18. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge, pp. 56–57.
19. Walter Benjamin cited in Wayne Whitson Floyd Jr., “Style and Critique of Metaphysics: The Letter as Form in Bonhoeffer and Adorno,” in Wayne Whitson Floyd Jr. and Charles Marsh, Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1994), p. 239.
20. Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 8, p. 110.
21. Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 251.
22. Edwin Robertson, The Shame and the Sacrifice (New York: Macmillan, 1988), p. 230.
23. Bonhoeffer cited in Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 249.
24. Ibid., p. 263.
25. Robertson, The Shame and the Sacrifice, p. 235.
26. From Floyd, “Style and Critique of Metaphysics,” p. 249.
27. Bonhoeffer speaks of the day “when people will once more be able to speak the word of God with renewing and redemptive power. But on that day, Christians will have learned to speak a new language—perhaps quite nonreligious language, but liberating and redeeming like Jesus’s language … the language of a new righteousness and truth, a language proclaiming that God makes peace with humankind and that God’s kingdom is drawing near; and liberating and hope-inspiring like the language of the Hebrew prophets. On that day ‘They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for them’ (Jer. 33:9).”
28. Although Letters and Papers from Prison was published in an abridged English version in 1953, it was not until the publication of John A. T. Robinson’s Honest to God in 1963 that Bonhoeffer’s theology became known to popular audiences. As the theological inspiration of the Anglo-American “Death of God” movement of the late 1960s, Bonhoeffer’s prison writings offered phrases and ideas well suited to a generation of disenchanted church people—“the world come of age,” “religionless Christianity,” and “living in the world as if there is no God.” And the Death of God movement, for fifteen minutes, stimulated conversations in the universities and churches on the church in the secular city, even though the movement’s riff on selected prison writings (and its indifference to most everything else in Bonhoeffer’s corpus) led to distorted, if not at times comically flawed, interpretations. Still, these boyish theologians and “a/theologians,” as some came to be called, leveled important and unsettling questions against the floundering Protestant mainline and brought daring and passion to American academic theology; as I have said elsewhere, they should be forgiven their excesses.
29. Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 11, p. 285.
30. Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, p. 883.
31. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge, p. 312.
32. Aside from the Barcelona sermon, there are only five mentions of the Song of Solomon in Bonhoeffer’s writings. One appeared in a London sermon; another was from Barcelona. The rest are found in the prison writings.
33. John de Gruchy, conversation with the author.
34. Bethge does not mention this visit in his biography. Ibid.
35. Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 8, p. 412.
36. See the “Editors’ Afterword to the German Edition,” DBW, vol. 6, pp. 307–9.
37. This confession proved deeply unsettling to those who knew Bonhoeffer from the Finkenwalde years. Many of these pastors were disturbed by this question of whether, “in the end, Finkenwalde might have been only a temporary phase” in Bonhoeffer’s spiritual journey. Members of Bonhoeffer’s family, on the other hand, felt relief upon reading the prison letters after the war, concluding that the strenuous theology of his writings in the 1930s had been superseded by the meditations on religionless Christianity.
38. De Gruchy in Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 8, p. 374.
39. Edward Callan, “Exorcising Mittenhofer,” London Magazine 14, no. 1 (1974): 73.
40. W. H. Auden, “Epistle to a Godson,” cited in ibid., p. 74.
41. In Bonhoeffer’s fictional piece, “A Quiet Forest Pond,” the young German aristocrat ponders the fate of Christianity in the time beyond the war and reimagines Christianity in the form of a “new elite of people.”
42. Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler, p. 318.
43. Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 264.
44. Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 16, p. 405.
45. See Mark Brocker’s excellent introduction to the English-language edition of DBW, vol. 16, pp. 1–30.
46. Schlingensiepen, Bonhoeffer, p. 359.
47. Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 267.
48. John de Gruchy, correspondence with the author.
49. Ibid.
50. The “House Prison” at the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin (Berlin: Topography of Terror Foundation, 2005), p. 50.
