Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

The political and economic situation in Germany was continuing to unravel. The Weimar Republic floundered and most Germans resented the imposition of an inefficient democratic system. Bonhoeffer worked on his postdoctoral thesis, Act and Being, submitting it early in 1930. He also worked as an assistant university lecturer, a role which brought him into contact with a theology student named Franz Hildebrandt, a Jewish-ancestry Christian with whom he would form a lasting friendship.

Most Germans in Bonhoeffer’s circle had no problem with Jews; they formed roughly a third of the intellectual and academic social groups in Berlin. However, antisemitism was rising in Germany, and groups like the Nazis were beginning to call upon the caustic works of Luther, in which Luther had denounced and vilified Jewish people. Bonhoeffer sensed many of the coming troubles in Germany, but the scale of the violence against the Jews would later come as a shock to him, as to many Germans.

With the completion of Bonhoeffer’s thesis and his passing of his final examinations, he became fully qualified as a university lecturer. Before taking up another position in Germany, however, he planned to visit America on a fellowship to study at Union Theological Seminary.