Events until the end of the year
All events will be held in German. Saturday, September 21, 2024, 10-12.30 am, Matinée “Who was Klaus Bonhoeffer? Approaches to an unknown resistance fighter” Reading by Dr. Jutta Koslowski from her book published in 2023 with important previously unpublished documents from his family Moderation: Dr. Tobias Korenke from the Bonhoeffer-Schleicher family, deputy chairman of the Bonhoeffer-Haus Memorial and Place of Encounter (Association) Sunday, October 20, 2024, 4 p.m. “Teatime with the Bonhoeffers” Songs by J.S. Bach, Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel and other female composers Christine Lichtenberg, mezzo-soprano, singer in the Rundfunkchor Berlin, on the grand piano, which Dietrich …
A new managing director for the Bonhoeffer House
The Memorial and Place of Encounter in the former retirement home of Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer in Berlin can look forward to two years of funding from the Innovation and Project Fund of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (short: EKBO). The association responsible for the Bonhoeffer House is receiving full-time support for the first time and welcomes historian Arno Helwig as its new managing director. Arno Helwig studied history at the University of Tübingen and at the Free University of Berlin. With a Master’s degree in Public History, he specialized in the field of history didactics and educational …
„You will think of me again“ – Reading with Dorothee Röhrig
It was a very dense, intense evening with a highly focussed audience. With over 60 listeners, the exhibition room and the neighbouring library were filled almost to capacity. Dorothee Röhrig began with a personal remark about how much it meant to her from the Dohnanyi family to read her family history in this particular place, in her great-grandparents‘ house. Her daughter’s family and relatives from the extended Bonhoeffer family were also present. Tobias Korenke, great-grandson of the Schleicher family, was in conversation with her. The fact that this family history is both unique and yet also exemplary for this time …
Reading & discussion with Dorothee Röhrig on Thursday, October 19, 7 p.m., at the Bonhoeffer House
Dear friends of the Bonhoeffer-Haus, We are pleased to announce that the event that couldn’t take place in April will now be held on Thursday, October 19th at 7:00 PM at the Bonhoeffer-Haus, Marienburger Allee 43, 14055 Berlin. We invite you to a reading by Dorothee Röhrig, the author of the recent release: „‚You Will Remember Me‘. A Declaration of Love to a Difficult Mother,“ in conversation with Dr. Tobias Korenke. Date: Thursday, October 19, 2023, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Location: Bonhoeffer-Haus Memorial and Meeting Place, Marienburger Allee 43, 14055 Berlin Dorothee Röhrig has titled her book with a …
Reading and Connversation at the Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer House
Dorothee Röhrig, granddaughter of Hans von Dohnanyi, who was murdered in the resistance, and his wife Christine, née Bonhoeffer, is coming to Bonhoeffer House the day before her reading at the Leipzig Book Fair. The book, which was published just 6 weeks ago, has already made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list for non-fiction books. Dorothee Röhrig puts the spotlight on the strong women in the family who not only stood behind their husbands in the resistance, but alongside them. The title of the book is a quote from her mother: „Du wirst noch an mich denken“ („You will still …
Matinée at the Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer House
Eighty years ago, on April 5, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi together with his wife Christine were arrested. This marked the beginning of more than two years of imprisonment for Dietrich and Hans until their murder on April 9, 1945. The reason for the arrests on April 5, 1943 was not the participation of the arrested persons in preparations for the coup, which had already led to attacks that failed. These plans could be kept secret until the attack on July 20, 1944. The investigations in the Reich Military Court and the Gestapo were directed against …
Visit from Poland
On 8 June 2022, as in the previous year, three professors from the Evangelical School of Theology, EWST, Wroclaw visited us. Dr Wojciech Szczerba, Dr Marek Kucharski and. Dr. Piotr Lorek came to Berlin to strengthen the cooperation with the Evangelical Academy of Berlin and also with the Bonhoeffer House within the framework of the ERASMUS programme. The accompanying group of the Bonhoeffer House was represented by Martina Dethloff, Viking Dietrich, Kurt Kreibohm, Ingrid Portmann and Gottfried Brezger. The guests from Wroclaw gave a lively and concrete account of the many efforts in their university and in society to …
Consultation of the teams of the Bonhoeffer Houses in Friedrichsbrunn and in Berlin
The two Bonhoeffer Houses, the Memorial and Place of Encounter in Berlin and the family’s holiday home in Friedrichsbrunn in the Harz Mountains, have much in common: „civic maturity and civility in Berlin and free space of life in Friedrichsbrunn complement each other“ (Günter Ebbrecht). After the visit of the team from Berlin to Friedrichsbrunn in June 2018, the team from Friedrichsbrunn now came to Berlin on 7 May 2022. Both sides were happy to finally meet again in real presence. In lively conversation, experiences with the visitors and ideas and perspectives for future work were exchanged. In both houses, …
On the 77th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s death on 9 April: „The Restoration of an authentic Worldly Order under God’s Command“ – Peace goals for the time after the end of the Nazi state
Remembering birthdays is important, especially of people who mean a lot to us. But it seems to me that remembering the day of death is even more important, especially for people who lost their lives in the resistance. The birthday belongs to that one person, but the day of death connects them with all those who walked the difficult path with them. This is especially true for the memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the others who were persecuted and murdered just before the end of tyranny. In these days in which the war in Ukraine, with the suffering of the …
Visit from Brussels
Katharina von Schnurbein, since 2015 the first European coordinator on combatting Antisemitism, visited the Bonhoeffer House on the occasion of her participation in the commemorative forum on the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Katharina von Schnurbein on 19 January 2022 in front of the 1st panel of the exhibition in the Bonhoeffer House: Places in Berlin with a reference to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We enjoyed a lively exchange of thoughts about the current significance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thoughts and actions in the confrontation with anti-Semitism. „Only those who shout for the Jews may also sing Gregorian“ …
„Keys to Bonhoeffers’s Haus“ – Zoom talk with the author Laura M. Fabrycky in Washington D.C. / USA on 4 February, 12 noon (Washington D.C. time), on the 116th birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Laura M. Fabrycky was from 2016-2018 a member of the team at the Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer House, