Explore "National Memorial Day" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Berlin, Reminiscere (Memorial Day), February 21, 1932.
The year 1932 was a grim time for Germany. Its new postwar republican government was struggling amid inflation, unemployment, and poverty. Hitler's movement, along with Communist and socialist movements, was underway. Bonhoeffer shared in the fears for his country's future, but he also foresaw suffering for the church. German theologian GÃ 1/4 nther Dehn (whom Bonhoeffer refers to in this sermon as a "seer") had questioned the appropriateness of placing war monuments inside churches. This pacifist question had fanned the already widespread resentment among the German people over Germany's loss of honor in the Treaty of Versailles. Bonhoeffer now believed that to mourn the sacrifices of war in the church did mean proclaiming Christ's commandment in the Sermon on the Mount to be peacemakers. The church, Bonhoeffer said, was being called to Christ's way of the cross.