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Home , Bonhoeffer family, The Cost of Discipleship

GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN Gaithersburg, Maryland

The Life and Witness of – A 20th century Martyr 4 February, 1906 – 9 April, 1945

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - “The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer” The Eighth of Eight Sessions The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost -- September 6, 2020 (Series A)

I. Legacy? Just Where Does One Begin? , the text, upon which we have primarily based this eight session study, was first published in German in 1937. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived and taught non- violence, yet he became a member of the German Abwehr, the naval branch of the German military secret service of the Third Reich, as were one of his brothers and two of his brothers-in-law. He was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945 at the direct command of Adolph Hitler, through Heinrich Himmler! With other prisoners as forced witnesses in the execution yard of the Flossenburg Concentration Camp, he died naked, violently, and in public humiliation.1 Seven others died with him in that same early morning hour. All had been conspirators in the July 20, 1944 attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler at his highly defended “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters on the Eastern Front of the German armed forces.2 All of this was 75 years ago this past April. Moreover, Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship was first published in 1937, eighty three years ago. Yet we are coming to the conclusion of an Dietrich Bonhoeffer eight session discussion and reading of that book, firmly believing 2/4/06 – 04/09/45 that this book, so relevant to Christians and the German nation in Bonhoeffer’s day, is also important to our faith and our churches, and perhaps our nation as well in

1. The SS Troops of the Nazi Third Reich were quite good at these sorts of things. They were violent, cruel, and intentionally sadistic! They sometimes recorded execution scenes for Hitler to watch later! (There is no evidence that this was the case on this dawn hour on a Sunday Morning at Flossenburg )

2. No, Bonhoeffer was not in the center of that active effort, but he knew about it’s planning more than a year in advance. He also believed that it was imperative for the German Third Reich and its leaders to be brought down. This operation, code named “Valkyrie,” was planned and carried out by some of the most respected military leaders of that time in . It failed. There was a heavy table leg between the Fuhrer and the bomb, even though the building they were in was demolished, the Fuhrer survived, mostly a bit shaken up!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 1 2020, eighty three years after its first publication. Why do we think this? Well, in the year 2010, seventy-three years after the long and widely read The Cost if Discipleship was first published, and 75 years after the execution believed to have been ordered by Hitler himself, a new biography was published by Eric Metaxas3 entitled Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. It is the first major biography of Bonhoeffer in fifty years, written by one of the most skillful writers of historical biographies of our time. It arrives with eight frontal pages of affirmations from a host of our contemporary leaders in religion, literature, and society. It’s front cover announces that this book is a New York Times Bestseller. And by the way, this work is 542 pages long, before the copious indices, and the print is small!4 Finally, in regard to the popularity of publications of Bonhoeffer’s works, Fortress Press has published seventeen volumes of Bonhoeffer’s works, and they are expensive, most likely to be found in theological libraries!

II. Cheap Grace – The Text Most People Know Perhaps one of the most widely read of Bonhoeffer’s works is The Cost of Discipleship, and some of the best known passages have to do with cheap and costly grace. His first chapter deals with “Costly grace.” That chapter begins: “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. . . . Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. . . . grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Christ, living and incarnate.”5 The point of this first chapter, and it will reoccur over and again throughout this work, is that the call of Christ is to give oneself up wholly. He further says that the response expected of his disciples is to accept Him fully and immediately. My Dad used to say about many things, “Do it now!” Jesus once told a parable about a man who had two sons. To the first he asked to go into the vineyard. He agreed to go, but did not go. He asked the second son to do the same, and he said he would not. But then, he changed his mind and did as his father had asked.6 Jesus asked “Which of the sons did as his Father had asked?” To be a , one must follow Christ whole-heartedly, with no reservation, and at once!

3. Eric Metaxas – The latest English edition of The Cost of Discipleship, begins with a Forward by Eric Mataxas. Published in 2018.

4. This Metaxas work (Bonhoeffer) is published by Thomas Nelson, established in 1789..

5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Touchstone/SImon and Schuster, New York:1959. Pp. 43-35.