51. Schlabrendorff, I Knew Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 228.
52. Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler, pp. 329–35.
53. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, cited in The “House Prison” at the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin, p. 53.
54. Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 267.
55. Sack cited in ibid., p. 256.
56. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge, p. 326.
57. Stifter seems an unlikely guide to the human psyche; after a failed romance and an unhappy marriage he committed suicide in 1868 by slashing his neck with a razor.
58. Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 8, p. 397.
59. In the poem “The Past,” written in summer 1944, Bonhoeffer heralded the recovery of an earthy richness, faded and dissolved—“comfortless, distant … past”—and enriched now by prayer, thought, and love. The past returned to him in a dream at daybreak, “pure, free, and whole.” Was this not how grace should feel? “The past coming to you once again, and becoming your life’s enduring part, through thanks and repentance.” Bonhoeffer stretched out his hands in solitude and prayed. “A new thing now I hear,” he said amid the silences of the hour.
60. Karl and Paula were not allowed to visit Dietrich in the Gestapo prison; fortuitously, Bonhoeffer’s prosecutor was fond of Maria and made a few exceptions for her. Renate Bethge and Nancy Lukens, “By Powers of Good,” in Association of Contemporary Church Historians (Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler), vol. 12, special issue on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. John S. Conway (February 2006): 74. Compare with this the note from Lukens: “The handwritten original is part of Bonhoeffer’s December 19, 1944, letter from the Prinz-Albrecht-Straße prison in Berlin to Maria von Wedemeyer.”
61. Ibid., p. 77.
62. Ibid., p. 79.
63. Text of the children’s song, titled “Abendgebet” (evening prayer), in Des Knaben Wunderhorn. (“When at night I go to bed, fourteen angels round my stead.”) See also Martin Luther, Sermon on Michaelmas, September 29, 1531: “I should soon accustom a child from the youngest age on to say: Dear child, you have an angel; when you pray in the morning and the evening, this angel will be by you, will sit by your little bed, will be dressed in a little white cloak, and will take care of you, rock you and keep you safe.”
64. Christoph Gestrich, conversation with the author, March 2011, Berlin.
65. No contemporaneous documents were preserved from the events leading to the April 9 executions. However, the account given by English secret service officer Payne Best, first in his letter of March 2, 1951, to Gerhard Leibholz, and then in his 1953 book The Venlo Incident, has been generally accepted by most scholars. “Officer Best was part of the group of prisoners that was housed in the special barracks at the Buchenwald concentration camp and then transported to Schönberg in the Bavarian forest.” “His soul really shone in the dark desperation of our prison. He was one of the very few men I have ever met to whom God was real and ever close to him.” Best wrote that when Bonhoeffer was taken away by prison guards, he “remained calm and normal, seemingly perfectly at his ease,” and that he
approached him directly, grasped his hand, and whispered, “Will you give this message from me to the Bishop of Chichester, ‘tell him that this is for me the end, but also the beginning—with him I believe in the principle of our Universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national hatreds and that our victory is certain—tell him, too, that I have never forgotten his words at our last meeting.’ ” London, Bell Papers, vol. 42; typewritten; in original English, including errors; excerpt from S. Payne Best’s letter of October 13, 1953. Here Captain Best, who was transported together with Bonhoeffer up until their stay in the schoolhouse in Schönberg in the Bavarian forest, conveyed to the bishop the full text of Bonhoeffer’s parting message as he was summoned for court martial in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 8, 1945. In a preceding letter to Bell on September 23, 1953, Best wrote, “I remember that the thought flashed through my mind, that perhaps the message was a prearranged code which only you would understand.” To this Bell responded on October 5, 1953, “You will see that the message was short; and it was not a pre-arranged code.” For further reading, see Best, Venlo Incident, pp. 180, 191, 200; DB-ER, 921–28; and the Best/Bell correspondence in Glenthøj, “Zwei neue Zeugnisse,” 99–111. [DBWE, vol., 16, pp. 467–69.]
