BonhoeffersBerlin

His home and study in Charlottenburg, a district of Berlin (above left and right). The reality of the Protestant Church in Germany in Bonhoeffer's time was very different from the Christian community he envisioned in books like Life Together. Prussian nationalism began rising in the 1860s, and culminated in the Nazi movement of the 1930s. Nationalism influenced every area of German life, including the Church. The Berlin Cathedral (above), with its Gothic-on-steroids architecture, proclaims the power of the state, as well as the power of God. A front relief panel shows Martin Luther before Emperor Charles defending his writings at Worms (right). Kaiser-Wilhelm Church (below left), bombed in World War II, remains standing as a reminder of the war. The Kaiser built the church as a monument to himself and his reign (ltwo mosaics, below right) as much as he built it to proclaim Jesus, who is occasionally pictured (third right below). Lots of wartime damage still remains (bottom right). The new sanctuary (bottom left) has its priorities straight; it's clear who is worshiped there.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and university theologian in Nazi Germany. He was a leader in the Confessing Church, that part of the Protestant Church in Germany that opposed Hiltler, and a member of a conspiracy to assassinate him. Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis at Flossenberg prison on April 9, 1945. Now, Bonhoeffer is remembered on that day in churches around the world.