Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Paper

Childhood and Background Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologist, pastor, and anti-Nazi activist, was born February 4, 1906. He was born in Breslau, Germany and grew up in a loving, broadminded, household. Having 7 siblings whom all grew to be confident, successful adults, had a big impact on who Dietrich was as a person. As a family they were taught to be outspoken, religious, at least by their mother, and social butterflies. Dietrich was the youngest of his 3 brothers and was treated as such. The oldest brother, Karl Bonhoeffer, a chemist, had a very close relationship with Dietrich. Their mother, Paula von Hase, homeschooled Dietrich till the age of 8. She was a middle and high school teacher in an all girls school, in Königsberg, Germany. Paula was from a wealthy, upper class, family full of pastors and theologists. Unlike Paula’s aristocrat background, Dietrich’s father took honor in being a self made middle-class-man. Dietrich’s father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was the son of a doctor. Having …show more content…
Eventually, he was exempt from all his crimes by the German government. He will always be remembered as an up-stander who risked his life to save others (it is unknown how many lives he actually saved). His religious faith and determination to stick up for what he believed in is what makes him an important person of the time. He will always be a model citizen in the Christian society. His experiences with Nazisim tested his faith, but he never gave up. “Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him… When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die,”( Dietrich