66. In the same letter he asked for “some toothpaste a few coffee beans, and a laxative.”
67. Karl Bonhoeffer cited in Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 269.
68. Schlingensiepen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 368.
69. Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, p. 927.
70. Toni Siegert, “Concentration Camp Flossenburg,” UTS Bonhoeffer Primary Sources, Serie 3, Box 1, Folder 7, p. 1.
71. Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, p. 927.
72. Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler, p. 330.
73. Clements, Bonhoeffer, p. 24.
74. For details see Rainer Mayer and Peter Zimmerling, eds., Dietrich Bonhoeffer Aktuell: Biografie, Theologie, Spiritualität (Gießen: Brunnen Verlag, 2001), pp. 92–93.
75. “In the postwar years, when the Nazi atrocities still had news value, the information circulated that Canaris was hanged by the string of a violin to prolong the strangulation, which meant that, when death was facing, he was brought back to consciousness only to be re-strangled. The victim was killed more than once. This information about the string is untrue.” Cited in ibid.
76. “The atmospheric account of Bonhoeffer’s hour of death by the camp physician is thus wholly devoid of truth. Moreover, the physician would have had to have ability to see the cell compound as well as the washing rooms through the open door, to observe Bonhoeffer kneeling. Besides, the executioner would never have permitted Bonhoeffer to interrupt the normal procedure. Regarding the knee praying pause taken by Bonhoeffer before ascending the gallows, it suffices to say that there were neither gallows nor steps to the gallows. One situation is conceivable where H. Fischer Hüllstrung would have been able to witness Bonhoeffer’s final hour; in case the doctor—as he had done before—had accompanied the group of prisoners. This would have made sense in this particular situation, since he was to resuscitate the semi-strangled prisoners. Normally, the tasks assigned to the camp doctor were more banal e.g. oversee that the prisoners sentenced to death were stripped of their dental crowns. This would explain why he waited ten years before parting with these contorted details. Still, the story has a bright side: Family and friends of Bonhoeffer could learn from the letter that Bonhoeffer had exhibited such worthy conduct until the very end, which even managed to impress a cynical camp doctor. One can pray deeply without kneeling or without clasping one’s hands as they are tied in the back.” Jørgen L. F. Morgensen cited in ibid.
77. “Chaplain Leslie Thompson Recalls Flossenbürg; A Personal Memory of Flossenburg by Leslie A. Thompson,” January 14, 1989, http://milewis.wordpress.com/chaplain-leslie-thompson-flossenbuerg/ (accessed October 13, 2013).
78. From von Hase, “ ‘Turning Away from the Phraseological to the Real,’ ” pp. 591–604.
79. Maria von Wedemeyer cited in Bonhoeffer, DBW, vol. 8, p. 556
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
~
1. ARCHIVAL SOURCES AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin; and Art Resource, New York
Papers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Papers of Eberhard Bethge, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Sources, Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, New York
KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg Archive
Archives of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church, Sydenham, London
Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde (BA Berlin-Lichterfelde)
Karl Barth-Archiv, Basel, Switzerland
Museum der Dinge Archives, Berlin
Reinhold Niebuhr Papers, Library of Congress
Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation, Free University of Berlin
House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial and Educational Site, Berlin
World Council of Churches Library and Archives, Geneva, Switzerland
2. PRIMARY LITERATURE
The seventeen-volume Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke, published in English translation by Fortress Press, Minneapolis (sixteen volumes).
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. 17 vols. Edited by Eberhard Bethge et al. Munich: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1986–99. Translated as Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (DBW), edited by Victoria J. Barnett, Wayne Whitson Floyd Jr., and Barbara Wojhoski (general editors). 17 vols. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996–).
Vol. 1: Sanctorum Communio: Eine dogmatische Untersuchung zur Soziologie der Kirche. Edited by Joachim von Soosten. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1986. Translated by Reinhard Krauss and Nancy Lukens as Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church, edited by Clifford J. Green (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998).
