Letters and Papers From Prison (41 page)

All the very best.

Your Dietrich

From Eberhard Bethge

[Rignano] 5 May 1944

Dear Dietrich,

I got your letter of II April a few days ago. Many thanks for it … In the meantime I’ve been given the electrifying hope that I may be able to bring you this greeting myself in a couple of days. That is, if nothing gets in the way. That would be quite terrible, as I’ve already been feeding my hopes at home. But surely it will come off. In that case are we really to have the baptism without you? It won’t be very good if it has to come to that. I hope that at least I shall get to see you. How much I would like to discuss the question of army chaplaincies with you; it’s been going through my head for a few days. I have the six-month ‘trial period’ almost immediately after my leave. I simply can’t imagine it, and perhaps the question will not in fact arise. But I would like to be more oriented about it. I’ll discuss it with Justus.
¹¹

Many thanks for your long letter. Where do you get the marvellously good notepaper from? Renate and I are sometimes worried at being so brief … Do you get the chance, then, to listen to the radio all day? …

Can you tell me anything about the fact that all my feeling and thinking is now really concentrated on personal experience, and that excitement over church affairs, love for its cause, has been caught up in a degree of stagnation? My conscious missionary impulse, which in earlier years was there perhaps more or less naively, has given way to the attempt to understand things, people and circumstances and to grasp them in a ‘human’ way. A few days ago the lawyer here asked me whether I would like to take my Bible with me on a walk and read him something aloud, gospel and epistle or something else good. And we did that. But I can’t record it as anything special or report it with special hopes and exclamations. It was ‘very nice’; but matter of fact. By the way, how difficult some circumstances and attitudes are to explain at the time! …

When will we get home? Our Major has a fabulous attitude. Recently Spiess, he, Rainalter (the lawyer) and I sat drinking wine in the office until two in the morning. Towards midnight he
talked about the end of the war. He said it could only be positive, otherwise we wouldn’t experience what went on later. We would concentrate somewhere, ‘dig in’, hold out to the last man and fall. ‘Isn’t that so, Rainalter and Bethge?’ That is really soldierly and honourable to the last degree! I think that I shall now be home at Whitsun. You were asking about my billet. We even have a bath which we heat up now and then; it’s a great amenity. We sleep in camp beds with mattresses and blankets. Of course there aren’t any sheets. It’s all very tolerable.

I would really be very excited about the life of an army chaplain? What is one to say?

Monday evening - 8 May

I got your letter of 30 April today. It came very quickly. I’m delighted about the things which, I must say, excite me very much. Some of it is echoed in the questions that I’ve written above, though they’re put more na’ively and primitively.

I’m rather disturbed that you seem to hear from me so rarely. I can’t say more exactly just when I wrote, except that I’ve answered each of your letters more or less in length. Renate’s exact words to me (about handing on letters) were: ‘But I’m always a bit worried, first of all about the grandparents, and if I’ve happily given them letters, I’m afraid that they don’t pass them on …’

These last days before my departure get on my nerves intolerably. First of all there’s the anxiety that the great events will put some hindrance in the way, and secondly there are the day and night attacks on the roads by bombers and low-flying planes which have now grown colossally. They rob me of all composure.

What do you think of the Ascension Day reading as a text for the baptism? I found the picture particularly attractive. Maria has written me another very nice letter. At the moment I’ve no time to answer it properly. I hope I can talk to you.

Faithfully, and with great gratitude.

Your Eberhard

To Eberhard Bethge

[Tegel] 5 May 1944

Dear Eberhard,

I keep hoping that you will already be on leave - you must be about due for it by now so that you can see your son – and that my letter will be sent on to you (and so be out of date). However, everything is so uncertain nowadays - and long experience suggests that everything is more likely to remain as it is than to change soon - that I’ll write to you all the same. I learnt from Christel, who visited me yesterday, that things are going relatively well with you, and that you can at least delight Renate with a letter. It’s really worth a great deal that Renate can be in Sakrow all the time and that you are at least spared worry for her with the alerts here. I would very much like to talk to Renate myself one day, but it doesn’t seem possible to arrange that at the moment. I’m only glad that at least we were able to see each other in December. That was a good piece of work by your father-in-law … I so much wish that you could come soon, though it will be sad that presumably we shall still not be able to see each other. I’m getting along quite well and so is the case, but the question of the date is still quite open. But all good things come over night, and I’m waiting and hoping confidently. In my earlier letter there was an address
¹²
that you can use if you want; but it isn’t necessary; I simply wanted to let you know.

