed it,

27:04.460 --> 27:06.640
the Nazi Party supported the churches.

27:09.660 --> 27:14.140
While orchestrated popular demonstrations
were staged, attracting large crowds,

27:14.980 --> 27:16.860
Germany seemed to have changed completely.

27:17.680 --> 27:21.100
There was a new wave of nationalistic
pride and excitement.

27:21.860 --> 27:26.160
The actual events in Germany were far
worse than the reports that Bonhoeffer had

27:26.160 --> 27:26.740
received.

27:27.620 --> 27:30.920
National Socialism was no longer an
insignificant fringe group.

27:30.940 --> 27:32.780
There must be no tenderness in you.

27:33.040 --> 27:36.380
I want to see in their eyes the gleam of
the beast of prey.

27:36.380 --> 27:41.620
It had emerged as a popular mass movement,
instilling the young people with a renewed

27:41.620 --> 27:43.470
sense of national pride and patriotism.

27:45.240 --> 27:50.080
With Joseph Goebbels as its chief
spokesperson, this was a false gospel of

27:50.080 --> 27:54.020
hatred-induced nationalism that went about
in Christian clothing.

27:57.520 --> 28:01.660
Bonhoeffer knew that he must return to
Germany to fight this tidal Nazi evil.

28:12.160 --> 28:17.740
Within a few days after his return from
America, Bonhoeffer met the 45-year-old

28:17.740 --> 28:19.400
Karl Barth for the first time.

28:20.040 --> 28:22.860
I was even more impressed by his
discussion than by his writings and

28:22.860 --> 28:23.200
lectures.

28:23.700 --> 28:25.100
That's the complete Barth.

28:25.560 --> 28:27.240
I've never seen anything quite like it.

28:27.920 --> 28:31.920
Although the two forged a close alliance
in church politics, their relationship was

28:31.920 --> 28:34.660
characterized by both intimacy and
distance.

28:35.470 --> 28:41.980
At the age of 25, Bonhoeffer received an
appointment as a lecturer in systematic

28:41.980 --> 28:46.220
theology at the Friedrich Wilhelm
University in Berlin.

28:47.140 --> 28:51.720
The fanatical nationalism of the now
popular National Socialists mesmerized the

28:51.720 --> 28:53.020
faculty and the students.

28:54.960 --> 28:59.100
Increasing isolation because of his
opposition to Nazism reinforced

28:59.100 --> 29:03.380
Bonhoeffer's desire not to limit himself
to being a theologian.

29:03.380 --> 29:05.120
He was a pastor at heart.

29:05.360 --> 29:08.100
He wanted once again to serve and work in
the local church.

29:09.140 --> 29:14.380
Since his license dated June 12,
1931, entitled him to serve as an

29:14.380 --> 29:16.820
assistant minister in the city of Berlin.

29:18.260 --> 29:22.320
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained at St.
Matthias Church in Tiergarten,

29:22.860 --> 29:25.520
a district of Berlin, on November 13,
1931.

29:29.440 --> 29:33.940
Otto Debelius, general superintendent of
the Kulmark, had asked for a student

29:33.940 --> 29:37.860
chaplain to be appointed to the Technical
University in Charlottenburg.

29:38.700 --> 29:41.780
Dietrich served in that capacity from 1931
to 1933.

29:44.280 --> 29:50.080
By 1932, a circle of students had formed
around Bonhoeffer, which was to produce a

29:50.080 --> 29:53.340
series of close collaborators in the
church struggle yet to come.

29:53.340 --> 30:00.900
In 1932-33, Bonhoeffer conducted a seminar
on creation and fall.

30:01.620 --> 30:05.540
The lectures proved so popular that
Bonhoeffer's resident students persuaded

30:05.540 --> 30:07.440
him to have the manuscript published.

30:07.840 --> 30:13.060
We must observe, too, that God does not
simply call man forth out of non-being as

30:13.060 --> 30:14.500
he has called forth everything else.

30:15.400 --> 30:20.980
Then God said, let us make man in our
image after our likeness.

30:22.140 --> 30:25.700
In man, God creates his image on earth.

30:29.700 --> 30:34.060
In addition to all these enormous
responsibilities, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was

30:34.060 --> 30:38.280
also asked to take over the confirmation
class at Zion Church, which had got out of

30:38.280 --> 30:38.680
control.

30:39.540 --> 30:43.520
It's about the worst area of Berlin and
with the most difficult social and

30:43.520 --> 30:44.420
political conditions.

30:45.260 --> 30:49.180
Their home conditions are generally
indescribable, poverty, disorder,

30:49.320 --> 30:52.840
immorality, and yet the children are still
open.

30:53.420 --> 30:58.320
So that he could be near his confirmation
candidates, Bonhoeffer rented a room at 61

30:58.320 --> 30:58.680
Oderstrasse.

30:59.980 --> 31:03.380
The boys were very impressed that he had
left instructions with the landlady to

31:03.380 --> 31:07.000
open his room to any of them at any time,
even in his absence.

31:07.840 --> 31:12.520
Ironically, on the same Sunday of March
11, 1932, when Hitler made the first bid

31:12.520 --> 31:17.440
to become chancellor and lost to
Hindenburg, Dietrich Bonhoeffer confirmed

31:17.440 --> 31:21.520
his candidates and preached his
confirmation sermon about Jacob meeting

31:21.520 --> 31:22.660
his brother Esau.

31:24.980 --> 31:30.920
And now, Jacob sees the face of his
brother Esau not as a face of an enemy,

31:31.060 --> 31:32.820
but as though he saw the face of God.

31:33.400 --> 31:36.560
He sees in his brother God himself and his
love.

31:37.800 --> 31:38.860
Have you understood or right?

31:39.340 --> 31:42.060
He who has found God has also found his
brother.

31:43.180 --> 31:46.400
And he who does not find his brother does
not find God either.

31:47.160 --> 31:51.880
For God has become our brother in Christ,
in order that we might see him behind

31:51.880 --> 31:52.640
every brother.

31:54.600 --> 31:59.540
At the beginning of June 1932,
when von Papen became chancellor,

32:00.160 --> 32:04.260
many Germans expected new stability from
the Christian conservative government.

32:05.200 --> 32:11.080
But in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
on June 12, 1932, Bonhoeffer preached a

32:11.080 --> 32:15.960
pointed sermon against the misuse of the
name of God by the von Papen government.

32:15.960 --> 32:21.860
Do not our religious tendencies in fact
conceal an unbridled impulse in the name

32:21.860 --> 32:26.940
of God to do what we want, and in the name
of the Christian worldview to play off one

32:26.940 --> 32:29.820
people against another and excite one
people against another?

32:31.640 --> 32:35.360
Encouraged with the results of his
confirmation class and his church work,

32:35.920 --> 32:39.060
Bonhoeffer wanted to enter the pastoral
work full time.

32:39.780 --> 32:44.300
But by then Nazism had influenced the
church, and he was not acceptable at any

32:44.300 --> 32:44.780
parish.

32:47.040 --> 32:51.740
However, Bonhoeffer found an opportunity
to open a youth club in the autumn of 1932

32:51.740 --> 32:53.920
in the Schlossstrasse in Charlottenburg.

32:54.700 --> 32:59.460
It was funded by Anneliese Schnurmann,
a school friend of Bonhoeffer's sister

32:59.460 --> 33:00.060
Susanne.

33:01.060 --> 33:07.440
After Hitler's accession on January 1933,
some visitors to his club were molested on

33:07.440 --> 33:07.920
the streets.

33:09.880 --> 33:13.160
Bonhoeffer gave them refuge for a while in
his hut at Biesenthal.

33:13.160 --> 33:17.800
The youth club had to be closed down,
and Anneliese Schnurmann, being of Jewish

33:17.800 --> 33:19.540
origin, had to emigrate.

33:25.720 --> 33:29.200
The National Socialist Party gained
steadily in the elections.

33:29.980 --> 33:35.020
In September 1930, this spectacular gain
had been a jump from 12 to 107 seats in

33:35.020 --> 33:35.680
the Reichstag.

33:37.560 --> 33:41.960
Now, on July 31st, 1932, they had 230
seats.

33:43.340 --> 33:49.160
At noon on January 30th, 1933,
Hindenburg handed over responsibility for

33:49.160 --> 33:50.280
government to Hitler.

33:51.020 --> 33:54.800
That evening, Rüdiger Schleicher,
Dietrich's brother-in-law, came home and

33:54.800 --> 33:56.460
said, Hitler means war.

33:57.100 --> 33:59.600
All the Bonhoeffers agreed, including
Dietrich.

34:00.460 --> 34:04.000
Hitler was extremely popular with Germans
who wanted the pride of nationhood

34:04.000 --> 34:04.480
restored.

34:05.140 --> 34:06.000
He promised much.

34:06.540 --> 34:09.080
Discipline to a nation that had almost
disintegrated.

34:09.080 --> 34:13.020
Dignity to a people whom the other
countries in Europe despised and

34:13.020 --> 34:13.240
humiliated.

34:14.240 --> 34:17.820
Germans wanted to be proud of their
country again, and Hitler promised it a

34:17.820 --> 34:21.800
future, a destiny, after he had purged it
of foreign elements.

34:22.520 --> 34:24.260
It was the young who were most
enthusiastic.

34:24.820 --> 34:28.400
They wanted to restore the greatness their
fathers had surrendered in defeat.

34:30.620 --> 34:33.360
They did not believe that Germany had been
beaten on the field of battle,

34:33.460 --> 34:35.720
rather stabbed in the back by cowardly
civilians.

34:36.720 --> 34:41.180
There was a widespread belief that
victorious allies intended to reduce

34:41.180 --> 34:43.640
Germany to a non-entity in Europe.

34:44.420 --> 34:48.880
There was widespread consensus against the
Versailles Treaty, which they despised as

34:48.880 --> 34:50.500
being iniquitous and unjust.

34:51.840 --> 34:58.130
The German political and economic
situation today is extremely difficult.

34:59.430 --> 35:06.470
This is the result not only of having lost
the World War, but above all the outcome

35:06.470 --> 35:13.030
of the fact that Germany's former enemies
are oppressing her above and beyond.

35:13.430 --> 35:15.790
Germany's fate is the fate of the world.

35:16.770 --> 35:19.350
Germany's distress is the distress of the
world.

35:20.150 --> 35:24.050
The prosperity of individual nations is
the prosperity of all.

35:25.330 --> 35:29.070
Bonhoeffer's family was unable to be a
passive bystander in the affairs of the

35:29.070 --> 35:29.430
state.

35:30.270 --> 35:34.090
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag was
set on fire.

35:34.750 --> 35:38.730
Dietrich's brother-in-law, Hans von der
Neunen, was an observer for the Ministry

35:38.730 --> 35:39.370
of Justice.

35:39.710 --> 35:44.070
At the judicial hearing against Marinus
van der Lubbe, he was accused of setting

35:44.070 --> 35:44.830
fire to it.

35:46.450 --> 35:50.870
When van der Lubbe went on hunger strike,
Dietrich's father, Karl Bonhoeffer,

35:50.950 --> 35:54.650
was called in by the investigating judge
to give a psychiatric opinion.

35:55.710 --> 35:59.530
The following day, after the burning of
the Reichstag on February 28, Hitler used

35:59.530 --> 36:04.230
the pretext of a communist revolution to
round up his opponents and promulgated his

36:04.230 --> 36:09.590
most ominous emergency decree,
the Reich President's Edict for the

36:09.590 --> 36:11.250
Protection of People and State.

36:12.170 --> 36:16.070
Signed by Hindenburg, the edict abolished
the personal rights granted by the

36:16.070 --> 36:16.650
Constitution.

36:17.490 --> 36:22.070
It made possible concentration camps and
was also the basis for the closure of

36:22.070 --> 36:25.450
Bonhoeffer's seminary at Finkenwald four
years later.

36:26.190 --> 36:29.670
While the country was still under the grip
of hysteria, terror and violence,

36:30.130 --> 36:33.530
elections to the Reichstag were held as
scheduled on March 5, 1933.

36:33.530 --> 36:38.450
In the streets of every city and town,
Hitler exhorted Germans to hold their

36:38.450 --> 36:42.290
heads high and proudly once more as
Germans.

36:43.210 --> 36:47.410
Doubling the election day as the day of
national awakening, Hitler played upon the

36:47.410 --> 36:49.230
German fear of a communist revolution.

36:50.170 --> 36:53.650
Almost 90% of the eligible voters took
part in the election.

36:54.510 --> 36:59.630
Though Hitler received only 44% of the
votes, undeterred, he came to power by

36:59.630 --> 37:02.790
striking a deal with Von Papen and other
conservative parties.

37:03.590 --> 37:09.250
Soon the Nazi party grew in popularity and
Franz von Papen found his status being

37:09.250 --> 37:10.970
reduced to that of a spectator.

37:11.750 --> 37:17.950
The new Reichstag opened on March 21,
1933, with a service presided over by Otto

37:17.950 --> 37:18.570
de Billius.

37:19.610 --> 37:25.450
On March 24, 1933, the Reichstag took the
drastic step of passing the Enabling Act,

37:26.070 --> 37:29.610
allowing Hitler to govern by decree and
even change the Constitution.

37:29.610 --> 37:34.130
Laws were passed declaring it an act of
treason to speak against the Nazis,

37:35.070 --> 37:37.810
and these were rapidly turned into
anti-Jewish propaganda.

37:38.730 --> 37:43.750
When a boycott of Jewish businesses on
April 1, 1933 was declared, Dietrich's

37:43.750 --> 37:48.830
91-year-old grandmother, Julie Bonhoeffer,
defied the SA guards posted at the

37:48.830 --> 37:51.610
entrance of the store by breaking through
their cordon.

37:52.190 --> 37:56.490
A few days later, after this initial
boycott of Jewish businesses, the Civil

37:56.490 --> 38:00.270
Service Law was passed, effectively
purging the civil service of all Jews.

38:01.110 --> 38:03.590
Hitler was anxious to retain support of
the churches.

38:04.250 --> 38:08.850
On the eve of this act, his speech was an
attempt to win that support.