6. Saint Matthew 21:28-32.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 2 III. The Crisis for Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer early on became convinced that the Third Reich was a radical government which he could neither support or serve. He could not/would not fight in its armed forces. 7 If not a full-fledged pacifist, he was committed to non-violence. He became convinced and fully believed that, according to Jesus, the right way to requite evil is not to resist it. . . . The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for.”8 Therefore, it was clear. Bonhoeffer was convinced that he would not/could not serve the government of the Third Reich or its armed forces. But, he must, in every way he could, oppose and frustrate that government’s programs and policies. He would be a partner in the founding of the Underground Church and Seminary; and he would oppose the policies that persecuted the Jews, including assisting his sister, Sabine and her Jewish husband and their children, to escape to Switzerland and ultimately to England.

IV. The Abwehr – A Double Agent The Abwehr, the naval branch of the German Secret Service, might be a strange place to find Bonhoeffer, but upon his return from England and his crisis of decision how to live in the context of the Third Reich, an offer from the Abwehr to become an agent. It should be noted that Dietrich’s brother Klaus and two of his brothers- in-law were also Abwehr agents with some higher organizational “authority,” Such an affiliation would answer both Bonhoeffer’s unwillingness to serve in the armed forces and his equal unwillingness to serve in the Third Reich. (It would be assumed he was already doing so.) In truth, he could have rather free travel internationally, continuing his ecumenical contacts and representing in these travels the possibility of bringing out of Germany messages from and/or in behalf of the German resistance. Further, we now know that some of his relatives, including his brother Klaus and two brothers in law, Hans von Dohnanyi and Rudiger Schleicher, were also Abwehr agents, and also members of the “resistance.” 9 “Things others would not know for years were known in the Bonhoeffer household in Berlin.10 Knowing just when Dietrich determined to join with the others is not clear. However, it is apparent that he knew of the work of the “resistance”, which was active and significant before he might have been considered an agent or conspirator.

7. German law continued to have a “Conscientious Objection” clause, but in the Third Reich it usually brought one’s execution!

8.. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, “Revenge,” p. 141.

9. Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Thomas Nelson,:New York, 2010, p. 319.

10. Ibid. , p/ 320.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 3 Moreover, the had family and friends among many powerful and influential people in the government. Paula Bonhoeffer was close to her cousin, Paul von Hase, the Military Commander of Berlin.. He too was fiercely opposed to Hitler and would be a major player in the coup attempt on July 20, 1944. This relationship of Paul von Hase may well have influenced the treatment Dietrich enjoyed in the 18 months as an inmate in the Tegel Military Prison in Berlin.11 Moving on, Dietrich, as an agent, would travel widely, mixing his ecumenical relationships and communications in behalf of the “resistence.” The effort was an attempt to let the Allied forces know of the resistence in Germany and of course, seeking their help and support. Whenever it was that he officially joined, it is thought that he gave counsel to Dohnanyi and a number of its leaders. Still, he resisted formal affiliation. It would take a 26 day trip to the United States and a trip among the Bavarian congregations of the to decide. On July 14, 1940, the arrived and broke up a conference at which Bonhoeffer was preaching and presented a new order that such conferences were now illegal. Returning to Berlin, Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer spoke of these new issues for ministry and it was suggested that if Bonhoeffer were to be employed officially by the Abwehr, the Gestapo would have to leave him alone. It worked well for a good while. Bonhoeffer traveled widely on what was to be Abwehr business, but was in fact business mostly in ecumenism and for sharing the work of the German resistance with the Allies.