Vol. 2: Akt und Sein: Transzendentalphilosophie und Ontologie in der systematischen Theologie. Edited by Hans-Richard Reuter. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1988. Translated by Martin Rumscheidt as Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology, edited by Wayne Whitson Floyd Jr. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996).
Vol. 3: Schöpfung und Fall: Theologische Auslegung von Genesis 1–3. Edited by Martin Rüter and Ilse Tödt. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1989. Translated by Douglas Stephen Bax as Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1–3, edited by John W. de Gruchy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996).
Vol. 4: Nachfolge. Edited by Martin Kuske and Ilse Tödt. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1989; 2nd ed., Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1994. Translated by Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss as Discipleship, edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
Vol. 5: Gemeinsames Leben: Das Gebetbuch der Bibel. Edited by Gerhard Ludwig Müller and Albrecht Schönherr. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1987. Translated by Daniel W. Bloesch and James H. Burtness as Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, edited by Geffrey B. Kelly (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996).
Vol. 6: Ethik. Edited by Ilse Tödt, Heinz Eduard Tödt, Ernst Feil, and Clifford Green. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1992; 2nd ed., Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1998. Translated by Reinhard Krauss and Charles West, with Douglas W. Stott, as Ethics, edited by Clifford J. Green (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Vol. 7: Fragmente aus Tegel. Edited by Renate Bethge and Ilse Tödt. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1994. Translated by Nancy Lukens as Fiction from Tegel Prison, edited by Clifford J. Green (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).
Vol. 8: Widerstand und Ergebung. Edited by Christian Gremmels, Eberhard Bethge, and Renate Bethge, with Ilse Tödt. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Translated by Isabel Best, Lisa E. Dahill, Reinhard Krauss, and Nancy Lukens as Letters and Papers from Prison, edited by John W. de Gruchy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010).
&n
bsp; Vol. 9: Jugend und Studium: 1918–1927. Edited by Hans Pfeifer, with Clifford Green and Jürgen Kaltenborn. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1986. Translated by Mary Nebelsick, with the assistance of Douglas W. Stott, as The Young Bonhoeffer: 1918–1927, edited by Paul Matheny, Clifford J. Green, and Marshall Johnson (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
Vol. 10: Barcelona, Berlin, Amerika: 1928–1931. Edited by Reinhard and Hans-Christoph von Hase, with Holger Roggelin and Matthias Wünsche. Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1991. Translated by Douglas W. Stott as Barcelona, Berlin, New York: 1928–1931, edited by Clifford J. Green (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008).
Vol. 11: Ökumene, Universität, Pfarramt: 1931–1932. Edited by Eberhard Amelung and Christoph Strohm. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser Verlagshaus, 1994. Translated by Isabel Best, Nicholas S. Humphry, Marion Pauck, Anne Schmidt-Lange, and Douglas W. Stott as Ecumenical, Academic, and Pastoral Work: 1931–1932, edited by Victoria J. Barnett, Mark Brocker, and Michael B. Lukens (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012).
Vol. 12: Berlin: 1932–1933. Edited by Carsten Nicolaisen and Ernst-Albert Scharffenorth. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1997. Translated by Isabel Best, David Higgins, and Douglas W. Stott as Berlin: 1932–1933, edited by Larry L. Rasmussen (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009).
Vol. 13: London: 1933–1935. Edited by Hans Goedeking, Martin Heimbucher, and Hans-Walter Schleicher. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1994. Translated by Isabel Best as London, 1933–1935, edited by Keith W. Clements (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007).
Vol. 14: Illegale Theologenausbildung: Finkenwalde 1935–1937. Edited by Otto Dudzus and Jürgen Henkys, with Sabine Bobert-Stützel, Dirk Schulz, and Ilse Tödt. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1996. Translated by Douglas W. Stott as Theological Education at Finkenwalde: 1935–1937, edited by H. Gaylon Barker and Mark Brocker (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013).
Strange Glory Page 62