38:09.550 --> 38:14.810
We will secure for them the influence
which is their due, for Christianity is

38:14.810 --> 38:19.910
the unshakable foundations of our people's
ethical and moral law.

38:27.160 --> 38:32.100
The church was also enthusiastic about the
ascendancy and supremacy of Hitler.

38:32.660 --> 38:35.980
They had been disenchanted with the Weimar
Republic, which had done nothing to

38:35.980 --> 38:39.360
restore the church to its former place of
power and influence.

38:39.360 --> 38:45.080
Church leaders viewed the November 1918
revolution and the consequent abdication

38:45.080 --> 38:48.600
of Kaiser Wilhelm II as an unparalleled
disaster.

38:49.300 --> 38:53.480
Church leaders hated the Weimar Republic
for accepting the humiliating peace terms

38:53.480 --> 38:57.680
of the Versailles Treaty and alleged that
the Weimar Republic was dominated by

38:57.680 --> 39:02.300
liberals and Jews who, with the complicity
of foreigners, were taking the country to

39:02.300 --> 39:04.320
destruction and moral decay.

39:04.320 --> 39:09.520
The church desired that Germany's honors
be vindicated and old moral values of

39:09.520 --> 39:13.040
authority, family, home and church be
restored.

39:13.500 --> 39:19.160
The message that Hitler gave to the people
was, lift up your heads, it's good to be

39:19.160 --> 39:19.720
German.

39:20.400 --> 39:23.440
He promised to restore Germany to its
former glory.

39:23.440 --> 39:28.360
The time is fulfilled for the German
people in Hitler.

39:29.860 --> 39:33.840
It's because of Hitler that Christ,
God, the helper and redeemer, has become

39:33.840 --> 39:35.260
effective among us.

39:36.720 --> 39:41.700
Therefore, National Socialism is positive
Christianity in action.

39:43.200 --> 39:49.300
Hitler is the way of the spirit and the
will of God for the German people to enter

39:49.300 --> 39:50.600
the church of Christ.

39:53.460 --> 39:58.320
As Jesus set men free from sin and hell,
so Hitler rescued the German people from

39:58.320 --> 39:58.740
destruction.

39:59.640 --> 40:03.800
Both Jesus and Hitler were persecuted,
but while Jesus was crucified,

40:04.240 --> 40:05.660
Hitler was exalted to chancellor.

40:06.320 --> 40:10.100
While the disciples of Jesus betrayed
their master and left him his distress,

40:10.480 --> 40:12.420
the sixteen friends of Hitler stood by
him.

40:13.140 --> 40:15.520
We hope that Hitler will lead his work to
completion.

40:16.180 --> 40:19.060
Jesus built for heaven, Hitler for the
German soil.

40:20.220 --> 40:21.340
Prose taught in schools.

40:23.440 --> 40:29.280
On February 1st, 1933 at Vuxhaus,
Potsdamer Straße in Berlin, Bonhoeffer

40:29.280 --> 40:32.420
preached his first sermon after Hitler's
seizure of power.

40:33.140 --> 40:37.120
The leader must be responsibly aware of
this clear limit to his authority.

40:38.020 --> 40:41.920
If he understands his function
differently, then the image of the leader

40:41.920 --> 40:43.820
slips into that of misleader.

40:44.640 --> 40:47.500
At this point, the transmitter cut out
before the end of the broadcast.

40:48.080 --> 40:49.640
Censorship was in place.

40:52.260 --> 40:56.620
Swastika flags began flying atop
cathedrals and churches, whose altars now

40:56.620 --> 40:58.200
were adorned with swastikas.

40:58.640 --> 41:03.060
The horse vessel was included in the
hymnals, and sermons swearing loyalty to

41:03.060 --> 41:04.640
Nazism were being preached.

41:05.420 --> 41:08.320
The swastika has become a symbol of German
hope.

41:08.760 --> 41:12.400
Whoever reviles this symbol of ours is
reviling our Germany.

41:13.040 --> 41:18.840
The swastika round the altar radiates
hope, the day that is at last about to

41:18.840 --> 41:19.180
dawn.

41:21.480 --> 41:22.440
Bonhoeffer disagreed.

41:23.100 --> 41:24.880
He voiced his dissent openly.

41:25.840 --> 41:29.820
In the church we have only one altar,
and that is the altar of the Most High.

41:30.580 --> 41:32.700
He who seeks anything other than this must
keep away.

41:33.520 --> 41:38.080
And in the church we have only one pulpit,
and from that pulpit faith in God will be

41:38.080 --> 41:39.580
preached, and no other faith.

41:40.340 --> 41:44.200
As part of his strategy, Hitler
manipulated both the Protestant and Roman

41:44.200 --> 41:45.180
Catholic churches.

41:45.180 --> 41:52.140
The national government sees the two
Christian confessions, Catholic and

41:52.140 --> 41:59.400
Protestant, as the most important factors
safeguarding our national heritage.

42:00.220 --> 42:04.780
Jews who comprised only 1% of the
population were accused of fostering

42:04.780 --> 42:11.100
materialism, secularism, pacifism,
anti-patriotism, and moral degeneracy.

42:11.100 --> 42:15.500
These factors ensured that the church
leaders would lead their flocks into the

42:15.500 --> 42:20.940
conservative movement, and they called for
a synthesis of Volkssturm, or the German

42:20.940 --> 42:23.500
national identity and Christianity.

42:24.060 --> 42:27.760
The German church bought into this
anti-democratic myopia.

42:32.160 --> 42:38.660
The Concordat that von Papen signed with
the papacy on July 20, 1933 nullified any

42:38.660 --> 42:41.040
opposition to Hitler within the Catholic
Church.

42:43.340 --> 42:48.040
At the Herrenhaus in Berlin, Protestants
met together on April 3rd and 4th,

42:48.060 --> 42:54.420
1933, to form a unified Reich Church and
to harmonize church creeds with Nazism.

42:55.320 --> 42:57.560
Members were called German Christians.

42:58.680 --> 43:01.320
On April 7th, a new civil service law was
passed.

43:01.680 --> 43:06.660
Its Aryan clause prohibited Jews or anyone
of Jewish ancestry from holding any civil,

43:06.940 --> 43:08.500
service, or government position.

43:08.500 --> 43:13.060
Since all the churches were part of the
state church, all pastors within it were

43:13.060 --> 43:13.740
state officials.

43:14.660 --> 43:19.260
Therefore, the German Christians desired
to apply the Jewish clause to the church

43:19.260 --> 43:25.040
and expel pastors of Jewish background
from office, and ultimately deny anyone of

43:25.040 --> 43:27.580
Jewish descent from being part of the
church at all.

43:29.660 --> 43:33.660
The first organized opposition to the
German Christians crystallized around the

43:33.660 --> 43:37.240
leadership of Martin Niemöller,
the pastor of the Dahlem Church,

43:37.660 --> 43:39.840
and Karl Barth, the eminent theologian.

43:41.920 --> 43:46.120
It came from the Young Reformation
Movement, of which Dietrich Bonhoeffer was

43:46.120 --> 43:46.540
a member.

43:47.300 --> 43:51.460
The present situation of the church
demands a consideration of the true faith.

43:52.480 --> 43:56.200
Any person can become a member of the
church without distinction of race and

43:56.200 --> 43:56.900
social position.

43:57.580 --> 44:01.860
The offices of the church are held as
spiritual offices and not political.

44:04.620 --> 44:09.940
On September 5th, 1933, the General Synod
passed laws which restricted the ministry

44:09.940 --> 44:15.100
to only those who unconditionally
supported the National Socialistic State

44:15.100 --> 44:20.000
and the German Evangelical Church,
and were also of Aryan descent.

44:21.340 --> 44:24.060
Bonhoeffer spelt out the consequences of
such a vote.

44:24.060 --> 44:28.640
The exclusion of Jewish Christians from
the community of the church destroys the

44:28.640 --> 44:29.660
substance of the church.

44:30.380 --> 44:35.620
In church elections, Hitler's nominee,
Ludwig Müller, was elected to lead the

44:35.620 --> 44:37.000
German Christian Church.

44:37.740 --> 44:42.100
As Reich Bishop of the Reich Church,
Müller desired to accelerate the

44:42.100 --> 44:43.540
Nazification of the church.

44:44.740 --> 44:48.520
The popular mission carried on by the
Reich Church was reflected in the way

44:48.520 --> 44:53.940
Müller nationalized the Sermon on the
Mount, rewriting the Beatitudes in terms

44:53.940 --> 44:56.660
of bravery, comradeship, and patriotism.

44:57.540 --> 45:01.760
The Beatitude of the Meek of Heart became
blessed as the one who is a good comrade

45:01.760 --> 45:02.460
at all times.

45:03.320 --> 45:05.100
He will get on well in the world.

45:09.770 --> 45:15.410
Wanting to serve both Caesar and Christ,
the Reich Church finally shaped its Christ

45:15.410 --> 45:17.130
in the image of the Caesar.

45:32.010 --> 45:37.450
During the elections for the Reich Bishop,
the phrase confessing church was first

45:37.450 --> 45:38.070
used.

45:38.770 --> 45:40.430
We work for a confessing church.

45:41.370 --> 45:43.890
It is not enough that our creedal
confessions remain unchanged.

45:44.350 --> 45:48.790
The church must learn anew how to confess
before men the crucified Lord.

45:51.510 --> 45:55.530
Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth corresponded
with each other about the possibility of

45:55.530 --> 45:56.730
forming a free church.

45:56.730 --> 46:04.530
At the Barmen Synod of May 29th to 31st,
1934, the new confessing church composed

46:04.530 --> 46:09.530
of pastors who opposed the Aryan Clause
and other Nazi policies affirmed the now

46:09.530 --> 46:13.830
famous Barmen Confession, mostly drafted
by Karl Barth.

46:14.930 --> 46:20.050
We repudiate the false teaching that there
are areas of our life in which we belong

46:20.050 --> 46:22.910
not to Jesus Christ, but to other Lords.

46:24.230 --> 46:28.410
Most of the members were immediately on
the Gestapo list for their opposition to

46:28.410 --> 46:28.770
Hitler.

46:29.670 --> 46:34.310
However, Bonhoeffer continued to raise his
voice publicly in defense of the Jews

46:34.310 --> 46:37.630
after the Reichstag surrendered its
conscience to Hitler.

46:38.150 --> 46:41.550
The state which endangers the Christian
proclamation negates itself.

46:42.850 --> 46:46.070
That opens up three possibilities for
action by the church against the state.

46:46.890 --> 46:50.330
First, asking the state whether its
actions are legitimate.

46:51.410 --> 46:53.910
Secondly, helping the victims of state
action.

46:54.910 --> 46:58.670
The church has an unconditional obligation
to the victims of any ordering of society,

46:58.930 --> 47:01.370
even if they do not belong to the
Christian community.

47:02.310 --> 47:04.170
Do good to all people.

47:05.570 --> 47:11.450
The third possibility is not to tie the
victim to the wheel, but actually to

47:11.450 --> 47:13.030
destroy the spokes of the wheel.

47:14.270 --> 47:17.450
Such a course would involve the church in
direct political action.

47:20.330 --> 47:26.510
Almost immediately after Hitler had come
to power in January 1933, Bonhoeffer began

47:26.510 --> 47:31.650
to encourage and in some cases orchestrate
foreign protests against Nazi policies.

47:32.890 --> 47:37.530
At the September 1933 World YMCA
conference in Sofia, Bulgaria,

47:38.470 --> 47:42.390
he successfully influenced delegates to
pass a strongly worded resolution

47:42.390 --> 47:44.590
condemning the violence against Jews.

47:45.290 --> 47:50.750
We especially deplore the fact that in
some circles the Jewish race is considered

47:50.750 --> 47:52.430
of inferior stature.

47:52.910 --> 47:57.630
We protest against the resolution of the
Prussian General Synod and other synods.

47:58.590 --> 48:04.990
In July 1933, nauseated by the stifling
atmosphere of Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer

48:04.990 --> 48:09.710
accepted an invitation to serve two
German-speaking Lutheran congregations in

48:09.710 --> 48:10.050
London.

48:10.690 --> 48:15.890
He put his pension rights and security for
old age at risk by avoiding recognition by

48:15.890 --> 48:17.530
the Reich church government.

48:18.330 --> 48:20.370
From England, he wrote to Karl Barth.

48:21.170 --> 48:25.370
I felt that I was incomprehensibly in
radical opposition to all my friends and

48:25.370 --> 48:28.490
so I thought it was probably time to go
into the wilderness for a while.

48:29.830 --> 48:32.570
He received a strongly worded response
from Barth.

48:34.770 --> 48:36.610
The German church is lost.

48:37.170 --> 48:40.830
One simply cannot become weary now,
still less go to England.

48:41.590 --> 48:45.510
Be glad that I do not have you here in
person, for I would let go at you in quite

48:45.510 --> 48:50.330
a different way, with the demand that you
must think only of one thing, that you are

48:50.330 --> 48:55.650
a German, that the house of your church is
on fire, that you belong to Berlin and not

48:55.650 --> 48:56.130
to London.

48:57.370 --> 48:59.690
The letter devastated Bonhoeffer.

49:00.370 --> 49:04.710
He did not want to go back to Germany,
yet Bonhoeffer's self-imposed exile in

49:04.710 --> 49:06.270
London did not bring tranquility.

49:06.910 --> 49:08.310
This became a time for preparation.

49:11.710 --> 49:15.330
And I believe that the whole of
Christianity must pray with us that this

49:15.330 --> 49:20.290
becomes resistance to the point of
shedding blood and that people can be

49:20.290 --> 49:21.550
found who will endure it.

49:25.010 --> 49:28.270
Germany was in transition to
totalitarianism.

49:28.730 --> 49:33.630
After the death of Hindenburg on August
2nd, 1934, Hitler merged the offices of

49:33.630 --> 49:37.550
President, Chancellor and
Commander-in-Chief to declare himself as

49:37.550 --> 49:39.210
the Führer and Reichskanzler.

49:40.690 --> 49:44.330
A few days later, on August 19th,
Hitler ordered a special referendum to

49:44.330 --> 49:46.050
endorse his rule as the Führer.

49:46.750 --> 49:52.310
Over 90% of the Germans overwhelmingly
voted in favor of Hitler and legitimized

49:52.310 --> 49:54.510
the reign of terror under the Nazis.

49:54.890 --> 49:58.770
This enormous popularity was reflected in
the grand and intimidating display of

49:58.770 --> 50:02.190
parades and processions with banners
proclaiming, Germany awake.

50:03.490 --> 50:07.230
Thousands gathered in city after city
holding rallies and demonstrating their

50:07.230 --> 50:08.510
allegiance to the Führer.

50:09.890 --> 50:14.570
Hitler was credited for having ushered in
an era of prosperity, eliminating the

50:14.570 --> 50:16.710
unemployment and poverty of the Weimar
days.

50:18.690 --> 50:22.490
Hitler's industrial policies encouraged
the construction of large industrial

50:22.490 --> 50:24.870
complexes, generating increased
employment.

50:25.970 --> 50:28.970
With the standard of living rising
dramatically, the streets were displaying

50:28.970 --> 50:30.190
wealth and prosperity.

50:30.190 --> 50:34.690
There was a boost in consumer confidence
which was evident from the shops and

50:34.690 --> 50:38.730
shoppers in the daytime and the dazzling
displays of the nightlife that had once

50:38.730 --> 50:40.290
again returned to German cities.

50:41.530 --> 50:45.050
Hitler augmented the private sector
employment with massive investment in

50:45.050 --> 50:47.430
public projects like subways and highways.

50:48.250 --> 50:53.270
Hitler's favorite project was the people's
car or Volkswagen, a small and affordable

50:53.270 --> 50:54.910
car for every German household.

50:54.910 --> 51:00.150
Under the banner of one people,
one nation, one leader, Hitler mesmerized

51:00.150 --> 51:03.670
the populace into living and dying for him
as their Führer.

51:04.590 --> 51:09.790
He stirred up mass hysteria around the
myth of the German master race and made

51:09.790 --> 51:12.970
them assume they were destined to be the
world's rulers.

51:13.910 --> 51:17.690
Bonhoeffer, however, was not deceived by
Hitler's lies and his human mask.

51:17.690 --> 51:22.270
He had already realized that Hitler and
the Nazis were inherently evil and that

51:22.270 --> 51:26.350
they would manipulate the church to sell
its soul to Hitler.

51:27.530 --> 51:31.770
Hitler has shown quite clearly the sort of
man he is and the church must know with

51:31.770 --> 51:32.390
whom it is dealing.

51:33.590 --> 51:35.790
Isaiah did not go to Sennacherib.

51:36.090 --> 51:37.930
Hitler will not and may not listen.

51:38.050 --> 51:42.570
His heart has been hardened and precisely
because of this, he should make us listen.

51:43.310 --> 51:45.050
That is about how things are.

51:45.170 --> 51:47.330
We need to be converted, not Hitler.

51:50.030 --> 51:54.810
In the summer of 1932, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
met the English Bishop of Chichester,

51:54.950 --> 51:58.070
George Bell, at an ecumenical meeting in
Geneva.

51:59.230 --> 52:02.110
From then on, there were regular
consultations between them.

52:02.750 --> 52:06.490
In later years, Bishop Bell would become
the main liaison between the Allies and

52:06.490 --> 52:08.470
the anti-Nazi group of the Abwehr.

52:09.490 --> 52:13.730
Oh, and the official German Reich Church
required theological students to submit to

52:13.730 --> 52:16.550
an examination to verify their Aryan
descent.

52:16.550 --> 52:21.190
The anti-Nazi confessing church felt
compelled to take theological education

52:21.190 --> 52:22.550
into its own hands.

52:25.430 --> 52:29.050
All theological education these days
belongs in the church and in religious

52:29.050 --> 52:33.070
communities in which pure doctrine,
the Sermon on the Mount and worship are

52:33.070 --> 52:33.890
taken seriously.

52:34.890 --> 52:39.590
By December of the year 1934, Karl Barth
had become increasingly involved in

52:39.590 --> 52:40.550
opposition to Hitler.

52:41.370 --> 52:45.910
By playing a major role in the confessing
church, especially at the Barmen Synod in

52:45.910 --> 52:49.810
1934, this led to his dismissal from the
university.

52:51.070 --> 52:55.770
In early 1935, when Karl Barth was
unavoidably leaving Germany for exile in

52:55.770 --> 53:01.290
Switzerland, Bonhoeffer voluntarily went
back to Germany, to which the confessing

53:01.290 --> 53:02.550
church was calling him.

53:11.100 --> 53:15.660
In 1935, Dietrich Bonhoeffer established a
seminary of the confessing church,

53:15.840 --> 53:21.920
first at Zingst on the Baltic coast,
and later that summer, it moved southeast

53:21.920 --> 53:24.100
to Finkenwalde, the suburb of Stetten.

53:27.540 --> 53:30.920
The seminary was housed at an abandoned
private school.

53:31.600 --> 53:35.040
The students were aware that they would
not be easily accepted by the established

53:35.040 --> 53:37.560
German church because of their fierce
independence.

53:39.440 --> 53:44.160
One of them was Eberhard Bethke,
who met Bonhoeffer for the first time at

53:44.160 --> 53:48.520
this seminary, and later would become his
closest lifetime confidant and friend.

53:49.540 --> 53:53.640
It was here that Bonhoeffer worked on the
theme which had captivated him for years.

53:54.100 --> 53:56.120
The cost of discipleship.

53:57.000 --> 54:01.840
Through ideas like costly and cheap grace,
simple obedience, and above all,

54:01.940 --> 54:07.440
in his exposition of the Sermon on the
Mount, Bonhoeffer related Christian faith

54:07.440 --> 54:10.140
to the figure of the present Christ.

54:11.140 --> 54:14.940
The life of Jesus Christ has not yet been
brought to an end upon this earth.

54:15.900 --> 54:19.260
Christ continues to live in the life of
his disciples.

54:21.820 --> 54:26.780
Bonhoeffer indicted Christians for
replacing a living and obedient faith in

54:26.780 --> 54:30.680
Jesus Christ by a belief in doctrine about
faith.

54:31.620 --> 54:34.080
He warned against cheap grace.

54:38.240 --> 54:41.320
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the
church.

54:41.980 --> 54:46.080
Cheap grace means grace sold on the
market, like cheap jacks wares.

54:46.640 --> 54:47.740
Grace without price.

54:47.880 --> 54:49.020
Grace without cost.

54:49.980 --> 54:53.820
Cheap grace is the preaching of
forgiveness without requiring repentance.

54:54.420 --> 54:56.100
Baptism without church discipline.

54:56.640 --> 54:57.960
Communion without confession.

54:58.860 --> 55:00.960
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.

55:01.860 --> 55:02.940
Grace without the cross.

55:03.400 --> 55:05.240
Grace without Jesus Christ.

55:05.240 --> 55:09.580
We have gathered like ravens round the
carcass of cheap grace, and there we have

55:09.580 --> 55:12.920
drunk of the poison which has killed the
life of following Christ.

55:17.010 --> 55:20.730
Bonhoeffer lamented that the church had
become a peddler of cheap grace.

55:21.550 --> 55:25.990
By allowing itself to be captured by
Nazism, the church had destroyed the

55:25.990 --> 55:26.910
Christian faith.

55:28.210 --> 55:32.310
The price we are now having to pay today
is only the inevitable consequence of our

55:32.310 --> 55:36.130
policy of making grace available to all at
too low a cost.

55:36.130 --> 55:39.610
Giving that which was holy to the scornful
and unbelieving.

55:40.730 --> 55:45.050
Cheap grace has turned out to be utterly
merciless to our church.

55:46.150 --> 55:51.630
Bonhoeffer challenged the church to the
costly grace of following Christ in

55:51.630 --> 55:52.510
discipleship.

55:53.470 --> 55:57.410
Costly grace is the gospel which must be
sought again and again.

55:57.550 --> 55:59.190
The gift which must be asked for.

55:59.310 --> 56:01.550
The door at which a man must knock.

56:02.770 --> 56:05.230
Such grace is costly because it calls us
to follow.

56:06.130 --> 56:09.410
And it is grace because it calls us to
follow Jesus Christ.

56:10.150 --> 56:12.730
It is costly because it costs a man his
life.

56:13.470 --> 56:17.230
And it is grace because it gives man the
only true life.

56:17.870 --> 56:20.510
It is costly because it condemns sin.

56:21.430 --> 56:24.410
And grace because it justifies the sinner.

56:25.470 --> 56:30.450
Above all, it is costly because it cost
God the life of his son.

56:31.470 --> 56:33.050
Ye were bought at a price.

56:33.050 --> 56:39.430
And what has cost God much cannot be cheap
for us.

56:40.590 --> 56:45.950
For Bonhoeffer, though theologically faith
comes before obedience, faith and

56:45.950 --> 56:49.150
obedience are inseparable like two sides
of a coin.

56:49.890 --> 56:51.490
Only he who believes is obedient.

56:52.130 --> 56:53.990
And only he who is obedient believes.

56:55.130 --> 56:57.130
Only the obedient believe.

56:57.870 --> 57:00.890
If we are to believe, we must obey a
concrete command.

57:00.890 --> 57:05.510
Without this preliminary step of
obedience, our faith will only be pious

57:05.510 --> 57:08.510
humbug and lead us to the grace which is
not costly.

57:09.770 --> 57:13.450
If you dismiss the word of God's command,
you will not receive his word of grace.

57:14.250 --> 57:18.710
How can you hope to enter into communion
with him when at some point in your life

57:18.710 --> 57:19.730
you are running away from him?

57:20.890 --> 57:23.030
The man who disobeys cannot believe.

57:24.330 --> 57:27.990
For only he who obeys can believe.

57:29.590 --> 57:34.370
Meanwhile, Dietrich's father Karl
Bonhoeffer retired from the Charité on

57:34.370 --> 57:35.950
April 1st, 1936.

57:36.470 --> 57:40.710
They gave up the big house in
Wangenheimstrasse and moved into a new

57:40.710 --> 57:44.890
house on 43 Marienburger Allee in the
Charlottenburg area of Berlin.

57:45.990 --> 57:48.650
From then on, the attic room to the west
belonged to Dietrich.

57:56.090 --> 57:58.250
From his windows he looked out over to No.

57:58.410 --> 58:03.150
42, the home of his sister Ursula and her
husband Rüdiger Schleicher.

58:12.620 --> 58:16.360
Edicts, prohibitions and arrests were the
means by which the Ministry of Church

58:16.360 --> 58:18.860
Affairs tried to subdue the Confessing
Church.

58:19.580 --> 58:23.520
On June 9th, 1937, a collection of
offerings for the Confessing Church was

58:23.520 --> 58:24.520
declared illegal.

58:25.800 --> 58:30.360
Bishop Heckel of the Reich Church accused
Bonhoeffer of being a pacifist and

58:30.360 --> 58:34.280
therefore an enemy of the state and called
for measures to be taken to stop him from

58:34.280 --> 58:36.440
training German theologians and pastors.

58:37.320 --> 58:40.420
He and all other teachers from the
seminaries of the Confessing Church were

58:40.420 --> 58:42.440
barred from the University of Berlin.

58:43.440 --> 58:46.640
The Gestapo raided churches and meetings,
arresting hundreds.

58:48.600 --> 58:52.900
On July 1st, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
Eberhard Bethke went to Dahlem for

58:52.900 --> 58:55.660
consultation with Martin Niemöller at his
house.

58:56.280 --> 58:59.880
However, Niemöller had been taken away
only minutes before by the Gestapo.

58:59.900 --> 59:03.840
First they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out because I was not

59:03.840 --> 59:04.320
a socialist.

59:04.900 --> 59:08.680
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out because I was not

59:08.680 --> 59:09.460
a trade unionist.

59:09.980 --> 59:13.900
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not
speak out because I was not a Jew.

59:14.700 --> 59:18.940
Then they came for me, and there was no
one left to speak for me.

59:21.380 --> 59:26.280
Niemöller, however, did speak out and as a
consequence lost eight years of his life

59:26.280 --> 59:27.080
to the Nazis.

59:27.080 --> 59:32.280
He remained in the concentration camps of
Sachsenhausen and Dachau until the end of

59:32.280 --> 59:34.020
the war in 1945.

59:35.900 --> 59:39.740
While Bonhoeffer and Bethke were still in
the house, the Gestapo returned and put

59:39.740 --> 59:44.700
them all under house arrest, making them
involuntary witnesses to an eight-hour

59:44.700 --> 59:46.220
search of Niemöller's study.

59:47.800 --> 59:51.720
The news of the persecution of the
confessing church reached London.

59:51.720 --> 59:53.300
This is a critical hour.

59:53.460 --> 59:56.180
It is not only the fate of the individual
pastors.

59:56.600 --> 01:00:00.400
It is the case of the attitude of the
German state to Christianity.

01:00:01.980 --> 01:00:04.140
Times, July 3rd, 1937.

01:00:04.940 --> 01:00:10.080
On August 29th, 1937, all substitute
colleges set up by the confessing church

01:00:10.080 --> 01:00:10.700
were banned.

01:00:11.800 --> 01:00:14.960
The wave of arrests also reached
Finkenwalde students.

01:00:14.960 --> 01:00:21.220
By Christmas 1937, the Gestapo had
arrested 27 of them and had sealed shut

01:00:21.220 --> 01:00:22.900
the doors to Finkenwalde.

01:00:31.370 --> 01:00:37.170
Though in 1937 the Gestapo throttled the
Finkenwalde seminary, Bonhoeffer moved

01:00:37.170 --> 01:00:41.290
further east where he continued his
ministry of training pastors by disguising

01:00:41.290 --> 01:00:45.190
it as a collective pastorate in the towns
of Kosteln and Grossschlonewitz.

01:00:47.010 --> 01:00:51.990
This entire region of Upper Pomerania,
before the war, was in Germany.

01:00:52.090 --> 01:00:53.870
But now is a part of Poland.

01:00:54.930 --> 01:00:59.210
Instead of registering students as members
of the seminary, they were appointed as

01:00:59.210 --> 01:01:03.610
probationary assistant pastors to clergy
who were sympathetic to the confessing

01:01:03.610 --> 01:01:04.050
church.

