ArticleThis Easter marks the 80th anniversary of the execution by the Nazis of the pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was hanged on April 9, 1945, at Flossenbürg concentration camp, along with fellow conspirators in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler. Two weeks after Bonhoeffer’s death, the camp was liberated by the Americans.
Bonhoeffer was 39 years old, engaged to be married, with a glittering career ahead of him. He and others had taken huge and obvious risks to oppose tyrannical power and resist a regime responsible for horrendous crimes.
He was an early opponent of Nazism, publicly speaking out against the treatment of Jewish people as early as 1933.
He provided the theological and ethical framework for the assassination attempt, famously stating that protecting people from the wheel of oppression sometimes required sticking a spoke in that wheel. This was part of “loving your neighbour” – a crucial activity for believers, he said.
Days before his execution, Bonhoeffer was convinced by other prisoners to conduct an Easter service. He spoke from the New Testament letter of 1 Peter that proclaims the result of Christ’s resurrection is a “new birth into a living hope” along with “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade”. In the face of death all around them, this was an Easter message that resonated deeply. Almost immediately after the conclusion of the service, the dreaded call came for Bonhoeffer to prepare himself to leave. Everyone knew what that meant.
Bonhoeffer wrote: “When Christ calls a man [sic], he bids him to come and die.” That doesn’t sound all that appealing – yet Bonhoeffer was highlighting a radical teaching of Jesus, who claimed that he would bring “life to the full”. Importantly, the shape of that life involved turning your focus away from self and towards others.
The secret to a rewarding life comes in the form of love and service, according to Jesus. It is often described as laying down your life in order to pick it up. Counter-intuitive it may be, but perhaps ancient wisdom that could speak to our self-obsessed age. At a time when Elon Musk says the West’s great weakness is “empathy”, a message starting to get traction among American Christians, the Easter message of sacrifice being the greatest form of love is needed as much as ever.
Eighty years after Bonhoeffer climbed the scaffold to meet his fate, his life and death continues to intrigue us. We recognise its tragic beauty. We feel its weight and power. And we sense, as he did, that it had eternal significance. His last recorded words, spoken to another prisoner, British intelligence agent Payne Best, were:
“This is the end – for me, the beginning of life.”
Ultimately, it was the promise encapsulated in the events of Easter that made it impossible for him to remain a bystander, and why he could greet his end with a sense of hope.
Simon Smart is Executive Director of the Centre for Public Christianity and author of The End of Men? This article was first published in The Age.