April 28, 2003
BISHOP Ludwig Muller, leader of the Reich Church in Germany, greets Adolf Hitler during World War II. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who protested the church's alliance with the Nazi regime, is the subject of a new documentary, " Bonhoeffer." (Photos courtesy of Journey Films/RNS)
NEW DOCUMENTARY:
Bonhoeffer revisited
___By Peggy Fletcher Stack
___Religion News Service
___ALEXANDRIA, Va. (RNS)--Barely one month before the Allies conquered Germany, Nazi guards marched the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer naked to the gallows.
___Once a pacifist, he had plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Once a professor, he had become a double agent. Once a comfortable Lutheran pastor, he had stripped his own soul of facile Christian solutions that had become meaningless in the utter evil of the Holocaust.
___Faith does not exist apart from human conflict, Bonhoeffer said, but is born of complete engagement in this world.
___Today, Bonhoeffer's writings about ethics and Christian community continue to inspire and challenge all kinds of Christians. He has been the subject of several biographies, seminars, books, films, a one-person play and even an opera. A statue of him stands with those of other 20th century martyrs in London's Westminster Abbey.
___Now comes a feature-length documentary film about his life, titled simply "Bonhoeffer."
___The film, written and directed by Martin Doblmeier of Journey Films in Alexandria, Va., features interviews with family members, students, friends and historians. Klaus Maria Brandauer, known for his roles in films such as "Out of Africa," reads Bonhoeffer's words.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
___It was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival's documentary division but failed to make the cut, so several Park City, Utah, pastors agreed to show it at their churches during the festival.
___"'Bonhoeffer' represents the very best of what theology has to offer society in a time of terrorism, conflict and crisis," said United Methodist Pastor Scott Schiesswohl of Park City Community Church, which hosted the film for two nights. "He has become an important theologian for many and diverse faith groups."
___Since the initial Utah viewings, there has been a groundswell of interest in the film, Doblmeier said, with invitations coming in from churches across the country. A theatrical release is now set for June 20 in select cities.
___The film explores how Bonhoeffer's writing on ethics was forged on the anvil of his personal biography.
___He was born in Berlin Feb. 6, 1906, the sixth child of Paula and Karl Bonhoeffer, to be followed 10 minutes later by his twin sister, Sabine. His father was a professor of psychiatric medicine at the University of Berlin, and his maternal grandfather was a pastor at the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
___Young Bonhoeffer was an intellectual prodigy, finishing his doctorate in theology at the University of Tubingen and Berlin in 1927 at age 21.
___For his dissertation, he examined what it means to be a "communion of saints," arguing that God intended people to learn faith through communities, not as solitary sojourners.
___"The church is only a church when it works for others," he is quoted in the film. "The purpose of theology is to change the world for the better."
___In 1930, as the Nazi machine was building, Bonhoeffer sailed to New York City for a year of study at Union Theological Seminary. There, he experienced black spirituality in the churches of Harlem. Although blacks' free-flowing emotions were foreign to the tightly wrapped German, he came to love their style, sermons and music and was drawn to their emphasis on civil rights.
___Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1931 to teach systematic theology at the University of Berlin, where he watched many of his fellow churchmen turning toward aggressive nationalism even as he was becoming more ecumenical. On his frequent visits to international conferences, he made many friends who later would become his conduits for passing information about the Third Reich to the world.
___Just two days after Hitler was named chancellor in 1933, Bonhoeffer gave a radio address called "Christ is Our Fuhrer." Before he could complete it, the microphone was turned off.
___That same year, he joined a group of pastors who broke away from the Evangelical Church when it added the so-called "Aryan paragraph" to its confession. That edict forbade converted Jews, anyone who had Jewish ancestors or was married to a Jew from being a minister or religious teacher.
___The pastors formed the new "Confessing Church." When they were expelled from the state church's seminaries, Bonhoeffer helped them establish their own. But when the Gestapo shut down that school and removed him from his teaching duties at the university, he left the country whenever possible.
___He left for New York City again in 1939 but stayed only a month.
___After reading a passage in the Book of Isaiah--"He who believes does not flee"--Bonhoeffer boarded the last passenger ship to leave America for Europe before the war began.
___By this time, his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, worked in the Abwehr, Germany's military intelligence agency, but was actually a double agent working for the resistance. Bonhoeffer also was hired by the Abwehr for his many international contacts, which he also shared with the resistance.
___Bonhoeffer, von Dohnanyi and other family members in the Abwehr used their positions to smuggle more than a dozen Jews out of the country. Eventually, however, Bonhoeffer, Dohnanyi and two others were jailed on suspicion of corruption and conspiring to rescue Jews.
___Bonhoeffer spent his last two years writing and reviewing his life. In his posthumously published book "Ethics," he argued that the will of God is not a permanent system of rules. Rather, he said, it is something new and different in each situation and may be deeply concealed amid numerous possibilities.
___In the spring of 1945, the four men's names were linked with the assassination attempt and all were executed on April 9 in the Flossenburg concentration camp. Bonhoeffer was 39.
___To this day, many leaders have turned to his ethical legacy. One was Martin Luther King Jr.
___"If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and non-violence," King once said. "But if your enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer."
___"Bonhoeffer" is airing in churches around the country, including Washington, Massachusetts, Minnesota and California. For local information, consult www.bonhoeffer.com/screenings.htm. The film will be shown in select theaters around the country beginning June 20.
___
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