01:01:06.210 --> 01:01:10.410
Bonhoeffer spent half the week living with
the other seminarians in the parsonage,

01:01:10.750 --> 01:01:14.430
just a short distance away from the center
of the town where the historic

01:01:14.430 --> 01:01:16.230
Marienkirche is located.

01:01:18.230 --> 01:01:21.550
If present on Sundays, he would preach at
this Lutheran church.

01:01:22.090 --> 01:01:25.810
Which stands today as a Roman Catholic
cathedral.

01:01:28.250 --> 01:01:32.130
In the second half of the week,
Bonhoeffer regularly taught at

01:01:32.130 --> 01:01:36.790
Grossschlonewitz in Schlade, where he
lived at the parsonage next to the church,

01:01:37.010 --> 01:01:39.190
which also is now a Roman Catholic church.

01:01:46.150 --> 01:01:49.970
A picture of the crucified Christ,
which hung above the altar at that time,

01:01:50.530 --> 01:01:53.930
can still be seen today in the foyer of
the church.

01:01:55.570 --> 01:02:00.190
On January 11, 1938, there was a new wave
of arrests of pastors of the confessing

01:02:00.190 --> 01:02:01.130
church in Dahlem.

01:02:01.830 --> 01:02:06.110
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had been there,
was prohibited from staying at Berlin.

01:02:06.950 --> 01:02:10.670
His father managed to get this prohibition
restricted to visits on church business.

01:02:11.390 --> 01:02:14.390
Thus Bonhoeffer continued to visit his
family in Berlin.

01:02:22.420 --> 01:02:26.320
The year of 1938 was the year of greatest
weakness for the confessing church.

01:02:26.320 --> 01:02:30.840
All active pastors were required to take
the oath of allegiance to the Führer.

01:02:31.460 --> 01:02:34.500
Anyone who refused to take the oath of
allegiance was to be dismissed.

01:02:45.340 --> 01:02:51.500
I swear that I will be faithful and
obedient to the Führer of the German

01:02:51.500 --> 01:02:54.660
nation and people, Adolf Hitler.

01:02:55.720 --> 01:03:01.580
Observe the laws and conscientiously
fulfill the duties of my office.

01:03:02.740 --> 01:03:04.340
So help me God.

01:03:08.360 --> 01:03:12.500
Bonhoeffer wanted the leadership of the
confessing church to defend the right of

01:03:12.500 --> 01:03:14.620
pastors to refuse taking this oath.

01:03:15.340 --> 01:03:18.580
Instead of upholding this right,
the leadership evaded its moral

01:03:18.580 --> 01:03:22.420
responsibility by leaving the decision to
each individual pastor.

01:03:23.280 --> 01:03:27.440
This was exactly what the Gestapo wanted
because now they were able to identify

01:03:27.440 --> 01:03:30.720
those pastors who were openly disloyal to
Hitler.

01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:35.500
Enraged at the spineless behavior of the
church, Bonhoeffer rebuked.

01:03:36.680 --> 01:03:42.120
Will the confessing church ever learn that
the majority in matters of conscience

01:03:42.120 --> 01:03:43.560
kills the spirit?

01:03:50.220 --> 01:03:54.000
Bonhoeffer was frustrated by his own
confessing church because it did not

01:03:54.000 --> 01:03:56.680
openly and firmly oppose the anti-Jewish
violence.

01:03:57.460 --> 01:04:01.900
For Bonhoeffer, the only criterion to
determine the success and failure of the

01:04:01.900 --> 01:04:06.160
church was the sincerity and potency of
its activities on behalf of the Jews.

01:04:06.960 --> 01:04:12.000
However liturgically correct our services
are, and however devout our prayer,

01:04:12.660 --> 01:04:15.240
however brave our testimony, they will
profit us nothing.

01:04:16.260 --> 01:04:21.720
Nay, rather they must needs testify
against us that we have as a church ceased

01:04:21.720 --> 01:04:22.820
to follow our Lord.

01:04:23.840 --> 01:04:25.900
God will not be separated from our
brother.

01:04:26.640 --> 01:04:30.940
He wants no honor for himself so long as
our brother is dishonored.

01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:33.400
Where is Abel, your brother?

01:04:34.700 --> 01:04:38.760
When asked to defend his uncompromising
stand, he would always refer to the

01:04:38.760 --> 01:04:40.880
scripture in Proverbs 31.8.

01:04:41.800 --> 01:04:43.780
Who will speak up for those who are
voiceless?

01:04:44.840 --> 01:04:49.040
In September 1938, Bonhoeffer wrote his
little classic, Life Together,

01:04:49.660 --> 01:04:52.140
in which he recorded the experiments of
the seminary.

01:04:52.820 --> 01:04:56.660
Christianity means community through Jesus
Christ and in Jesus Christ.

01:04:57.240 --> 01:05:01.160
It means, first, that a Christian needs
others because of Jesus Christ.

01:05:01.640 --> 01:05:06.200
It means, second, that a Christian comes
to others only through Jesus Christ.

01:05:07.240 --> 01:05:12.380
It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we
have been chosen from eternity,

01:05:12.940 --> 01:05:15.960
accepted in time, and united for eternity.

01:05:16.620 --> 01:05:21.080
On midnight of September 9th, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer helped his twin sister Sabine,

01:05:21.580 --> 01:05:24.480
her husband and their children,
to escape to Switzerland en route to

01:05:24.480 --> 01:05:28.500
England, barely four weeks before the
passports of non-Aryans were declared

01:05:28.500 --> 01:05:31.360
invalid without the dreaded Jews' stamp on
it.

01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:36.420
November 9th, 1938, the persecution of the
Jews reached a high point with the

01:05:36.420 --> 01:05:41.060
so-called Kristallnacht, or Crystal Night,
in which the show windows of Jewish

01:05:41.060 --> 01:05:42.360
businesses were smashed.

01:05:43.840 --> 01:05:48.180
Jewish synagogues were burned and Jews
were brutalized on a massive scale all

01:05:48.180 --> 01:05:52.500
over Germany in an orgy of lethal and
legal vandalism.

01:05:53.740 --> 01:05:57.580
That night, Bonhoeffer was away in
Großschlarnowitz, but rushed to Berlin

01:05:57.580 --> 01:05:58.800
when he found out what had happened.

01:05:59.620 --> 01:06:03.900
He vociferously discredited all attempts
to attribute this barbarism to the

01:06:03.900 --> 01:06:06.620
so-called curse on the Jews because of
Christ's death.

01:06:10.980 --> 01:06:14.680
In his Bible, he underlines Psalm 74,
8.

01:06:15.360 --> 01:06:17.240
They say to themselves, let us plunder
them.

01:06:17.640 --> 01:06:19.860
They burn all the houses of God in the
land.

01:06:20.900 --> 01:06:22.920
And marked it with the date of
Kristallnacht.

01:06:24.200 --> 01:06:27.460
As early as 1935, Bonhoeffer had said...

01:06:27.460 --> 01:06:31.560
Only he who cries out for the Jews may
sing Gregorian chants.

01:06:32.100 --> 01:06:35.700
O come, O come,

01:06:40.080 --> 01:07:04.080
Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That
mourns in lonely exile here

01:07:07.660 --> 01:07:14.900
Until Messiah shall appear

01:07:20.840 --> 01:07:25.980
Bonhoeffer felt betrayed and isolated even
by his own confessing church, which had

01:07:25.980 --> 01:07:30.680
refused to be a brave and resolute
opposition to the essentially evil Nazi

01:07:30.680 --> 01:07:31.300
regime.

01:07:31.700 --> 01:07:36.120
We too had learned to lie before long and
adapted ourselves to public wrong.

01:07:37.180 --> 01:07:41.500
And when the defenseless were felled by
force, we took it all as a matter of

01:07:41.500 --> 01:07:41.840
course.

01:07:43.020 --> 01:07:47.440
And that which within our hearts still
flamed remained unspoken and unnamed.

01:07:48.640 --> 01:07:54.700
We checked the blood's insurgent flow and
trampled out the outward glow.

01:07:56.220 --> 01:08:06.840
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace.

01:08:15.270 --> 01:08:19.470
The event which Bonhoeffer feared most was
the least discussed in his family.

01:08:19.470 --> 01:08:23.630
Conscription to the military service,
which in 1938 was getting closer and

01:08:23.630 --> 01:08:23.950
closer.

01:08:24.730 --> 01:08:31.230
On our advertisement column, there is an
announcement of the drafting of those born

01:08:31.230 --> 01:08:34.350
in 1906 and 1907.

01:08:35.650 --> 01:08:39.570
I often wonder whether anything will come
of your journey.

01:08:40.830 --> 01:08:43.870
And if so, what?

01:08:44.750 --> 01:08:49.870
Almost a year earlier, in February 1938,
Bonhoeffer had developed closer contacts

01:08:49.870 --> 01:08:54.470
with his brother-in-law, Hans von Donanyi,
who had been preparing a military-led coup

01:08:54.470 --> 01:08:58.810
d 'etat with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and
other colleagues in the military

01:08:58.810 --> 01:09:00.830
intelligence unit, or Abwehr.

01:09:01.810 --> 01:09:06.810
Though opposition to Hitler and attempts
to oust him originated as early as 1934

01:09:06.810 --> 01:09:11.590
and continued throughout his reign,
no opposition movement was able to survive

01:09:11.590 --> 01:09:15.990
the ever watchful Gestapo with its reign
of terror and summary executions.

01:09:17.470 --> 01:09:21.450
The Allies were reluctant to support or
even grant credence to these opposition

01:09:21.450 --> 01:09:24.810
movements, which were not only splintered
by enormous ideological differences,

01:09:25.310 --> 01:09:30.050
but were also under nationalist pressure
to avenge the humiliating defeat of 1919.

01:09:31.230 --> 01:09:34.870
Consequently, as soon as the war erupted,
the Allies demanded unconditional

01:09:34.870 --> 01:09:40.850
surrender, raising doubts if a new German
regime following the military coup would

01:09:40.850 --> 01:09:41.630
be recognized.

01:09:42.430 --> 01:09:46.670
Hans von Donanyi confided in Dietrich
Bonhoeffer about the planned coup.

01:09:47.530 --> 01:09:50.890
Until that point, Dietrich had taken no
political action against the state and he

01:09:50.890 --> 01:09:55.130
had been careful to express all his
protests within the framework of legality.

01:09:56.690 --> 01:10:01.250
Besides, Bonhoeffer saw his battle as a
theological one, but now Bonhoeffer had

01:10:01.250 --> 01:10:05.690
technically become an accessory to the
plan, a crime punishable by death.

01:10:06.990 --> 01:10:11.430
He also feared being an unwitting cause of
the Gestapo's stumbling onto their plans.

01:10:12.130 --> 01:10:15.150
For all these reasons, he decided to leave
Germany.

01:10:15.790 --> 01:10:18.850
I cannot reconcile it with my conscience
to take part in a war in these

01:10:18.850 --> 01:10:19.430
circumstances.

01:10:20.810 --> 01:10:24.350
His former teacher, Reinhold Niebuhr,
and his closest American friend,

01:10:24.490 --> 01:10:28.110
Paul Lehmann, were eager to save
Bonhoeffer, who was in obvious danger.

01:10:28.830 --> 01:10:32.250
They arranged a speaking tour for him and
assumed that once the war broke out in

01:10:32.250 --> 01:10:34.430
Germany, Bonhoeffer would remain in
America.

01:10:34.850 --> 01:10:37.630
But Bonhoeffer was not at ease with
himself in New York.

01:10:38.310 --> 01:10:43.230
His daily Bible reading for 24 June 1939
confirmed God's will for him.

01:10:43.890 --> 01:10:46.210
The one who believes does not flee.

01:10:48.510 --> 01:10:50.110
We can in fact justify anything.

01:10:51.550 --> 01:10:55.090
But in the last resort, we are acting from
a plane that is hidden from us,

01:10:55.290 --> 01:10:58.330
and we can only ask God to judge and
forgive us.

01:10:59.970 --> 01:11:05.610
At the end of the day, I can only ask that
God may judge this day and all my

01:11:05.610 --> 01:11:07.090
decisions mercifully.

01:11:07.090 --> 01:11:11.510
To the disappointment of his friend Paul
Lehmann, who had arranged the lecture

01:11:11.510 --> 01:11:16.750
tour, on the 7th of July 1939,
as Hitler was proudly rearming Germany,

01:11:17.270 --> 01:11:21.710
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, within five weeks of
having left Germany, returned to Europe,

01:11:22.070 --> 01:11:22.850
to war.

01:11:23.710 --> 01:11:24.830
Today, Germany.

01:11:25.650 --> 01:11:26.770
Tomorrow, the world.

01:11:34.310 --> 01:11:39.410
I will have no right to participate in the
reconstruction after the war, if I do not

01:11:39.410 --> 01:11:41.530
also share the trials of this time with my
people.

01:11:42.810 --> 01:11:47.030
Christians in Germany will face the
terrible alternative of either willing the

01:11:47.030 --> 01:11:50.210
defeat of their nation in order that
Christian civilization may survive,

01:11:51.010 --> 01:11:55.610
or willing the victory of their nation,
and thereby destroying our civilization.

01:11:58.230 --> 01:12:03.610
I know which of these alternatives I must
choose, but I cannot make that choice in

01:12:03.610 --> 01:12:03.970
security.

01:12:14.180 --> 01:12:17.720
Bonhoeffer's decision to return to Germany
did not at first bring about any striking

01:12:17.720 --> 01:12:18.940
changes to his life.

01:12:19.560 --> 01:12:22.400
He resumed work at the collective
pastorate in Lower Pomerania.

01:12:23.100 --> 01:12:26.960
On September 1st, 1939, Hitler declared
war on Poland.

01:12:26.960 --> 01:12:39.120
Poland has fired on our territory for the
first time since 5.45 a.m.

01:12:40.440 --> 01:12:44.580
Bonhoeffer was in Klein-Krosnin,
now part of Poland, in Kolsinko,

01:12:44.780 --> 01:12:47.140
where he was writing his book,
Ethics.

