Stationen auf dem Weg zur Freiheit. Zum 80. Todestag von Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) . Vortrag von Edgar L. Born

In the organizer's words:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was born in Breslau and grew up in Berlin, became one of the central figures of the "Confessing Church" in 1933, which brought together Protestant Christians in Germany who were opposed to the anti-christian and inhuman Nazi regime. Bonhoeffer, who had previously studied theology in Tübingen, Rome and Berlin, rejected several opportunities to emigrate from Germany, even though those in power exerted increasing pressure on him and restricted his opportunities for activity. It was primarily through his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnányi (1902-1945) that Bonhoeffer came into contact with military resistance circles around Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (1887-1945) and Major General Hans Oster (1887-1945). However, Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Secret State Police on April 5, 1943. Bonhoeffer also demonstrated exceptional courage and strength of faith during his time in prison. He was finally imprisoned in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he was murdered by members of the SS on April 9, 1945 - at the same time as Canaris and Oster - shortly before the arrival of American troops.

Edgar L. Born, himself a Protestant theologian and an accomplished expert on (church) history, paints a vivid picture of the man, theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

As part of the event series "80 years since the end of the war in Europe"

Missing words. They would have had more to say: death anniversaries 1945

In a final furor of extermination mania, the Nazi regime, which had long since been militarily defeated and was already facing its own downfall, allowed its murderous helpers to act faster and more ruthlessly than ever before in the spring of 1945. Numerous people who had previously fallen into the hands of those in power because of their oppositional thoughts and actions were murdered, in some cases immediately before the arrival of the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, who conquered Germany and liberated it from the nightmare of Hitler's rule and his paladins.

Others perished in the chaos of the end of the war, became victims of the anxieties and hardships of exile, died at an inopportune time, shortly before a fundamental new beginning in Germany became possible, which would have required precisely these people, their thoughts, actions and words. Nevertheless, many of them formulated thoughts of lasting importance on their final journey, often quite literally in the face of death. 80 years after Germany lost them and many more, this series remembers some of these people who would have had even more to say.

The series begins with an article on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), exactly 80 years after the important Protestant theologian and resistance fighter was murdered in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, along with several other political prisoners, including General Hans Oster (1887-1945), one of the leading figures of the military resistance. On the same day, Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law and fellow fighter Hans von Dohnanyi (1902-1945) was hanged in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Sachsenhausen camp was liberated by Soviet and Polish troops on April 22/23, 1945, the same day American units arrived at the Flossenbürg camp.

Also on April 9, 1945, the Catholic philosopher Theodor Haecker (1879-1945) died near Augsburg, as urgently needed medication could not be procured in the collapse situation. Haecker had previously been the most important intellectual source of inspiration for the young members of the "White Rose" resistance group in Munich. After their arrest and murder in the spring of 1943, he had only escaped capture by the Secret State Police by chance. On February 2, 1945, the Jesuit priest Alfred Delp (1907-1945) had already been murdered in the notorious Berlin-Plötzensee prison for his involvement in the resistance "Kreisau Circle". The Prague-born poet Franz Werfel (1890-1945) and Alexander Granach (1890-1945), who came from the then Habsburg, now Ukrainian eastern Galicia and was one of the pioneering actors on German stages in the 1920s, died in exile in the USA in 1945. After the end of the war, the musicians Leo Borchard (1899-1945) and Anton Webern (1883-1945) died in tragic circumstances in 1945. Borchard, who was born in Moscow and had been a member of the "Uncle Emil" resistance group in Berlin during the war, had just taken over as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Together with Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), who emigrated in 1933, Webern was one of the pioneers of modern music.

The series will commemorate personalities whose absence has been particularly painful since 1945 in various forms and formats throughout the entire commemorative year 2025.