At a time when being indifferent towards Nazism and Hitler was a criminal offence and expressing those feelings was especially discouraged, one man made his voice heard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant intelligence man who wrote theological works which are still influential to Christians throughout the world. He had no intentions of conforming to his society's norms and selling out to the political atmosphere. A new church was formed to stand up against the political powerhouse Nazism and it had Dietrich's name attached to it. He was executed in 1945 for his role in the resistance against Hitler-truly, this was a man who died for his beliefs.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4th 1906 in Breslau to parents Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer. Dietrich had a twin sister named Sabine, and they were the sixth and seventh children of a family which would total eight children by 1909. He grew up happily, in his middle class family. His family based its' education on deep-rooted traditions and schooling (Bethge, Eberhard, 4). This was to encourage the children to learn, understand and especially to respect the objectives of previous generations, likely because Paula came from a family of distinguished and independent scholars. Their home was equipped with a school room where their mother gave them their primary school education. The children did exceptionally well in school and largely due to the fact that she gave them a great start, they took and exceeded the school-leaving exam at a young age.
Paula handled everything, and this made others assume that she, not her husband, was the one who ruled the house (Bethge, 8). Many of Paula's characteristics were inherited by Dietrich. Karl was not always around, as he had a demandin...
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...y end of his life who made so many sacrifices just to spread the word about what was right, and did not accept what everyone else supported. He had countless setbacks and obstacles in his way yet he managed to prevail. So many people would have backed down from what they believed in once a strong opposition came into play but Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an example of what we should be more like.
Works Cited:
Barnett, Victoria. "Dietrich Bonhoeffer." http://www.ushmm.org/bonhoeffer/b1. Date accessed: 11 Nov. 2003.
Bethge, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian, Christian, Contemporary. London: William Collins Sons & Co., 1970.
Godsey, John D. The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1958.
Robertson, E.H. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press: 1966.
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