V. Maria von Wedemeyer During all of these activities and complications, in June of 1942, following his trip to Sweden, Bonhoeffer went to visit an old friend and a solid supporter of the Confessing Church, Ruth von Kleist-Retzow. His visit coincided with that of her grand-daughter, Maria von Wedemeyer, a former Confirmand whom Dietrich had known well a few years earlier. Maria was very close to her grandmother. During that visit they went on a friendly stroll in the garden and Dietrich talked about having recently been to America. Maria was impressed, saying that she had never met anyone who had been to America. She left the next day. That said, Dietrich apparently needed some time to process his thinking. He appears to have been surprised by how he had been affected in Maria von Wedemeyer that short time. He had remembered her as too young to have in his confirmation class in 1936. Now, she met him as a beautiful and vivacious young woman who was headed off to college to major in mathematics. He also knew her family, solid Christians. Between Maria’s grandmother and her “advocacy,” even working around her daughter’s and Maria’s guardian’s12 firm opposition because of their daughter’s young age (18), a relationship

11. Ibid., p. 319.

12, Maria’s father had been killed on the Russian front. Thus, she had a relative as her “guaradian.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 4 developed though mostly an exchange of letters. After six months, Maria overcame her parental objections and they were permitted to become engaged, but not to marry for a year. They were both thrilled with the agreement. We have some insight to this surprising relationship through the letters they shared, most of which are yet available. 13 On January 13, 1943, Maria and Dietrich had become “officially” engaged and could announce the same. However, they had spent very little time together before that wonderful day of the announcement, and it is believed that they did not see one another again before Dietrich was arrested by the Gestapo on 5 April. He would be held in the Tegel Military Prison in Berlin for 18 months. Once in prison, Maria’s status as his fiancee was a further gift. It meant that she could both visit and correspond with Dietrich, and they did exchange mails with as much frequency as the wartime mails in Berlin would support. Maria was a source of food and smuggled mail. (To this day, we are grateful to Maria for allowing their correspondence to be published after her death.) Between Bonhoeffer’s gentle and caring style and approach to everyone, he worked as an inmate in pastoral outreach to all, inmates and guards alike. The guards were sympathetic and helped to smuggle letters out of the prison, uncensored. One guard even planned an escape for Bonhoeffer and for himself. Bonhoeffer declined it, fearing Gestapo retribution against his family and even Maria, as well as his brother Klaus and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi who were both in prison by this time.14 One other note. We are reminded that the German Military Commander of Berlin was a cousin of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It may have influenced the relaxed jailors who worked with Dietrich during these 18 months. Most likely, it was more to do with Dietrich caring.

VI. The Search for the Conspirators The attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler and a circle of his top military advisors, already mentioned in this paper, occurred on July 20, 1944. Many were injured and a few died, but Hitler survived the blast. Believing that the blast had removed Hitler and his top generals from the scene, those who planned the attempt stepped into action to take control of the government. But Hitler recovered enough to go on the radio to assure Germans that he was still alive. That in turn caused the round-up of those top officers who had been a part of the coup attempt. Most were executed by a firing squad that same evening. The search for others would continue, as would the trials and executions. Admiral Wilhelm In September of 1944 a cache of secret Abwehr documents were found, Camaris

13. These letters are available through the graciousness of Maria von Wedemeyer, who gave permission for their publication, but not until her own death. Their engagement continued until Dietrich’s death on April 9, 1945, a span of more than two years!

14. In fact, both Klaus and Hans had been arrested by the Gestapo on the same day as Dietrich.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 5 relating to the conspiracy. Among those documents were the diary and files of Admiral Canaris, the head of Abwehr, as well as others, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi. Those same documents accused Dietrich Bonhoeffer of associating with the conspirators. The documents found their way to Heinrich Himmler and finally to Hitler in early April. Hitler is said to have flown into a rage and telephoned Heinrich Himmler demanding the immediate execution of these conspirators.