01:12:48.020 --> 01:12:52.700
On September 4th, 1940, Gestapo imposed a
ban on Bonhoeffer, which prevented his

01:12:52.700 --> 01:12:55.520
speaking in public, on the grounds that he
was subverting the people.

01:12:56.140 --> 01:12:58.740
He also had to report regularly to the
police.

01:13:01.680 --> 01:13:05.720
Bonhoeffer appealed unsuccessfully against
this ban in writing and tried to convince

01:13:05.720 --> 01:13:07.020
them of his patriotism.

01:13:09.180 --> 01:13:11.900
He even ended the letter with the
greeting, Heil Hitler.

01:13:13.660 --> 01:13:17.960
The end of the collective pastorate in
1940 ended the possibility of continuing

01:13:17.960 --> 01:13:19.280
his pastoral work.

01:13:19.740 --> 01:13:24.700
Yet Bonhoeffer did find a way to continue
that work through his writings.

01:13:25.540 --> 01:13:30.200
From now on, Bonhoeffer lived in his
parents' home, seriously deliberating on

01:13:30.200 --> 01:13:31.920
his future and the future of Germany.

01:13:33.000 --> 01:13:36.900
With the fall of France, Hitler had wiped
out the shameful defeat of 1918 and

01:13:36.900 --> 01:13:38.520
rehabilitated German pride.

01:13:39.220 --> 01:13:43.180
Anyone who now thought in terms of
traditional ethics could no longer

01:13:43.180 --> 01:13:46.000
successfully oppose Hitler in any way.

01:13:47.240 --> 01:13:50.340
While the people of Germany, including
many church leaders, were hailing the

01:13:50.340 --> 01:13:54.640
victories of their army and the Fuhrer,
Bonhoeffer was publicly lamenting the

01:13:54.640 --> 01:13:57.580
church's guilt and the suffering which the
Nazis were unleashing.

01:13:59.410 --> 01:14:03.300
The church confesses that she has
witnessed the lawless application of

01:14:03.300 --> 01:14:08.180
brutal force, the physical and spiritual
suffering of countless innocent people,

01:14:08.980 --> 01:14:14.860
oppression, hatred, and murder,
and that she has not raised her voice on

01:14:14.860 --> 01:14:22.240
behalf of the victims, and has not found
ways to She is guilty of the deaths of the

01:14:22.240 --> 01:14:25.120
weakest and the most defenseless brothers
of Jesus Christ.

01:14:26.360 --> 01:14:30.200
This freedom to write was made possible,
ironically, by his becoming a part of the

01:14:30.200 --> 01:14:32.200
conspiracy to stage a coup d'etat.

01:14:33.120 --> 01:14:36.640
For Bonhoeffer, it was an agonizing
decision, an acute moral dilemma.

01:14:37.540 --> 01:14:41.020
He debated the rightness of any action,
be it the radical step of eliminating

01:14:41.020 --> 01:14:45.960
Hitler, or the traditional Christian
obedience of civil authority, which in

01:14:45.960 --> 01:14:48.220
this case meant supporting genocide.

01:14:49.940 --> 01:14:54.360
He remembered his own words, his pacifism,
and his commitment to the Sermon on the

01:14:54.360 --> 01:14:54.640
Mount.

01:14:55.460 --> 01:14:59.380
The brother's life is a divine ordinance,
and God alone has power over life and

01:14:59.380 --> 01:14:59.680
death.

01:15:00.720 --> 01:15:04.000
But the genocide-sweeping Europe made
planning an assassination attempt on

01:15:04.000 --> 01:15:08.240
Hitler's life, all the more a moral
imperative instead of a murderous act.

01:15:09.260 --> 01:15:13.320
Bonhoeffer saw Hitler as a demon whose
evil could only be exorcised by

01:15:13.320 --> 01:15:14.200
eliminating him.

01:15:14.200 --> 01:15:18.360
If we claim to be Christians, there's no
room for expediency.

01:15:18.520 --> 01:15:19.860
Hitler is anti-Christ.

01:15:21.200 --> 01:15:25.600
Therefore, we must go on with our work and
eliminate him, whether he is successful or

01:15:25.600 --> 01:15:25.800
not.

01:15:26.640 --> 01:15:31.180
On the other hand, as a Christian pastor
and a pacifist, he opposed the use of

01:15:31.180 --> 01:15:35.640
violence and therefore hesitated to join
those planning an assassination attempt

01:15:35.640 --> 01:15:36.500
against Hitler.

01:15:37.660 --> 01:15:40.520
Two things eventually helped determine his
resolve.

01:15:40.520 --> 01:15:44.860
One, with the deportation of the Jews
taking place on a massive scale.

01:15:45.540 --> 01:15:48.840
For Bonhoeffer, the actions of the state
had become horrendous.

01:15:50.220 --> 01:15:54.620
He was aware of the Grunewald station in
Berlin, from where masses of innocent

01:15:54.620 --> 01:15:56.620
victims were transported to their deaths.

01:15:58.160 --> 01:16:01.820
Second, many of Bonhoeffer's friends had
seen the inside of the concentration

01:16:01.820 --> 01:16:04.880
camps, and their full horror was beginning
to emerge.

01:16:06.380 --> 01:16:10.360
After much internal struggle, Bonhoeffer
became convinced that he had only one

01:16:10.360 --> 01:16:10.720
option.

01:16:11.380 --> 01:16:12.820
He must act to remove Hitler.

01:16:13.420 --> 01:16:15.000
Only this would resolve his dilemma.

01:16:15.700 --> 01:16:19.540
Though he viewed violence as morally
indefensible, he also believed that

01:16:19.540 --> 01:16:23.840
inaction in the face of death camp horrors
was spiritually suicidal.

01:16:25.360 --> 01:16:29.420
It is not only individual Germans and
individual Christians who are guilty.

01:16:30.020 --> 01:16:32.340
Germany and the Church are guilty too.

01:16:32.960 --> 01:16:36.720
Germany and the Church themselves must
repent and be justified.

01:16:38.120 --> 01:16:42.300
Only in defeat can we atone for the
terrible crimes we have committed against

01:16:42.300 --> 01:16:43.220
Europe and the world.

01:16:52.190 --> 01:16:56.410
He decided he must risk God's judgment on
his own actions that others might live.

01:16:57.110 --> 01:16:59.250
They must be rescued from these death
camps.

01:17:00.230 --> 01:17:03.110
Our actions must be understood as an act
of penitence.

01:17:04.290 --> 01:17:07.470
In 1940, Dietrich Bonhoeffer joined the
resistance.

01:17:07.470 --> 01:17:12.070
For a cover, his brother-in-law,
Hans von Donanyi, recruited him to the

01:17:12.070 --> 01:17:16.710
military intelligence agency Abwehr under
the pretext that he would be useful in its

01:17:16.710 --> 01:17:20.550
counterintelligence operations because of
his contacts with various influential

01:17:20.550 --> 01:17:25.050
church leaders in Switzerland,
Britain, America and Scandinavia and thus

01:17:25.050 --> 01:17:29.650
exempted him from military service and the
obligation to report to the Gestapo.

01:17:30.450 --> 01:17:33.430
Instead, Bonhoeffer used these contacts
for the resistance.

01:17:33.430 --> 01:17:37.730
Posing as a courier for the Abwehr,
he traveled extensively throughout Europe

01:17:37.730 --> 01:17:42.090
for the resistance to find out how the
Allies would react to the planned coup d

01:17:42.090 --> 01:17:42.390
'etat.

01:17:44.190 --> 01:17:48.050
But for Bonhoeffer, the time had come to
grab the wheels by the spokes.

01:17:57.200 --> 01:18:02.580
From the end of November 1940 to February
1941, Bonhoeffer lived in a hotel where he

01:18:02.580 --> 01:18:04.180
was a guest at the Benedictine Abbey.

01:18:05.640 --> 01:18:09.340
He had his meals with the monks to the
accompaniment of liturgical tunes.

01:18:10.620 --> 01:18:12.120
I've been here since yesterday.

01:18:12.600 --> 01:18:13.560
A most friendly welcome.

01:18:14.900 --> 01:18:16.740
In short, everything one could want.

01:18:18.300 --> 01:18:22.420
It was from here in his monastery that he
struggled to prevent the confessing church

01:18:22.420 --> 01:18:27.040
from dying out as a result of conscription
or direction to war work.

01:18:34.910 --> 01:18:38.890
Bonhoeffer attempted to influence the
church minister Hans Kerl through

01:18:38.890 --> 01:18:40.650
intermediaries whom he met there.

01:18:40.650 --> 01:18:44.630
He met the Minister of Justice,
Dr. Goethe, in connection with the matter.

01:18:46.330 --> 01:18:48.430
We spent the day together and discussed a
good deal.

01:18:49.290 --> 01:18:51.190
He was very optimistic in the K matter.

01:18:51.910 --> 01:18:54.070
The only question is what K himself can
do.

01:18:55.470 --> 01:19:00.070
Things are now moving on to some degree
since reports of drafting for war work are

01:19:00.070 --> 01:19:00.490
increasing.

01:19:02.650 --> 01:19:04.730
Goethe was buried a month later.

01:19:13.120 --> 01:19:17.980
Bonhoeffer celebrated Christmas in Etal
with the Dormaniers and Bethke's company.

01:19:27.990 --> 01:19:30.030
He could not let Advent pass without
preaching.

01:19:30.750 --> 01:19:34.710
Since he was forbidden to preach,
he wrote a sermon, a meditation for

01:19:34.710 --> 01:19:40.090
Christmas in the form of a sermon,
basing it on Isaiah 9.6.7.

01:19:41.350 --> 01:19:43.310
Unto us a child is born.

01:19:46.990 --> 01:19:48.470
To us a child is born.

01:19:49.810 --> 01:19:56.550
God's redemption is not by power,
nor by might, not by wisdom or clever

01:19:56.550 --> 01:19:58.350
strategy, but in a helpless child.

01:20:00.210 --> 01:20:03.670
With justice and with righteousness,
Jesus governs his kingdom.

01:20:04.250 --> 01:20:09.750
His kingdom shall be a kingdom of
righteousness, not by self-righteousness,

01:20:09.830 --> 01:20:11.510
but by God-given righteousness.

01:20:13.630 --> 01:20:19.290
We find it when we accept his lordship and
when we let him give us a new life in

01:20:19.290 --> 01:20:19.610
love.

01:20:21.930 --> 01:20:25.310
He wants us to be with him, not for his
sake, but for ours.

01:20:26.190 --> 01:20:31.750
God with us, Emmanuel, Jesus, that is the
secret of this holy night.

01:20:33.090 --> 01:20:34.170
We rejoice.

01:20:34.330 --> 01:20:36.190
To us a child is given.

01:20:37.130 --> 01:20:39.570
To us a child is born.

01:20:42.810 --> 01:20:45.590
Christ the Saviour,

01:20:53.300 --> 01:21:00.380
the Saviour is born.

01:21:03.460 --> 01:21:06.220
O come, desire...

01:21:06.920 --> 01:21:11.600
On September 19, 1941, the decree that
Jews should wear a yellow star came into

01:21:11.600 --> 01:21:12.020
force.

01:21:12.860 --> 01:21:15.880
All Jews had to wear this badge stitched
onto their clothing.

01:21:15.880 --> 01:21:20.640
Bernhofer got involved in a bold action
initiated by the Abwehr for a few Jews.

01:21:21.740 --> 01:21:27.560
Admiral Canaris gave instructions to save
a group of about 12 to 15 Jews by getting

01:21:27.560 --> 01:21:30.860
them to Switzerland on the pretext that
they were being used by the Abwehr.

01:21:31.540 --> 01:21:35.800
The enterprise was called U-7 because at
first only seven people were involved.

01:21:36.660 --> 01:21:40.400
Because of its strict neutrality,
Switzerland refused entry to any

01:21:40.400 --> 01:21:41.660
non-Aryans.

01:21:41.660 --> 01:21:46.740
Through the intervention of Alphonse
Kirchlin, President of the Swiss Church

01:21:46.740 --> 01:21:51.980
Alliance, Bernhofer finally succeeded in
taking the Jews to safety in 1942.

01:21:53.600 --> 01:21:58.000
Naturally, the Gestapo was very suspicious
of the entire operation and soon launched

01:21:58.000 --> 01:22:02.260
an investigation which played a decisive
role in Bernhofer's future.

01:22:03.260 --> 01:22:10.020
The years 1941 and 1942 were of incessant
activity as Bernhofer traveled abroad

01:22:10.020 --> 01:22:12.720
extensively on secret missions for the
resistance.

01:22:13.620 --> 01:22:18.200
It was here in Sigtuna, Sweden,
that Bernhofer expressed the movement's

01:22:18.200 --> 01:22:22.120
willingness to negotiate a compromise
peace following the overthrow of Hitler.

01:22:23.760 --> 01:22:27.980
Bernhofer's British liaison for the
resistance, Bishop Bell, conveyed these

01:22:27.980 --> 01:22:32.620
plans to the British Foreign Secretary,
Anthony Eden, but received an unfavorable

01:22:32.620 --> 01:22:33.300
response.

01:22:34.960 --> 01:22:39.880
Without casting a reflection on the bona
fides of your informants, I am satisfied

01:22:39.880 --> 01:22:43.800
that it would not be in the national
interest for any reply to be sent to them.

01:22:45.180 --> 01:22:49.520
By now, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
were demanding Germany's unconditional

01:22:49.520 --> 01:22:50.160
surrender.

01:22:56.680 --> 01:23:02.620
At the end of this period, on January 17,
1943, at the age of 37, Bernhofer

01:23:02.620 --> 01:23:07.660
announced his engagement to 18-year-old
Maria von Wedemeyer, with whom he had

01:23:07.660 --> 01:23:13.600
fallen in love in 1942, during his stays
with her family in Patzig between his

01:23:13.600 --> 01:23:14.500
Abwehr journeys.

01:23:15.740 --> 01:23:18.680
Her mother, Ruth von Wedemeyer,
was worried by the difference in their

01:23:18.680 --> 01:23:19.060
ages.

01:23:20.600 --> 01:23:24.960
Bernhofer had first met Maria when,
at 13, her grandmother, Countess Ruth von

01:23:24.960 --> 01:23:29.300
Kleistretzow, had brought her on a visit
to the Confessing Church Seminary in

01:23:29.300 --> 01:23:29.840
Finkenwald.

