Day Twelve: Berlin and Bonhoeffer, Part 2
Day two in Berlin and the last official day of the doctorate class. Our focus is on Bonhoeffer as we go to the State Library of Berlin Archives where we have an appointment to look at original documents pertaining to Bonhoeffer’s life. We saw original pictures of him with the confirmation class that he led.

A picture of him with his colleagues at Finkelwald. This was an illegal seminary outlawed by the Nazi’s in which seminarians lived together in Christian community. This is the community that Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together is based on. He is in the second row on the far left.

We also saw his original last will he wrote from prison on September 20, 1943 with his signature at the bottom.

Then we went to the German Resistance Museum. We learned there wasn’t one organized resistance to Hitler, but rather lots of small ones that all made their impact. The most interesting story was the assassination attempt Bonhoeffer was involved in. Bonhoeffer’s role was to use his connections to tell the British government about the plans for an assassination followed by a new government. He was asking Britain to recognize the new government when it was established to gain legitimacy. But there were many others involved in the attempt. Here is a wall of their pictures.

Overall 150 people died because of their involvement with the attempted coup and assassination on July 20, 1944. Stauffenberg was the man who had the connections to put the bomb near Hitler. He is on the left of this picture.

This was the room were Stauffenberg’s office was and where he planned the specifics of the attack.

This is one of the meeting rooms Hitler used to stay abreast of the military updates.

It was at another location where all the top Nazi officials were, including Hitler, when the attempt took place. Stauffenberg hid the bomb in a suitcase. There were originally two bombs but at the last minute they changed the time of the meeting and he only had time to prepare one of the bombs.

He put it in a briefing room underneath the table where Hitler was standing and then found a reason to leave and watch from a safe distance away. Unfortunately, someone had moved the briefcase before the bomb went off and the huge oak table shielded Hitler. Stauffenberg thought he had succeeded and many miles away in Berlin, a coup was simultaneously taking place. Both attempts failed. This was the room after the explosion.

Bonhoeffer struggled with the moral and ethical dilemma of being a Christian and plotting to kill another human being. How do you reconcile “thou shalt not kill” and love your enemies with an assassination attempt? After all, he took ordination vows as a Christian minister here at St. Matthew’s Church.

A plaque to Bonhoeffer commemorates his ordination.

Other than that it is a normal Lutheran church…

Except that this painting looked vaguely familiar. Do you recognize it?

How about if I now show you Cranach's painting?
 
The Berlin Philharmonic was playing tonight but the concert had been sold out for awhile. Our professor went to the ticket booth that afternoon to see if there were any tickets…and there were! The two hour concert was incredible. Three pieces were played, beginning with Mozart and an amazing pianist, Mitsuko Uchida. The other two pieces were more contemporary artists, William Walton and Zoltan Kodaly. Sir Simon Rattle conducted these incredible musicians. Overall it was a magical evening with beautiful music!

We celebrated the end of our time together with a great German dinner, and of course…beer! Dr. Kevin Park and Dr. Kathy Dawson were great leaders.

I learned so much from this class: the places, the tour guide, the professors, and my fellow students. The Reformation has come alive and it’s been a joy to share these experiences through blogging, sermons, and a lunch presentation at King’s Grant on October 29. I feel I have a much deeper understanding of my Reformation and Presbyterian roots. Reformation Sunday, the last Sunday of October every year, will forever be a special time to celebrate my newly formed spiritual heritage.