Modern witnesses

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906 to 1945 · Germany

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 to 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who opposed Adolf Hitler and paid with his life. He helped lead the Confessing Church against the Nazi takeover of German Christianity, taught that following Christ costs everything, and was drawn into a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler. Arrested in 1943, he was executed at Flossenburg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, weeks before the war’s end.

Life and context

Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau in 1906 into a distinguished family and became a brilliant young theologian. From 1933 he openly opposed the Nazis and their attempt to bend the German church to the state. He helped found the Confessing Church, which resisted, and ran an underground seminary at Finkenwalde. He spoke against the persecution of the Jews when most stayed silent. Under cover of a post in military intelligence, he joined the resistance and the plot against Hitler. He was arrested in April 1943, imprisoned for two years, and hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, only weeks before Germany’s surrender.

What he taught and wrote

In The Cost of Discipleship (1937) Bonhoeffer drew the sharp line between ‘cheap grace,’ forgiveness treated as a license that costs nothing, and ‘costly grace,’ which costs a person everything because it cost God the life of his Son. ‘When Christ calls a man,’ he wrote, ‘he bids him come and die.’ His Life Together (1939) is a small classic on Christian community, and his Ethics and the posthumous Letters and Papers from Prison continue to shape Christian thought.

What his witness points us to

Bonhoeffer lived and died what he wrote. He points to a Christ worth any cost, whose call is not to comfortable religion but to take up a cross and follow, trusting that the one who bids us come and die is himself the resurrection and the life.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 to 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who led resistance to the Nazis through the Confessing Church, joined a plot against Hitler, and was executed for it in 1945.

How did Bonhoeffer die?

Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 for his part in the resistance and the conspiracy against Hitler. He was hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, just weeks before the end of the war.

What is 'cheap grace'?

In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer contrasted 'cheap grace,' forgiveness treated as costing nothing, with 'costly grace,' which costs a person everything because it cost God the life of his Son.