01:23:31.160 --> 01:23:35.820
Bernhofer was a frequent visitor to the
von Kleist home, especially on holidays

01:23:35.820 --> 01:23:37.320
during the 1930s.

01:23:38.320 --> 01:23:42.460
It was here that he had completed the cost
of discipleship in the spring of 1937.

01:23:42.460 --> 01:23:49.400
In that year, Maria was only 13 and
Dietrich was 31, but by 1942 she had

01:23:49.400 --> 01:23:50.120
turned 18.

01:23:53.500 --> 01:23:57.980
Their engagement was a clear sign that
Bernhofer did not imagine himself being

01:23:57.980 --> 01:24:00.600
forced into an apocalyptic opposition.

01:24:02.380 --> 01:24:06.460
In the midst of general destruction,
a man desires to build.

01:24:07.480 --> 01:24:11.520
In the midst of a life lived from day to
day, he demands a future.

01:24:12.440 --> 01:24:16.200
In the midst of our exile from the earth,
he demands some living space.

01:24:17.300 --> 01:24:20.680
In the midst of the general misery,
some happiness.

01:24:22.380 --> 01:24:27.180
And the overwhelming fact is that to this
improbable desire, God says, yes.

01:24:28.200 --> 01:24:33.620
That here, God confirms our will with his,
when one would expect the opposite.

01:24:34.920 --> 01:24:41.340
And so marriage becomes something quite
new, majestic, glorious for those of us

01:24:41.340 --> 01:24:42.000
here in Germany.

01:24:50.060 --> 01:24:56.700
On March 13th, 1943, Hitler was expected
to fly to the front to the Central Army

01:24:56.700 --> 01:24:58.120
Group in Smolensk.

01:24:58.400 --> 01:25:00.680
This was the occasion for the attempt on
his life.

01:25:01.120 --> 01:25:06.780
Eberhard Bethke drove Hans von Donany to
the night train in Karl Bernhofer's car.

01:25:06.780 --> 01:25:12.100
Donany flew to Smolensk with special
explosives in his briefcase for Tresckow

01:25:12.100 --> 01:25:13.540
and Schlabrindorf.

01:25:14.420 --> 01:25:17.960
Although the explosives were on board,
Hitler landed unharmed.

01:25:18.400 --> 01:25:19.880
The bomb and the plot had failed.

01:25:20.520 --> 01:25:24.400
This same day, Bernhofer received new
draft papers from the Munich Conscription

01:25:24.400 --> 01:25:24.860
Office.

01:25:25.260 --> 01:25:30.180
Major General Oster used his authority for
the last time and released Bernhofer from

01:25:30.180 --> 01:25:30.600
the order.

01:25:30.600 --> 01:25:36.900
On Sunday, March 21st, Hero's Memorial
Day, Hitler was visiting an exhibition of

01:25:36.900 --> 01:25:39.860
captured military equipment in the Berlin
Arsenal.

01:25:40.400 --> 01:25:44.540
Colonel Tresckow arranged for a colleague
to guide the Fuhrer for the show.

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:48.840
The colleague was carrying a bomb in his
person to blow up both himself and Hitler.

01:25:49.800 --> 01:25:54.180
On that day, the whole family were in the
Schleicher's house practicing a cantata

01:25:54.180 --> 01:25:57.220
for Karl Bernhofer's 75th birthday.

01:25:57.220 --> 01:26:00.680
Dietrich was sitting at the piano,
Klaus playing the cello, Rüdiger

01:26:00.680 --> 01:26:03.700
Schleicher the violin and Donanyi was in
the choir.

01:26:04.460 --> 01:26:09.320
Christine von Donanyi whispered to her
sister Ursula Schleicher, It must be going

01:26:09.320 --> 01:26:10.380
off any moment.

01:26:11.780 --> 01:26:14.260
But minute by minute went by and the
telephone did not ring.

01:26:14.860 --> 01:26:17.300
Hitler had not kept his planned timetable.

01:26:18.100 --> 01:26:20.120
He had left the exhibition ten minutes
early.

01:26:20.940 --> 01:26:22.440
This attempt too failed.

01:26:23.200 --> 01:26:27.660
Ironically, on March 31st, 1943,
Hitler awarded the Goethe Medal for

01:26:27.660 --> 01:26:33.120
Honorable Service to Dr. Karl Bernhofer to
coincide with his 75th birthday

01:26:33.120 --> 01:26:33.760
celebration.

01:26:37.840 --> 01:26:42.240
The family, friends and co-conspirators of
Dietrich Bernhofer who had gathered

01:26:42.240 --> 01:26:45.720
together for this birthday celebration
were oblivious of the events of a few

01:26:45.720 --> 01:26:46.300
months ago.

01:26:47.100 --> 01:26:52.060
When in 1942, the customs post at Prague
had discovered irregularities in the

01:26:52.060 --> 01:26:55.280
papers of someone who claimed to be acting
for the Abwehr in Munich.

01:26:56.320 --> 01:26:59.820
Counsel Wilhelm Schmidhuber, a member of
the Abwehr, was arrested.

01:27:00.280 --> 01:27:03.880
And Dr. Josef Muller, the intermediary
between Abwehr and the Vatican,

01:27:03.980 --> 01:27:04.840
was interrogated.

01:27:07.100 --> 01:27:11.280
There were incriminating statements in
connection with putting Operation 7 into

01:27:11.280 --> 01:27:11.760
effect.

01:27:11.760 --> 01:27:16.620
The names of Hans von Donanyi and Dietrich
Bernhofer were noted.

01:27:24.420 --> 01:27:29.420
From his home in Marienburger Allee,
about midday on April 5th, 1943,

01:27:29.880 --> 01:27:32.940
Bernhofer tried to telephone his sister
Christine von Donanyi.

01:27:33.400 --> 01:27:35.080
He heard a man's voice on the telephone.

01:27:35.700 --> 01:27:38.060
At that moment, he knew that the house was
being searched.

01:27:40.840 --> 01:27:44.500
Without disturbing his parents,
Dietrich went up to his attic and prepared

01:27:44.500 --> 01:27:45.460
for his own arrest.

01:27:49.420 --> 01:27:53.740
Dietrich walked over next door to his
sister Ursula Schleicher's house and asked

01:27:53.740 --> 01:27:55.120
her to cook him a large meal.

01:27:56.400 --> 01:27:58.460
About four o'clock, his father came over.

01:27:59.420 --> 01:28:02.420
Two men want to talk to you in your room.

01:28:02.420 --> 01:28:09.060
So on that fateful Monday of April 5th,
1943, along with his sister Christine and

01:28:09.060 --> 01:28:12.620
brother-in-law Hans von Donanyi,
were taken separately to the

01:28:12.620 --> 01:28:14.860
Charlottenburg and Moabit prisons.

01:28:15.400 --> 01:28:19.160
Dietrich Bernhofer was taken to the
military interrogation prison in Tegel.

01:28:20.300 --> 01:28:30.660
Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and he shall sustain thee.

01:28:30.700 --> 01:28:33.240
The night of April 6th, 1943, was cold at
Tegel.

01:28:33.900 --> 01:28:36.980
Bernhofer could not bring himself to use
the blankets of the plank bed,

01:28:37.080 --> 01:28:39.560
as he could not stand the stench that rose
from them.

01:28:40.240 --> 01:28:43.680
He spent 18 months in a room about six
feet by nine feet with a plank bed,

01:28:43.820 --> 01:28:45.160
shelf, stool and bucket.

01:28:45.160 --> 01:28:50.040
A board door with an observation hole
looking from the outside in, and a

01:28:50.040 --> 01:28:52.840
skylight window above head height on the
opposite side.

01:28:53.400 --> 01:28:58.060
He kept a daily routine of Bible reading,
prayer, and singing the many hymns of Paul

01:28:58.060 --> 01:28:59.800
Gerhardt, which he had memorized.

01:29:03.790 --> 01:29:08.350
During the interrogations, Bernhofer
effectively disguised the true nature of

01:29:08.350 --> 01:29:12.630
his obvious activities, and was permitted
to have visitors and receive letters.

01:29:13.290 --> 01:29:17.810
Dear parents, I do want you to be quite
sure that I'm all right.

01:29:19.210 --> 01:29:23.210
Strangely enough, the discomforts that one
generally associates with prison life

01:29:23.210 --> 01:29:24.670
hardly bother me at all.

01:29:26.990 --> 01:29:33.230
The 75th birthday, or a fortnight ago
today, I can still hear the chorale that

01:29:33.230 --> 01:29:36.330
we sang in the morning and evening with
all the voices and instruments.

01:29:36.330 --> 01:29:38.330
Praise to the Lord!

01:29:58.010 --> 01:30:02.670
That is true, and it is what we must
always rely on.

01:30:03.490 --> 01:30:04.370
Your Dietrich.

01:30:04.370 --> 01:30:08.870
Afraid that he might not stand up to
possible torture and perhaps give away his

01:30:08.870 --> 01:30:12.030
friends, he wondered, should he not kill
himself?

01:30:12.510 --> 01:30:15.530
On a piece of paper which had survived
from the first weeks in prison,

01:30:16.070 --> 01:30:17.510
Bernhofer wrote...

01:30:17.510 --> 01:30:24.790
Suicide, not because of consciousness of
guilt, but basically because I am already

01:30:24.790 --> 01:30:25.130
dead.

01:30:28.670 --> 01:30:32.350
Besides writing to his parents,
Bernhofer wrote letters to his friend,

01:30:32.430 --> 01:30:35.530
Eberhard Bethke, and to his fiancée,
Maria von Wedemeyer.

01:30:35.910 --> 01:30:38.190
He lived for these letters and by these
letters.

01:30:38.870 --> 01:30:44.190
In the period between November 1943 and
August 1944, letters amounting to 200

01:30:44.190 --> 01:30:46.830
closely written pages reached Eberhard
Bethke.

01:30:47.230 --> 01:30:48.430
All of them smuggled out.

01:30:49.370 --> 01:30:52.930
They are the basis of the letters and
papers from prison, which today are read

01:30:52.930 --> 01:30:54.010
all over the world.

01:31:01.260 --> 01:31:07.640
On May 15, 1943, a few days after the
release of Christine von Donany,

01:31:08.240 --> 01:31:12.900
and while Dietrich Bernhofer was still
confined to his prison cell, Eberhard

01:31:12.900 --> 01:31:15.840
Bethke married Dietrich's niece,
Renate Schleicher.

01:31:16.900 --> 01:31:20.760
From his cell, Dietrich sent a special
message for the couple.

01:31:22.220 --> 01:31:24.660
God adds his yes to your yes.

01:31:25.400 --> 01:31:26.740
He is guiding your marriage.

01:31:27.800 --> 01:31:30.180
God makes your marriage indissoluble.

01:31:31.520 --> 01:31:34.880
God establishes a rule of life by which
you can live together in wedlock.

01:31:35.820 --> 01:31:39.020
God has laid on marriage a blessing and a
burden.

01:31:40.640 --> 01:31:43.100
God gives you Christ as the foundation of
your marriage.

01:31:43.940 --> 01:31:49.400
From the first day of your wedding,
the rule must be, welcome one another for

01:31:49.400 --> 01:31:50.220
the glory of God.

01:31:56.950 --> 01:32:01.410
Bernhofer communicated with his family
using a code while investigations were

01:32:01.410 --> 01:32:06.630
being made about his Abwehr service,
his role in Operation 7, and his journeys

01:32:06.630 --> 01:32:07.730
for the conspiracy.

01:32:08.790 --> 01:32:12.630
At the trial in the military court,
the original charge of treason and high

01:32:12.630 --> 01:32:14.250
treason could not be sustained.

01:32:14.710 --> 01:32:18.110
Bernhofer was accused of infringements of
military law.

01:32:18.710 --> 01:32:23.250
He expected to be released very soon and
wrote to his fiancée, Maria, about

01:32:23.250 --> 01:32:23.490
marriage.

01:32:27.160 --> 01:32:30.580
I am under God's special guidance here,
I feel sure.

01:32:32.280 --> 01:32:37.200
Moreover, when I consider the state of the
world, the total obscurity enshrouding our

01:32:37.200 --> 01:32:43.700
personal destiny, and my present
imprisonment, our union can only be a

01:32:43.700 --> 01:32:47.500
token of God's grace and goodness which
summon us to believe in him.

01:32:48.740 --> 01:32:51.780
Our marriage must be a yes to God's earth.

01:32:52.520 --> 01:32:55.600
It must strengthen our resolve to do and
accomplish something on earth.

01:32:57.160 --> 01:33:01.220
I fear that Christians who venture to
stand on earth with only one leg will

01:33:01.220 --> 01:33:03.400
stand in heaven on only one leg too.

01:33:06.220 --> 01:33:09.800
Throughout his life, Bernhofer had
welcomed the Christmas season with music

01:33:09.800 --> 01:33:10.400
and preaching.

01:33:10.940 --> 01:33:16.680
But Christmas 1943 greeted him with severe
restrictions in his prison cell.

01:33:17.460 --> 01:33:19.420
Yet he was neither fretful nor anxious.

01:33:20.640 --> 01:33:24.140
When everything is bearing down on us to
such an extent that we can barely

01:33:24.140 --> 01:33:29.660
withstand it, the Christmas message comes
to us that all our ideas are wrong,

01:33:30.640 --> 01:33:35.460
and that what we take to be evil and dark
is really good and light because it comes

01:33:35.460 --> 01:33:35.920
from God.

01:33:37.020 --> 01:33:38.980
Our eyes are at fault, that is all.

01:33:40.120 --> 01:33:45.360
God in the manger, wealth and poverty,
light and darkness, succor and

01:33:45.360 --> 01:33:46.120
abandonment.

01:33:47.580 --> 01:33:49.480
No evil can befall us.

01:33:50.220 --> 01:33:57.860
What it meant is true endurance and true
rejoicing in the knowledge that Christ is

01:33:57.860 --> 01:33:58.400
with us.

01:34:01.280 --> 01:34:06.880
Remember that Christ too frequents
prisons, and he will not pass me by.

