EKD-Text 83 - Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland

Margot Käßmann
Predigt aus Anlass des Gedenkens an Dietrich Bonhoeffer
in Westminster Abbey am 5. Februar 2006 in London
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We remember today our brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was born on February 4,
1906. He was murdered by the Nazi regime on April 9, 1945. In a sculpture here at
Westminster Abbey he is counted among the martyrs of the 20 th century.
Who was this man? Many see him as a saint of the protestant church. In the
churches of the reformation we say that a saint is simply a person who is aware
that he or she lives on the basis of trust in God. If we define it this way, I would
say, yes, Bonhoeffer was a saint. He tried in extremely difficult times to live in faith.
And in his witness against the injustice surrounding him he seems to have grown
deeper into this trust in God. He was a model of a Christian who knows about the
freedom God grants us and lives the responsibility that results from belief in God’s
grace. So the decision of the community of Herrnhut to choose the first letter of
Peter chapter 5 verse 7 as watch word for this day seems like the headline for
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
Let us look at three central theological themes of Bonhoeffer’s life and draw a line
towards their implications for today.
I. Crying out for the Jews
Dietrich grew up in rather comfortable circumstances. His father was a professor
of psychiatry and neurology. He was one among eight children with a twin sister.
A bright child, at the age of 21 he had already finished not only his theological studies
but also achieved a doctoral degree. This early achievement was a blessing,
because it opened a path into the wider world, the . He went to
Barcelona as a curate, then to New York as he was still too young to be ordained.
Here he met the French theologian Jean Lasserre, who as a Christian was a convinced
pacifist. Lasserre impressed the young German deeply. Later Bonhoeffer
became Secretary of the World Alliance of Churches for Promoting International
Friendship and learned to know many Christians from all over the world. In the end
it would be Bishop George Bell to whom he dedicated his last words, transmitted
by a companion in prison, that death was the beginning of life for him.
From 1933 to 1935 Bonhoeffer served as a pastor here in London for two German
congregations. I am convinced that this experience of the wider ecumenical movement
is one of the roots that explain how he could have such a sensitive view
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