Dietrich Bonhoeffer And The Problem Of Dirty Hands

What Counts As Christian Martyrdom?

Abstract

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, along with others implicated in the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, was executed at the Flossenbuerg internment camp on April 9, 1945, less than a month before the final collapse of the Nazi regime in Berlin. Bonhoeffer was unusual among those implicated in the plot, in that he was both an ordained Christian minister and well-known in ecumenical circles in Europe and the USA. While Bonhoeffer was already held in custody on suspicion of anti-Nazi activities at the time of the unsuccessful assassination attempt, July 20, 1944, his role in it was confirmed when secret papers that his brother-in-law and co-conspirator, Hans von Dohnanyi, had preserved were discovered, and the full extent of the plot became known to Hitler and his staff. Many consider Bonhoeffer to be a Christian martyr, but his involvement in the assassination plot has always been controversial. Bonhoeffer’s posthumously published writings, especially his Letters and Papers from Prison and his unfinished Ethics, have secured him an enduring reputation as an innovative theologian for, in his own terms, “a world come of age.” While Bonhoeffer refused to defend his participation in the assassination plot on Christian and ethical grounds, both these works provide important clues as to how he thought about it.