01:34:09.000 --> 01:34:12.620
Bernhofer was disappointed that he was not
able to baptize the first child of

01:34:12.620 --> 01:34:17.920
Eberhardt and Renate, and whom the parents
had named after him, Dietrich Wilhelm

01:34:17.920 --> 01:34:18.700
Rüdiger Bethke.

01:34:20.040 --> 01:34:21.820
He sent a baptismal sermon.

01:34:22.900 --> 01:34:28.920
Our being Christians today will be limited
to two things, prayer and righteous action

01:34:28.920 --> 01:34:29.440
among men.

01:34:31.020 --> 01:34:35.180
There will be those who pray and do right
and wait for God's own time.

01:34:37.080 --> 01:34:38.120
May you be one of them.

01:34:39.780 --> 01:34:44.620
Bernhofer continued his pastoral ministry
in this Nazi prison and later even in the

01:34:44.620 --> 01:34:49.060
concentration camps, especially to those
who had been condemned to death.

01:34:51.000 --> 01:34:57.780
His one concern in prison was to get
permission to minister to the sick and his

01:34:57.780 --> 01:34:58.520
fellow prisoners.

01:34:59.320 --> 01:35:04.460
And his ability to comfort the anxious and
depressed was amazing.

01:35:05.620 --> 01:35:08.340
But Bernhofer was realistic about himself.

01:35:10.920 --> 01:35:11.740
Who am I?

01:35:13.140 --> 01:35:17.700
They often tell me I would step from my
cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully,

01:35:17.900 --> 01:35:19.840
firmly, like a squire from his country
house.

01:35:22.100 --> 01:35:22.800
Who am I?

01:35:24.120 --> 01:35:28.700
They often tell me I would talk to my
warders freely and friendly and clearly as

01:35:28.700 --> 01:35:29.780
though it were mine to command.

01:35:32.240 --> 01:35:33.120
Who am I?

01:35:34.460 --> 01:35:39.520
They also tell me I would bear the days of
misfortune equably, smiling, proudly,

01:35:39.680 --> 01:35:40.940
like one accustomed to win.

01:35:43.000 --> 01:35:46.120
Am I then really all that which other men
tell me of?

01:35:48.580 --> 01:35:51.120
Or am I only what I know of myself?

01:35:53.020 --> 01:35:58.360
Restless and longing and sick like a bird
in a cage, struggling for breath as though

01:35:58.360 --> 01:36:03.860
hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for flowers, for the voices of

01:36:03.860 --> 01:36:11.600
birds, thirsting for words of kindness,
for neighborliness, trembling with anger

01:36:11.600 --> 01:36:17.600
at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,

01:36:18.460 --> 01:36:25.320
powerlessly trembling for friends at an
infinite distance, weary and empty at

01:36:25.320 --> 01:36:32.720
praying, at thinking, at making,
faint and ready to say farewell to it all.

01:36:32.800 --> 01:36:34.180
Who am I, this or the other?

01:36:34.440 --> 01:36:36.320
Am I one person today and tomorrow
another?

01:36:36.460 --> 01:36:41.760
Am I both at once a hypocrite before
others and before myself a contemptibly

01:36:41.760 --> 01:36:42.860
woe-begone weakling?

01:36:45.680 --> 01:36:52.560
Or is something within me still like a
beaten army, fleeing in disorder from

01:36:52.560 --> 01:36:53.800
victory already achieved?

01:36:59.480 --> 01:37:00.380
Who am I?

01:37:02.000 --> 01:37:05.200
They mock me, these lonely questions of
mine.

01:37:09.160 --> 01:37:15.040
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God,
I am Thine.

01:37:28.170 --> 01:37:33.350
Once again on July 20th, 1944,
another attempt to assassinate Hitler was

01:37:33.350 --> 01:37:37.670
made, but he survived the bomb attack with
minor injuries on his right arm.

01:37:39.370 --> 01:37:43.630
The editor of the official church journal,
Pastorate and Theology, exhorted

01:37:43.630 --> 01:37:47.310
Christians to thank God for saving the
Führer's life.

01:37:50.150 --> 01:37:54.830
We are grateful to God with all our hearts
and with all our congregations ask God for

01:37:54.830 --> 01:37:58.970
his support and help for the great
responsibilities which the Führer has to

01:37:58.970 --> 01:38:01.850
bear and discharge in these most difficult
times.

01:38:05.760 --> 01:38:08.740
As for Hitler himself, he was both angry
and elated.

01:38:09.560 --> 01:38:12.520
Impressing Mussolini, he was on an
official visit at that time.

01:38:12.800 --> 01:38:16.360
Hitler boasted of his miraculous escape
and vowed revenge.

01:38:16.900 --> 01:38:24.000
I am now more than ever convinced that the
great cause which I serve will survive its

01:38:24.000 --> 01:38:25.160
prison perils.

01:38:26.060 --> 01:38:33.520
I will crush and destroy the criminals who
have dared to oppose themselves to

01:38:33.520 --> 01:38:35.640
Providence and me.

01:38:36.840 --> 01:38:39.960
The Gestapo and the SS immediately carried
out a purge.

01:38:40.360 --> 01:38:45.180
Because of his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer
was not directly involved, but some of the

01:38:45.180 --> 01:38:47.460
conspirators were connected to Bonhoeffer.

01:38:47.780 --> 01:38:51.700
When a month later, on August 22nd,
his brother-in-law, Hans von Donany,

01:38:51.920 --> 01:38:57.240
was sent to the concentration camp in
Sachsenhausen, Bonhoeffer realized that

01:38:57.240 --> 01:38:58.360
his fate was sealed.

01:38:58.360 --> 01:39:02.860
His only hope was in a plan to escape with
the help of a devoted guard, Corporal

01:39:02.860 --> 01:39:06.060
Knobloch, who was prepared to smuggle him
out of prison.

01:39:07.400 --> 01:39:11.260
A mechanic's garments and food coupons for
the escape were already passed on to

01:39:11.260 --> 01:39:11.820
Bonhoeffer.

01:39:12.160 --> 01:39:16.640
But on October 1st, 1944, his brother
Klaus, who was the legal advisor to

01:39:16.640 --> 01:39:20.620
Lufthansa, was arrested in the
Schleicher's house on Marienberger Allee.

01:39:21.580 --> 01:39:25.500
Two days later, on October 4th,
Rüdiger Schleicher and Eberhard Bethke

01:39:25.500 --> 01:39:27.020
were also taken into custody.

01:39:27.020 --> 01:39:30.560
Bonhoeffer did not want to further
endanger his family.

01:39:31.060 --> 01:39:32.960
He abandoned his escape plan.

01:39:33.620 --> 01:39:38.420
Reflecting on this decision, he composed
his famous poem, The Death of Moses,

01:39:38.620 --> 01:39:44.380
in which Moses accepts his fate to die on
the mountain in God's presence.

01:39:44.380 --> 01:39:48.860
To punish sin and to forgiveness you are
moved.

01:39:50.260 --> 01:39:52.020
God, this people I have loved.

01:39:53.160 --> 01:39:56.340
That I bore its shame and sacrifices and
saw its salvation.

01:39:57.200 --> 01:39:58.160
That suffices.

01:40:01.120 --> 01:40:05.900
Bonhoeffer found the key to all problems,
including his long and lonely internment

01:40:05.900 --> 01:40:08.500
and his continuous living in Christ.

01:40:11.540 --> 01:40:17.660
All that we may rightly expect from God
and ask him for is to be found in Jesus

01:40:17.660 --> 01:40:18.040
Christ.

01:40:19.380 --> 01:40:25.400
In Jesus, God has said yes and amen to it
all, and that yes and amen is the firm

01:40:25.400 --> 01:40:26.680
ground on which we stand.

01:40:35.340 --> 01:40:41.500
Following the debacle of July 20th,
1944, Hitler called for an extended

01:40:41.500 --> 01:40:46.280
investigation, during which the Gestapo
discovered Bonhoeffer's travel diaries.

01:40:47.340 --> 01:40:50.000
These documents implicated Bonhoeffer and
the Opfer.

01:40:50.560 --> 01:40:54.220
Consequently, Bonhoeffer's situation
deteriorated rapidly.

01:40:57.100 --> 01:41:01.920
On Sunday, October 8th, 1944, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer was transferred to the

01:41:01.920 --> 01:41:06.740
underground Gestapo prison, which was
concealed by the facade of the Gestapo

01:41:06.740 --> 01:41:09.600
headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße.

01:41:12.740 --> 01:41:16.160
Life in the Gestapo prison was very
arduous and restrictive.

01:41:16.920 --> 01:41:18.840
Bonhoeffer was deprived of all privileges.

01:41:19.500 --> 01:41:23.780
The only exception was the permission to
write one letter each for Christmas and

01:41:23.780 --> 01:41:24.200
New Year.

01:41:24.860 --> 01:41:28.920
Bonhoeffer wrote the same poem in both the
letters, the Christmas letter to his

01:41:28.920 --> 01:41:33.020
fiancée, Maria, and the New Year letter to
his mother, whose birthday fell on

01:41:33.020 --> 01:41:34.140
December 30th.

01:41:36.260 --> 01:41:39.600
The old year still torments our hearts,
unhastening.

01:41:40.740 --> 01:41:43.000
The long days of our sorrows still endure.

01:41:44.580 --> 01:41:49.640
Father, grant to the souls, thou hast been
chastening, that thou hast promised the

01:41:49.640 --> 01:41:50.380
healing and the cure.

01:41:53.080 --> 01:41:57.260
Should it be ours to drain the cup of
grieving, even to the dregs of pain at thy

01:41:57.260 --> 01:42:03.420
command, we will not falter, thankfully
receiving all that is given by thy loving

01:42:03.420 --> 01:42:03.860
hand.

01:42:05.820 --> 01:42:10.600
By kindly powers so wondrously protected,
boldly we'll face the future, come what

01:42:10.600 --> 01:42:10.800
may.

01:42:12.460 --> 01:42:26.740
We are with God at night and morn,
just as sure on each new day.

01:42:33.220 --> 01:42:39.320
For interrogation purposes, at the end of
January 1945, Donaghy was also brought to

01:42:39.320 --> 01:42:40.220
the Gestapo prison.

01:42:43.800 --> 01:42:49.380
On April 6th, 1945, he was taken back to
the Sachsenhausen concentration camp,

01:42:49.860 --> 01:42:53.180
where on the same day he was
court-martialed and sentenced to death.

01:42:53.780 --> 01:42:56.480
He was executed on April 9th, 1945.

01:42:58.520 --> 01:43:05.100
On February 2nd, 1945, Klaus Bonhoeffer
and Rüdiger Schleicher were condemned to

01:43:05.100 --> 01:43:05.400
death.

01:43:06.760 --> 01:43:11.540
Klaus Bonhoeffer and Rüdiger Schleicher
were shot by the Gestapo on April 23rd,

01:43:11.600 --> 01:43:12.400
1945.

01:43:13.340 --> 01:43:17.760
A bomb crater in the Dorotheenstadt
cemetery in Berlin became their grave.

01:43:19.020 --> 01:43:23.380
The next day, February 3rd, 1945,
the Allies unleashed their heaviest air

01:43:23.380 --> 01:43:27.600
attack on the center of Berlin,
transforming it into a wilderness of smoke

01:43:27.600 --> 01:43:28.300
and ashes.

01:43:30.300 --> 01:43:34.940
Amidst all this ruin and destruction,
Dietrich's parents tried desperately to

01:43:34.940 --> 01:43:38.980
visit him for his birthday, which was the
following day, on February 4th.

01:43:39.380 --> 01:43:42.540
His birthday gift included a book by the
philosopher Plutarch.

01:43:42.840 --> 01:43:45.560
It would play an important part in his
destiny.

01:43:46.460 --> 01:43:50.520
His parents tried again on the usual
parcels day, Wednesday, the 7th of

01:43:50.520 --> 01:43:52.580
February, to get into the head office.

01:43:52.580 --> 01:43:57.140
Their parcel, which also contained a
Plutarch, was accepted at this time,

01:43:57.680 --> 01:43:59.400
but they were not allowed to see their
son.

01:43:59.880 --> 01:44:04.500
The accompanying letter was the last word
that Dietrich Bonhoeffer received from his

01:44:04.500 --> 01:44:04.900
family.

01:44:07.380 --> 01:44:09.030
7 February, 1945.

01:44:10.680 --> 01:44:15.180
Dear Dietrich, Your birthday letter for
the 4th, which we wanted to bring on

01:44:15.180 --> 01:44:18.040
Saturday, did not reach you because of the
raid.

01:44:18.980 --> 01:44:22.060
Karl Friedrich has chosen the Plutarch for
your birthday.

01:44:22.900 --> 01:44:24.640
I hope that this letter reaches you.

01:44:25.220 --> 01:44:28.300
We are looking forward to being allowed to
see you soon.

01:44:28.300 --> 01:44:34.040
There are many things to be sorted out at
our age, things that have to be discussed

01:44:34.040 --> 01:44:35.080
with one's children.

01:44:35.940 --> 01:44:38.860
I'm typing this, so it can be easily read.

01:44:39.760 --> 01:44:41.120
Our hearty greetings.

01:44:41.880 --> 01:44:42.520
Your father.

01:44:52.030 --> 01:44:57.230
It was the same afternoon of February 7th,
1945, that Dietrich Bonhoeffer vanished

01:44:57.230 --> 01:45:00.210
without trace from the Gestapo prison in
Berlin.

01:45:00.930 --> 01:45:04.690
It was only a week later, on the next
parcels day, February 14th, that his

01:45:04.690 --> 01:45:08.190
parents discover that there was no longer
anyone at the heavily damaged

01:45:08.190 --> 01:45:11.930
Prinz-Albrecht-Straße prison to receive
their gifts.

01:45:12.450 --> 01:45:17.310
And it was still months later,
only through the BBC, that the survivors

01:45:17.310 --> 01:45:20.670
hear of the last stages of Bonhoeffer's
journey.

01:45:30.640 --> 01:45:35.540
On February 7th, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
was transported to the notorious

01:45:35.540 --> 01:45:38.080
Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar.

