Letters and Papers From Prison (38 page)

32.
The Russian counter-offensive, the overthrow of Badoglio in Italy, the air-attacks on Hamburg and the evacuation of Berlin.

33.
Friedrichsbrunn.

34.
In the meantime Eberhard Bethge had been released from his exempt status by the
Abwehr
and had been called up for military training.

35.
Cf. the letter from Christoph von Dohnanyi, 7 September 1943.

36.
A joiner and opponent of the Nazis; occasionally went to the Bonhoeffer’s house to help.

37.
On the envelope (for his lawyer, Dr Wergin): ‘In case of my death to be handed to my next of kin.’

38.
Onnasch.

39.
Dress.

40.
In view of a date for his trial, which he still confidently expected.

41.
‘And however crazy, or Christian, or unchristian things may be outside, this world, this beautiful world is quite indestructible.’

42.
His fiancée’s brother, who fell on the Eastern front in 1942.

43.
Household help.

44.
Hans-Christoph von Hase.

45.
Ruth-Alice von Bismarck, wife of Klaus von Bismarck.

46.
Help in the Schleicher house.

47.
German proverb: ‘Good work takes time.’

48.
So-called ‘bombing leave’ because of the damage done to the Burckhardthaus in August.

49.
Christine Schleicher.

50.
The following correspondence between Bonhoeffer and Bethge was all smuggled. The exchange of letters began during the first leave from the army that Bethge was able to spend in Berlin.

51.
During the transition from the intelligence branch (following his exempt status with the
Abwehr)
to normal military service.

52.
‘For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval.’ ‘But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.’

53.
Unfortunately lost.

54.
Part of it is printed, in German, in
Gesammelte Schriften
III, pp. 478-512.

55.
Printed in
Ethics,
pp. 326ff. (Fontana ed., pp. 363ff.).

56.
See pp. 139ff.

57.
For further military training Bethge was posted to Lissa (Poland).

58.
‘T hereupon I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.’

59.
The ‘men of the inner line’ were churchmen who disliked Hitler’s anti-Christian dictatorship but who, under pressure, abandoned their opposition to it.

60.
A pastor from Brandenburg, who belonged to the Finkenwalde group.

61.
Pastors from Saxony, the latter from the Finkenwalde seminary.

62.
The former was a Nazi daily paper, the latter a Nazi weekly.

63.
In Switzerland in the summer of 1943 (to justify his exemption for the
Abwehr).

64.
Sonata for flute and piano by J. S. Bach.

65.
A hint that the relationship between Bonhoeffer and Bethge had been kept out of the interrogations. If necessary, ‘licenciate studies’ were to have been given as the reason for Bethge’s exempt status during the first months of the war, had the interrogation moved in this direction.

66.
Lost; presumably they were hymn verses.

67.
Being smuggled, it had to be completely concealed or destroyed.

68.
The letters of 18-23 November 1943 were smuggled out as one letter.

69.
End of March 1943.

70.
Hymn-book for Protestant youth.

71.
Bethge had let Bonhoeffer know that the Confessing Synod in Breslau had prayed for him by name at its service on 17 November 1943.

72.
At this time there began the massed night attacks with saturation bombing of Berlin suburbs - surprisingly, for the people, not on moonlit nights, but at new moon and in bad weather.

73.
Captain Maetz would be generous in supervising the visit.

74.
On the envelope: ‘For Eberhard Bethge personally’.

75.
His parents, Maria von Wedemeyer and Eberhard Bethge.

76.
A present from Karl Barth, whom Bethge had been able to visit and inform on a visit to Switzerland in summer 1943 under the auspices of the
Abwehr.

77.
Visser’t Hooft.

78.
Fritz Onnasch, imprisoned in Stettin for some weeks in winter 1937-38.

79.
Locomotive works in Tegel.

80.
Klaus von Dohnanyi.

81.
Dr Roeder.

82.
Christine von Dohnanyi, who was visiting her husband in prison (Lehrter Strasse).

83.
Rev.10.9f.

84.
Soldiers who had been given political screening for service in military units of the
Abwehr.

85.
Dr Roeder.

86.
Prof. J. Zutt, at that time Director of a private psychological and neurological clinic in the West End.

87.
See p. 130

88.
Dr Roeder.

89.
Leibholz in Oxford.

90.
G. K. A. Bell, Bishop of Chichester; addresses in case of being taken prisoner by the English.

91.
Abwehr.

92.
Code word for listening to English news bulletins.

93.
Karl Barth.

94.
Monsignor Johannes Schönhöffer in the Vatican.

95.
Bonhoeffer had learnt that Bethge had been given further leave before leaving for active service.

96.
Church Dogmatics,
II, 1 and 2, sent from Switzerland without title and cover, as they were banned in Germany.

97.
A holiday trip to Rome made by Bonhoeffer and Bethge following the ecumenical conference in Chamby.

98.
Dr Cesare Gay (former member of the Youth Commission of the World Alliance) or Prof. Ernesto Comba.

99.
Superintendent in Berlin, president of the German group of the World Alliance concerned with co-operation between churches.

100.
‘There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.’

101.
Because of the outward appearance of Bonhoeffer’s case, family and friends were working together to ensure that Bonhoeffer’s trial, if it materialized at all, would be held only in conjunction with that of von Dohnanyi, because of fears that the case might not be limited to the relatively harmless details of the charge.

102.
‘Yea, by thee I can crush a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall.’

103.
‘With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.’

104.
Return from America in July 1939.

105.
Hans von Dohnanyi was in the Charité with an embolism from 24 November 1943 to 22 January 1944 and was treated there by Prof. Sauerbruch (DB, pp. 71 if.).

106.
The Dohnanyis’ house in Sakrow.

107.
Daily texts, published yearly since 1731.

108.
‘And when the shepherds saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child.’

109.
A. von Weymarn, working in the World Council in Geneva.

110.
From Paul Gerhardt’s hymn, ‘Nun lasst uns gehn und treten.’

111.
Garrison in Poland.

112.
Hans Lokies, at that time Director of the Gossner mission and a member of the Berlin Council of Brethren.

113.
The second part of the letter is lost.

114.
In Munich.

115.
Christine, Countess Kalckreuth, who had allowed Bonhoeffer to use her house as an accommodation address for reporting to the police in Munich; see DB, pp.589, 604.

116.
For the attempted overthrow in March 1943, see DB, pp.684ff.

117.
The Munich hotel which Bonhoeffer used most frequently to stay in while travelling through during his time at Ettal.

118.
Rignano, below Monte Soratte on the Via Flaminia. A reminiscence of the trip to Rome in 1936 after the ecunemical conference at Chamby.

119.
Rüdiger Schleicher.

120.
Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer on 13 January, Rüdiger Schleicher on 14 January.

121.
Lost.

122.
Dr Wergin, the defence lawyer.

123.
‘And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them.’

124.
The Allies had established a bridgehead from the sea at Nettuno and Anzio, south of Rome.

125.
In case of being taken prisoner of war in the West.

126.
In charge of the German congregation of St Paul in London in 1939.

127.
On the tour of the Finkenwalde Preachers’ Seminary to Sweden in March 1936.

128.
Niemöller.

129.
Meaning the Jewish problem.

130.
Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann, formerly a member of the seminary at Finkenwalde.

131.
Christine von Dohnanyi, whose husband had just been transferred again from the Charité to prison (22 January 1944); see DB, p. 712.

132.
In the Dohnanyis’ house in Sakrow.

133.
A South German S-shaped Christmas biscuit.

134.
Two air attacks on the Borsig factory, immediately next to the prison.

135.
According to notes in Bonhoeffer’s book of readings, a Herr Engel.

136.
A type of novel which depicts an actual situation, but in which all the characters are disguised.

137.
It never came, and is lost.

138.
‘O thou who hearest prayer! To thee shall all flesh come’ (Ps.65.2): ‘The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects’ (James 5.16).

139.
Dr Hans Schönfeld in Geneva.

140.
William Paton in London.

141.
Visit by Bethge.

142.
The Leibholz family had emigrated from there to England in 1938.

143.
At the Finkenwalde seminary.

144.
Martin Luther’s first complete translation of the Bible.

145.
‘Ich danke Gott und freue mich’ (‘I thank God and rejoice’).

146.
A beautiful little rosewood cupboard, which came from Minna Herzlieb, through the von Hases, to the Bonhoeffers (see p. 197).

147.
‘The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king’ (I Sam. 2.10). ‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you’ (I Peter 5.6).

148.
Again hopes for a date for the trial.

149.
Martin Niemöller in Dachau concentration camp.

150.
Military bishop.

151.
Monte Soratte, within whose slopes Kesselring’s headquarters lay.

152.
To Monsignore Leiber and Schönhöffer in the
Propaganda Fide,
who had been let in on the conspiracy.

153.
Velletri, in front of the allied bridgehead at Anzio-Nettuno, south of Castel Gandolfo.

154.
Hans von Dohnanyi.

155.
Bach’s uncompleted
Art of Fugue
was handed down with this chorale as a conclusion.

156.
J. Rainalter.

157.
Artillery duel at Anzio-Nettuno.

158.
A reference to National Socialist convictions and caution because of the conspiracy.

159.
Via Appia (1936).

160.
From Velletri, south of Rome, to Rignano.

161.
The expected trial.