VII. From Buchenwald to Flossenburg After severe Allied air bombardment of the Tegel Military Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others were transferred to the detention cellar of the house prison of the Reich Security Head Office, the Gestapo’s high security prison, also in Berlin. From the time of this transfer from Tegel Military Prison until the war ended, neither Maria nor the Bonhoeffer family would know of Dietrich’s whereabouts or his general welfare. In February of 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others of the conspirators were transferred first to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and then, in early April of 1945, to the Flossenburg Concentration Camp. However, because of a mixup in transportation, Bonhoeffer did not arrive with the others. Two men were dispatched to retrace the 100 miles to find him. Bonhoeffer arrived at Flossenburg late on Sunday evening. There was time enough for his “drumhead trial” by an SS prosecutor and judge. Preparation for an He was sentenced to death by hanging. Execution No one knows whether Bonhoeffer slept that night. There were just a few hours after his trial before morning arrived, dawn to be exact. The prison doctor at Flossenburg, H. Ficher Hullstrung, years later provided a narrative of Dietrich’s death. That account ended with: “He was brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I have worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man as entirely submissive to the will of God.”15 That day was April 9, 1945. Two weeks later, on April 23, 1945, Allied troops marched into Flossenburg. A week later, Adolph Hitler committed suicide and the war was over! Back at Flossenburg, the crematorium had not been working, so that the bodies of the eight executed that day in April were laid out and burned in piles. There were many such piles of bodies at Flossenburg when the Allies arrived. This would mean that there were no graves for those eight conspirators executed on April 9, nor were the Allied forces able to recover or identify bodies. There is a plaque on the wall of the Memorial Plaque execution yard listing, beginning with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the names of On Execution Yard Wall those who died by execution at the Flossenburg Concentration Camp on

15. Metaxas, op. cit., p. 552.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 6 that day.

VIII. More About The Legacy Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the man and the movement of the Confessing Church, are precious to us. As noted earlier, he was a remarkable student and a teaching theologian who lived what he taught, understanding that Christian discipline is an important part of Christian maturity and Christian living. We are the “light in the darkness and the city upon the hill” about which Jesus and Bonhoeffer spoke. Disciples are expected to be faithful in following their teacher, and for us that teacher is Jesus Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was rooted in the Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament. That “rootedness” was evident in the several chapters we read together from The Cost of Discipleship. He preached about taking up the Cross with Christ, and history tells us that he took that cross unflinchingly at Flossenburg. It is no wonder that more than fifty years later, new editions of his writings appear on our “Best Sellers” lists. We hunger for this “spiritual authenticity” for our lives, our churches, and our communities. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer, every one who came in contact with him, even his prison guards, found him to be a kind, relaxed, genuinely good person. So we read and we pray and we see in Dietrich a model for our growth in Christian living. Bonhoeffer has inspired and influenced great movements for social justice in the civil rights movement in the United States and in such leaders as the late Reverend Dr. King, Jr., the anti-communist democratic movements in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, the anti- Apartheid movement in South Africa and Namibia, and hopefully even the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the United States. And, what about the Church? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is well remembered in England, and the anniversary of his death is remembered in many Christian denominations, especially in the Anglican Communion where he is identified as a Martyr. Our own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America remembers him in its liturgical calendar on April 9 as a Martyr. The United Methodist Church, which does not have liturgical saints, officially recognizes Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a “modern day martyr.” The German Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church, Evangelical Church of Sydenham in London, at which London Bonhoeffer preached from 1933 to 1935, was destroyed by bombing in 1944. It was rebuilt in 1958 and named Dietrich Bonhoeffer Kirche in his honor. This list surely goes on! It’s an awesome legacy, and it appears to be growing.

The Life and Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th Century Martyr 4 February, 1906 – 9 April, 1945 German Lutheran Pastor, Churchman, Theologian, Teacher, anti-Nazi Dissident, Martyr July 19 – An Introduction to a Martyr – Part One July 26 – An Introduction to a Martyr – Part Two August 2 – An Agent of the Abwehr

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 7 August 9 – The Cost of Discipleship August 16 – Bonhoeffer and Jesus’ “” Part I The Visible Community August 23 – Bonhoeffer and Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” Part 2 The Righteousness of Christ August 30 – Bonhoeffer and Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount“ Part 3 Truthfulness Revenge September 6 - The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

NEXT WEEK: “Just Who Are the Saints?” A new series of four sessions. Did you know that even Islam has saints? Then there is the CLDS! All have different stories and definitions. Still more, much more next week! It’s the first session!

Other Topics in Planning: The Book of Isaiah - A Historical Study, Lifting Significant Passages

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:- The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rev.4 Wpd Page 8