01:45:38.760 --> 01:45:42.960
He was housed in a basement prison,
damp, cold and dark, without daylight.

01:45:44.120 --> 01:45:48.240
There was a communal washroom and next to
it was the dampest cell, cell number one

01:45:48.240 --> 01:45:50.060
for Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

01:45:51.840 --> 01:45:56.340
As Easter Sunday of April 1st,
1945, approached, the thunder of American

01:45:56.340 --> 01:45:59.600
cannons from the woods nearby could be
heard in the basement.

01:46:00.760 --> 01:46:03.920
For the prisoners, these guns heralded the
sounds of freedom.

01:46:05.440 --> 01:46:07.700
However, their joy and hope was
short-lived.

01:46:09.020 --> 01:46:10.980
The guards began a mass execution.

01:46:12.560 --> 01:46:17.360
In special instructions from Berlin,
camp inmates were routinely massacred in

01:46:17.360 --> 01:46:18.800
face of the approaching enemy.

01:46:20.140 --> 01:46:23.800
Prisoners in the basement cell were given
new orders to be ready to leave at any

01:46:23.800 --> 01:46:24.980
moment, even by foot.

01:46:27.160 --> 01:46:30.180
Did that mean they were to share the fate
of the others who were taken to the woods

01:46:30.180 --> 01:46:30.900
and executed?

01:46:34.000 --> 01:46:39.100
On Tuesday, April 3rd, a huge truck rolled
out of Wuchenwald, carrying Bonhoeffer and

01:46:39.100 --> 01:46:41.140
others in a southeasterly direction.

01:46:42.320 --> 01:46:43.880
The hearts of the inmates sank.

01:46:44.560 --> 01:46:45.860
They were going to Flossenburg.

01:46:45.980 --> 01:46:47.720
It was for them an ominous name.

01:46:48.500 --> 01:46:52.020
On the way, Bonhoeffer was a source of
comfort and strength to the many

01:46:52.020 --> 01:46:52.440
prisoners.

01:46:53.040 --> 01:46:57.360
A fellow prisoner, Hugh Falconer,
described those days to Dietrich's sister,

01:46:57.860 --> 01:46:59.720
Sabine, a few months later.

01:47:00.320 --> 01:47:05.080
He did a great deal to keep some of the
weaker brothers from depression and

01:47:05.080 --> 01:47:05.720
anxiety.

01:47:06.520 --> 01:47:11.580
He spent a good deal of time with Wassilor
Corcoran, who was a delightful young man,

01:47:11.980 --> 01:47:12.940
although an atheist.

01:47:13.820 --> 01:47:17.760
I think your brother divided his time
between instilling the foundations of

01:47:17.760 --> 01:47:20.140
Christianity and learning Russian.

01:47:22.440 --> 01:47:25.720
Soon they were relieved to discover that
the truck was going south.

01:47:26.380 --> 01:47:28.740
It was not going to be the annihilation
camp.

01:47:31.620 --> 01:47:37.440
By late Friday, April 6th, they were
approaching Schoenberg, 25 miles north of

01:47:37.440 --> 01:47:37.740
Passau.

01:47:41.230 --> 01:47:45.450
They were housed in this small schoolhouse
being used as a temporary lock-up.

01:47:46.110 --> 01:47:49.710
Bonhoeffer was among the special cases
taken to the second floor.

01:47:51.170 --> 01:47:57.530
That afternoon and next day, Saturday,
April 7th, 1945, Bonhoeffer and his fellow

01:47:57.530 --> 01:48:02.310
prisoners enjoyed the view of the lovely
Green Mountain Valley, oblivious that in a

01:48:02.310 --> 01:48:06.830
midday discussion two days earlier,
on Thursday, April 5th, Hitler had given

01:48:06.830 --> 01:48:11.070
special orders that all the conspirators
be immediately executed.

01:48:12.130 --> 01:48:16.990
On Sunday, April 8th, 1945, several
prisoners requested Bonhoeffer to lead

01:48:16.990 --> 01:48:21.710
them in a prayer service to celebrate Low
Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter.

01:48:22.090 --> 01:48:26.070
There was only one difficulty,
the presence of the avowed atheist,

01:48:26.370 --> 01:48:26.870
Corcoran.

01:48:26.870 --> 01:48:31.910
Despite Bonhoeffer's longing to conduct
the service, he refused because he did not

01:48:31.910 --> 01:48:34.370
want to exclude Corcoran from any
activity.

01:48:34.930 --> 01:48:39.410
Surprisingly, Corcoran desired to be
included and himself asked Bonhoeffer to

01:48:39.410 --> 01:48:40.450
conduct the service.

01:48:40.990 --> 01:48:45.430
Bonhoeffer offered a meditation on 1 Peter
1.3.

01:48:46.150 --> 01:48:49.270
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

01:48:50.490 --> 01:48:55.390
By his great mercy we have been born anew
to a living hope through the resurrection

01:48:55.390 --> 01:48:57.050
of Jesus Christ from the dead.

01:48:58.650 --> 01:49:03.190
He spoke of their present state and the
future that awaits them, freedom or death.

01:49:04.750 --> 01:49:09.090
Whichever it may be, the true renewal has
already taken place in our hearts.

01:49:10.390 --> 01:49:11.770
Two things have happened.

01:49:12.630 --> 01:49:15.570
First, Christ has died for us men in our
salvation.

01:49:16.290 --> 01:49:17.790
We live because he died.

01:49:19.990 --> 01:49:24.070
And the second, because of this God has
renewed us.

01:49:25.650 --> 01:49:28.690
We are new men, unstained by the past.

01:49:30.890 --> 01:49:35.370
After this service, the prisoners wanted
to smuggle Bonhoeffer to their room so

01:49:35.370 --> 01:49:37.130
that he could hold a service there too.

01:49:39.050 --> 01:49:42.850
They were interrupted as the door was
pushed open by two Gestapo members in

01:49:42.850 --> 01:49:43.610
civilian clothes.

01:49:44.170 --> 01:49:47.730
They called out, Prisoner Bonhoeffer,
get ready and come with us.

01:49:48.270 --> 01:49:51.450
By now it was clear to everyone,
Bonhoeffer was to be executed.

01:49:52.510 --> 01:49:54.530
He was able to get his things together.

01:49:55.510 --> 01:49:59.450
He wrote his name and address in large
letters with a blunt pencil in his

01:49:59.450 --> 01:50:02.910
Plutarch, in the front, back and middle.

01:50:03.710 --> 01:50:08.710
This book, which he had been given by his
brother Karl Friedrich in the Gestapo

01:50:08.710 --> 01:50:14.510
basement prison of Albrechtstrasse,
was found and passed on to the family as

01:50:14.510 --> 01:50:16.790
the last sign of Dietrich's life.

01:50:18.310 --> 01:50:20.390
Bonhoeffer said his final goodbyes.

01:50:21.350 --> 01:50:26.330
Payne Best records Bonhoeffer's last
words, a message for Bishop Bell of

01:50:26.330 --> 01:50:26.770
Chichester.

01:50:27.890 --> 01:50:29.090
This is the end.

01:50:29.990 --> 01:50:32.270
For me, the beginning of life.

01:50:45.520 --> 01:50:50.280
A journey from Schoenberg to the
Flossenberg concentration camp lasted till

01:50:50.280 --> 01:50:50.860
late evening.

01:51:11.360 --> 01:51:16.620
He is at thy right hand.

01:51:20.100 --> 01:51:23.980
In Hitler's personal orders, the SS
summary court held a short trial in the

01:51:23.980 --> 01:51:25.800
laundry of the concentration camp.

01:51:29.760 --> 01:51:37.520
The death penalty for high treason was
pronounced on Wilhelm Gnerus, Hans Oster,

01:51:40.120 --> 01:51:45.840
Karl Sack, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

01:51:46.600 --> 01:51:52.060
But for Bonhoeffer, death had lost its
sting and grave its victory.

01:51:52.900 --> 01:51:57.940
With an indomitable faith in God,
he approached his end.

01:52:02.640 --> 01:52:06.840
Death, throw off our grievous chains and
raise the thick walls of our mortal body

01:52:06.840 --> 01:52:12.300
and our blinded soul, so that at last we
may behold what we have failed to see in

01:52:12.300 --> 01:52:12.820
this place.

01:52:14.720 --> 01:52:18.480
Freedom, long we have sought you through
discipline, through action, and through

01:52:18.480 --> 01:52:18.980
suffering.

01:52:20.440 --> 01:52:24.700
Now that we are dying, we see you,
there in the face of God.

01:52:25.700 --> 01:52:37.140
For still our ancient foe doth seek to
work us woe.

01:52:37.480 --> 01:52:47.120
His craft and power are great,
and armed with brutal hate.

01:52:48.120 --> 01:52:56.120
Yet our God doth prevail them.

01:52:57.960 --> 01:53:02.840
Even in dying, Bonhoeffer left a powerful
testimony of costly grace.

01:53:03.780 --> 01:53:05.580
Grace bought at a price.

01:53:08.200 --> 01:53:11.420
His last witness was an SS camp doctor.

01:53:12.320 --> 01:53:14.320
He knew nothing about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

01:53:15.180 --> 01:53:19.500
He would never understand Dietrich
Bonhoeffer's theology, yet he could never

01:53:19.500 --> 01:53:21.720
forget Dietrich Bonhoeffer's faith.

01:53:23.380 --> 01:53:25.320
Ten years later, he wrote...

01:53:26.140 --> 01:53:30.960
On the morning of that day, I saw Pastor
Bonhoeffer before taking off his prison

01:53:30.960 --> 01:53:34.580
garb, kneeling on the floor, praying
fervently to God.

01:53:35.460 --> 01:53:40.360
I was most deeply moved by the way this
lovable man prayed, so devout and so

01:53:40.360 --> 01:53:42.200
certain that God heard his prayer.

01:53:49.760 --> 01:53:55.160
At the place of execution, he again said a
short prayer and then climbed the steps to

01:53:55.160 --> 01:53:57.460
the gallows, brave and composed.

01:53:58.700 --> 01:54:00.720
His death ensued after a few seconds.

01:54:05.560 --> 01:54:11.360
In the almost 50 years that I worked as a
doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die

01:54:11.360 --> 01:54:14.660
so entirely submissive to the will of God.

01:55:54.530 --> 01:56:02.270
On April 11th, 1945, the American forces
liberated the Buchenwald concentration

01:56:02.270 --> 01:56:02.730
camp.

01:56:03.450 --> 01:56:08.610
Tragically, just six days earlier,
on April 5th, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

01:56:08.610 --> 01:56:11.250
was transported to Flossenburg to be
hanged.

01:56:12.250 --> 01:56:17.210
On April 30th, 1945, ironically,
three weeks after ordering the execution

01:56:17.210 --> 01:56:22.230
of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hitler himself
committed suicide in this bunker.

01:56:24.490 --> 01:56:31.050
And in his schoolhouse in Reims,
France, on May 7th, 1945, less than a

01:56:31.050 --> 01:56:35.610
month after Dietrich Bonhoeffer's
execution, the Third Reich surrendered to

01:56:35.610 --> 01:56:36.270
the Allies.

01:56:37.150 --> 01:56:38.170
The war in Europe was over.

01:56:49.460 --> 01:56:54.060
Bonhoeffer's family waited anxiously for
him or for news about him, but there was

01:56:54.060 --> 01:56:54.640
no trace.

01:56:55.560 --> 01:57:00.860
Only coincidentally, on July 24th,
1945, his parents tuned into a radio

01:57:00.860 --> 01:57:01.980
broadcast from London.

01:57:02.780 --> 01:57:05.400
What they heard was a memorial service for
their son.

01:57:06.300 --> 01:57:09.960
Three and a half months had passed since
that fateful Monday, April 9th,

01:57:09.980 --> 01:57:13.520
1945, when his family first heard of his
execution.

01:57:17.240 --> 01:57:21.540
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hanged as a
39-year-old.

01:57:22.040 --> 01:57:27.520
Lest this man forever becomes a monument,
we must remember him more than just as a

01:57:27.520 --> 01:57:27.780
martyr.

01:57:28.640 --> 01:57:34.440
In relation to the situations in which he
found himself, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an

01:57:34.440 --> 01:57:36.460
authentic witness to Jesus Christ.

01:57:36.460 --> 01:57:43.180
In both, through his life and his death,
he has demonstrated how we should respond

01:57:43.180 --> 01:57:45.640
in faithfulness to the Gospel.

01:57:47.340 --> 01:57:52.100
One must completely abandon any attempt to
make something of oneself, whether it be a

01:57:52.100 --> 01:57:54.940
saint or a sinner, a righteous man or an
unrighteous man.

01:57:56.240 --> 01:57:59.820
In so doing, we throw ourselves completely
into the arms of God.

01:58:00.720 --> 01:58:05.040
Taking seriously not our own sufferings,
but those of God in the world.

01:58:06.080 --> 01:58:08.300
Watching with Christ in Gethsemane.

01:58:09.520 --> 01:58:10.740
That is faith.

01:58:10.960 --> 01:58:11.900
That is repentance.

01:58:13.060 --> 01:58:15.140
And that is how one becomes a Christian.

01:58:16.480 --> 01:58:18.620
How can success make us arrogant?

01:58:19.120 --> 01:58:23.160
Or failure lead us astray when we share in
God's sufferings through a life of this

01:58:23.160 --> 01:58:23.420
kind?

01:58:24.100 --> 01:58:27.120
May God in his mercy lead us through these
times.

01:58:27.960 --> 01:58:31.680
But above all, may he lead us to himself.

01:59:10.620 --> 01:59:24.320
Praise to the Lord, who for all things so
wondrously reigned, Shielded me under his

01:59:24.320 --> 01:59:25.240
wings, With the power of his love.

01:59:25.240 --> 01:59:40.500
He so gently sustained me, As though not
seeing How the desires of him Granted him

01:59:40.500 --> 01:59:46.600
what he ordained me.

01:59:47.120 --> 01:59:59.740
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper Thy
work and defend thee, Surely his goodness

01:59:59.740 --> 02:00:05.440
and mercy Here daily attend thee.

02:00:07.180 --> 02:00:22.760
Honor anew All ye almighty men do,
Who with his love doth defend thee.