Bonhoeffer’s patriotism

Born Feb. 4, 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer became one of the most influential Protestant theologians of his generation. He was executed by the Nazis 80 years ago (April 9, 1945), and his legacy remains contested as his moral stand against totalitarianism and tyranny continues to inspire people of diverse ideological, political, and moral persuasions.

One of the most important lessons Bonhoeffer has to teach us has to do with the proper order of our loves, specifically as it relates to our national and civic identity. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian, and while he was a modern theologian in many ways and was deeply influenced by his liberal teachers, he was also deeply formed by the work of Luther and the Lutheran theological tradition. In general Lutheranism at that time in Germany had a very conservative and even passive posture towards civil authority. In some ways this was an inheritance of the origins of Lutheranism itself, which in the 16th century had depended so much on the protection of princes for its blossoming in Germany and throughout Europe.

There are certainly Biblical as well as Lutheran resources for developing principled resistance to tyranny. But at the end of the 19th and early 20th century, the mainstream of German Lutheran thought had closely identified the German people and the German nation as special manifestations of God’s providential purposes. In this way many churchmen and theologians blessed German imperial ambitions in the Great War, and in the wake of that disastrous defeat there were many Christian leaders who—struggling for legitimacy and validation—threw their support behind the hope of a renewed Germany that the Nazis proclaimed.

Bonhoeffer loved Germany. But he loved God more. And in time he realized that his love for his country and his fellow Germans, and even more so his love for God, required opposition to the Nazi regime. And Bonhoeffer not only opposed the Nazis in matters of theology and in their efforts to corrupt the church. He also courageously challenged Nazi collectivist idolatry in public as well as in secret. 

Upon Hitler’s election as chancellor in 1933 Bonhoeffer gave a public radio address (which was interrupted during the broadcast) as well as a public lecture expressing the disjunction between a Christian understanding of civil life and Nazi ideology. Among the younger generation, said Bonhoeffer, the leader (Führer) had become a dangerous expression of collective identity, functioning as an idol rather than as a minister of God (Romans 13:4). In this new, idolatrous view of political leadership, “The leader was meant to be the friend whom one worshipped, loved, for whom one was willing to sacrifice everything.”

His opposition continued and sharpened as Hitler moved to impose the Aryan paragraph, which forbade Jews from public service, on the church. And through his relatives in civil service as well as military intelligence Bonhoeffer became aware of Nazi atrocities sooner and to a greater extent than the broader German public. He helped foment an exodus from the increasingly Nazified established church, helping to form the “Confessing Church” movement and leading an outlaw seminary for these pastors who were excluded from legal recognition.

Concern for his safety led friends and family to encourage him to return to America for a second time in 1939, to which he assented. He had visited earlier in the decade, studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York. But quickly upon his return to the United States he realized he had erred in seeking safety. “I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people of Germany,” Bonhoeffer wrote. “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”

In the final stage of his life, Bonhoeffer also engaged in more surreptitious activity to undermine the Nazis, participating in a circle of opposition that in time would attempt to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was eventually arrested and implicated after the discovery of hidden files that documented Nazi crimes. In a moving essay written a decade after Hitler’s rise to power, Bonhoeffer wondered, “Are we still of any use? We will not need geniuses, cynics, people who have contempt for others, or cunning tacticians, but simple, uncomplicated, and honest human beings.”

Bonhoeffer’s commitment to obeying God’s moral law provided him the grounding to express civil courage. It also allowed him to distinguish between loyalty to a government and to a political leader and true patriotism. His love for Germany led him to oppose the German government. And his love for God led him to risk his life to serve his neighbor—whether Jew or Christian. This is the kind of love we need today—for God and country.