When Bonhoeffer returned to Berlin in 1931, he was particularly disturbed by increasing discrimination against the Jewish people of Germany, some of whom were pastors in German churches. In this Bonhoeffer was a lone voice for the most part.33Ericksen,Complicity in the Holocaust Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany, 100. The attempts to make a strong statement against discrimination were thwarted in the Bethel confession, a precursor to the Barmen declaration.44Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Revised Edition, 371. Bonhoeffer found himself in sharp opposition to the Nazi government, but also was in opposition to his fellow pastors and theologians, whom he felt were not strong enough in their opposition to the discriminatory practices of the Nazi regime. In order to get his bearings, he assumed pastoral duties in England in 1934. Bonhoeffer supported the Barmen declaration, but again was frustrated by its inadequacies with respect to the Jewish question. He witnessed the further assault of the government on the Confessing church. He became more convinced of the importance of nonviolent means as a way of resisting this evil and made plans to visit Gandhi in India. However, the increasing pressure of the Nazi regime forced him to return to Germany to set up a seminary in exile at Finkenwalde where he met Eberhard Bethge.55John W. de Gruchy, Daring, Trusting Spirit (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005), loc 268. The conflict for Bonhoeffer heightened as time progressed; he knew his government was evil, and yet it was as if he were a lone voice in his support of the Jews. His frustration with his fellow pastors grew and he drifted into a self-exile. He went to America in 1939 to teach at Union but after a short period of time returned to Germany, despite the pleas of Niebuhr and Lehmann. Upon his return to Germany he became actively involved in the resistance movement, including the plan to assassinate Hitler, through his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, and brother, Klaus, who worked in the Abwehr, which was not only the counterintelligence agency of the German military but was also part of the resistance movement against the Nazi government as well as the center for plans to assassinate Hitler.66Sifton and Stern, No Ordinary Men, 73. Bonhoeffer became an agent of the Abwehr, which prevented him from being drafted by the military and also gave him immunity from arrest by the Gestapo. From 1940 to his arrest in April 1943, Bonhoeffer traveled throughout Europe, trying to find ways to bring down the Nazi government. The failed assassination attempt and increasing suspicion by the Gestapo led to the arrest of Bonhoeffer and many others, including his brother and brother-in-law. While in several prisons, including Tegel in Berlin, he wrote numerous letters which were ultimately published.77Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010), 56. With the help of his jailers and Bethge, these letters as well as his unfinished book on ethics were smuggled out of Tegel and years later were read by millions thanks to the heroic efforts of his best friend Bethge.88de Gruchy, Daring, Trusting Spirit, loc 1274. In late 1944 and early 1945, Bonhoeffer was sent to a series of concentration camps, the last one being Flossenburg, where he was murdered April 9, 1945, weeks before the Allies liberated Europe. His death was a final act of solidarity not only with the cross of Jesus Christ but also with the countless victims of Nazi evil, as he himself became one of the last to die for having dared to resist that evil. The Bonhoeffer family, who lost sons Dietrich and Klaus as well as sons-in-law Hans and Rudiger Schleicher, suffered greatly as a result of the twelve years of Nazi rule. Bonhoeffer’s Lutheran theology underwent radical changes as his contempt for the government and his fellow pastors grew, although there is an underlying consistency in his thought which was informed by Luther’s theology of the cross.99H. Gaylon Barker, The Cross of Reality(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 12. Throughout his life he was concerned about what it meant to be a disciple or follower of Jesus. For Bonhoeffer, accepting the call of Jesus leads to a change in the behavior of those who hear it. The call to discipleship creates a new situation1010Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001), 62. and leads to death, if not physical, then at least death of the old self or the old ways.1111Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 87. As a result of his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer began to see the world in a new way, stating, “It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learned to see the great events of history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.”1212Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 52. Unlike Althaus and Thielicke, Bonhoeffer had traveled extensively and spoke English. For a young man who died before his fortieth birthday, he had experienced a great deal. His travels to America and his dogged opposition to racial cleansing shaped his view that the church is the church only when it exists for others, to be of service to others and not the self-esteem of the clergy. This radical view of Jesus as the one for others and the church as the servant of the world caught many of his fellow theologians off guard; some felt that this was not the real Bonhoeffer, the traditional Lutheran. Of course, Bonhoeffer never lived to write a theology to fully explain himself. This has led to controversy as to who Bonhoeffer really was and what he professed; it has resulted in much speculation and debate and has served to heighten interest in this remarkable man. One’s view of Bonhoeffer is shaped by which of his books you read, which period of his life you consider.