A few more words about ‘religionlessness’. I expect you remember Bultmann’s essay on the ‘demythologizing’ of the New Testament?
¹³
My view of it today would be, not that he went ‘too far’, as most people thought, but that he didn’t go far enough. It’s not only the ‘mythological’ concepts, such as miracle, ascension, and so on (which are not in principle separable from the concepts of God, faith, etc.), but ‘religious’ concepts generally, which are problematic. You can’t, as Bultmann supposes, separate God and miracle, but you must be able to interpret and proclaim
both
in a ‘non-religious’ sense. Bultmann’s approach is fundamentally still a liberal one (i.e. abridging the gospel), whereas I’m trying to think theologically.

What does it mean to ‘interpret in a religious sense’? I think it
means to speak on the one hand metaphysically, and on the other hand individualistically. Neither of these is relevant to the biblical message or to the man of today. Hasn’t the individualistic question about personal salvation almost completely left us all? Aren’t we really under the impression that there are more important things than that question (perhaps not more important than the
matter
itself, but more important than the
question!)?
I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But, fundamentally, isn’t this in fact biblical? Does the question about saving one’s soul appear in the Old Testament at all? Aren’t righteousness and the Kingdom of God on earth the focus of everything, and isn’t it true that Rom. 3.24ff. is not an individualistic doctrine of salvation, but the culmination of the view that God alone is righteous? It is not with the beyond that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved, subjected to laws, reconciled, and restored. What is above this world is, in the gospel, intended to exist
for
this world; I mean that, not in the anthropocentric sense of liberal, mystic pietistic, ethical theology, but in the biblical sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Barth was the first theologian to begin the criticism of religion, and that remains his really great merit; but he put in its place a positivist doctrine of revelation which says, in effect, ‘Like it or lump it’: virgin birth, Trinity, or anything else; each is an equally significant and necessary part of the whole, which must simply be swallowed as a whole or not at all. That isn’t biblical. There are degrees of knowledge and degrees of significance; that means that a secret discipline must be restored whereby the
mysteries
of the Christian faith are protected against profanation. The positivism of revelation makes it too easy for itself, by setting up, as it does in the last analysis, a law of faith, and so mutilates what is - by Christ’s incarnation! - a gift for us. In the place of religion there now stands the church - that is in itself biblical - but the world is in some degree made to depend on itself and left to its own devices, and that’s the mistake.

I’m thinking about how we can reinterpret in a ‘worldly’ sense - in the sense of the Old Testament and of John 1.14
¹⁴
- the
concepts of repentance, faith, justification, rebirth, and sanctification. I shall be writing to you about it again.

Forgive me for writing all this in German script; normally I do this only when my writing is for my own use - and perhaps what I’ve written was more to clear my own mind than to edify you. I really don’t want to trouble you with problems, for you may well have no time to come to grips with them, and they may only bother you; but I can’t help sharing my thoughts with you, simply because that is the best way to make them clear to myself. If that doesn’t suit you at present, please say so. - Tomorrow is Cantate, and I shall be thinking of you and enjoying very pleasant memories.

My parents were here recently and said how nice and healthy the little boy is …

Good-bye. Be patient, as we are, and keep well.

With all my heart - you’re daily in my thoughts.

Your Dietrich

To Eberhard Bethge

[Tegel] 6 May 1944

Dear Eberhard,

It was a quite extraordinary delight today that you thought of me so nicely and well on 24 April.
¹⁵
I haven’t anything special to tell you today except that it’s wonderful to catch an echo occasionally. I’m very grateful to you for it.

… More about graphology soon, as it interests you. Unfortunately your letter failed to reach me because of the casualty. Did it come back to you, and what was its date? Did you put your own name on the back?

I shall be writing next time about Christians’ ‘egoism’ (‘selfless self-love’). I think we agree about it. Too much altruism is oppressive and exacting; ‘egoism’ can be less selfish and less demanding.

I hope that you always get all my letters, roughly every 1-2 weeks. Enough for today. Good-bye, dear Eberhard. Thank you for everything, and keep well.

Your Dietrich

[7 May 1944] Cantate

I’ve just heard some good morning-music by Reger and Hugo Distler; it was a good beginning for Sunday. The only jarring note was an interruption announcing that ‘enemy air squadrons are moving towards …’ The connection between the two is not immediately obvious.

I thought last night about what mothers-in-law should do…I’ m sure that they should not try to teach; what right have they to undertake anything of the kind? It is their privilege to have a
grown-up
daughter or son, and they ought to regard that as an enrichment of their family, not as an occasion for criticism. They may find joy in their children, and give them help and advice if they’re asked to, but the marriage completely relieves them of any responsibility for upbringing; that is really a privilege. I believe that when a mother-in-law sees that her child is really loved … she should just be glad of it and let everything else take a back seat, especially any attempts to alter character! There are few people who know how to value reticence. I think mother and father can. The siren is just going; more later.

Well, it was pretty heavy again, and I’m always glad to know that Renate is out of Berlin. With regard to reticence, it all depends on
what
we are keeping to ourselves, and on whether there is one person with whom we can share everything … I think it would be going too far to speak of the jealousy of mothers-in-law; it would be truer to say that there are two kinds of love, a mother’s and a wife’s; and that gives rise to a great deal of misunderstanding. Incidentally, it’s much easier for sons-in-law than for daughters-in-law to get on peacefully with a mother-in-law -although the Bible gives a unique example to the contrary in Naomi and Ruth …

One more thing: the letters to my dead friend
¹⁶
should all go back to the sender. Was the sender given? In any case, would you write again to the new address or to home? I would be very sorry to have to miss a letter. I almost assume that the letter returned to you in the meanwhile. I’ll also make further inquiries here.

I don’t know Cardano. Is he translated into German?

You write so incidentally that the bad weather is welcome because of the fliers; I infer from this that otherwise you usually have unwelcome experiences. In this respect I still can’t form any accurate picture of your situation at all. You’re pretty taciturn about it, and that also suggests conclusions to be drawn, as of course you don’t want to disturb Renate; but you could tell me how things really are.

Just lately I’ve been in the city again a few times;
¹⁷
the result has been quite satisfactory. But as the question of the date is still unresolved, I am really losing interest in my case; I often quite forget it for weeks on end. That’s all for now. God keep you and all of us. Your faithful Dietrich

How’s your Italian getting on? And how are the thoughts about Dohrmann?
¹⁸

To Renate and Eberhard Bethge

[Tegel] 9 May 1944

Dear Renate and Eberhard,

Your hope that leave may be near is also a great piece of good news for me. If you really manage to be together again in a few days - though in all these hopes one must always keep the joyful anticipation damped down a bit until the last minute - and if you can also have your child baptized then, I shouldn’t like the thought of my absence to cast the least shadow on your happiness and particularly on you personally, Eberhard. I shall try to write you something for the occasion, and you know that I shall be with you in spirit. It’s painful to me, to be sure, that the improbable has happened, and that I shall not be able to celebrate the day with you; but I’ve quite reconciled myself to it. I believe that nothing that happens to me is meaningless, and that it is good for us all that it should be so, even if it runs counter to our own wishes. As I see it, I’m here for some purpose, and I only hope I may fulfil it. In the light of the great purpose all our privations and disappointments are trivial. Nothing would be more unworthy and wrong-headed than to turn one of those rare occasions of joy, such as
you’re now experiencing, into a calamity because of my present situation. That would go entirely against the grain, and would undermine my optimism with regard to my case. However thankful we may be for all our personal pleasures, we mustn’t for a moment lose sight of the great things that we’re living for, and they must shed light rather than gloom on your joy. I couldn’t bear to think that your few weeks of happiness, which you’ve had difficulty enough in getting, should be in the very least clouded by my present circumstances. That would be a real calamity, and the other is not. My only concern is to help you, as far as I can, to keep the lustre of these spring days – I expect you’re celebrating your first wedding anniversary together – as radiant as may be. Please don’t think for a moment that you’re missing something through my not being with you – far from it! And above all, please don’t think I’m finding it difficult to get these words out for your sake; on the contrary, they are my most earnest request to you, and its fulfilment would simply make me pleased and happy. If we did manage to meet while you’re on leave, I should be only too delighted; but please don’t put yourself out over it – 1 still have vivid memories of 23 December! And please don’t lose a single day for the sake of spending a little time with me here. I know you would willingly do so, but it would only distress me. Of course, if your father could arrange for you to visit me, as he did in December, I should be extremely grateful. Anyway, I know we shall be thinking of each other every morning as we read the daily texts, and I’m very glad you’ll be able to read the Bible together again morning and evening; it will be a great help to you, not only for these present days, but for the future. Don’t let the shortness of your time together and the thought that you must soon part overshadow the happiness of your leave. Don’t try to do too much; let other people come and see you, instead of your going round everywhere to them, and enjoy every hour of the day peacefully as a great gift. My own opinion is that the next few weeks will bring such great and surprising events that when you start your leave you won’t really know how it’s all going to turn out. However much these events may affect our own personal destinies, I do hope they won’t rob either of you of the peace and quietness that
you need during your time together. It’s a good thing that you’ve the chance of meeting now and deciding on all your plans together. If something edible is sent to you from Silesia in the next few days,
¹⁹
please adorn your days with it!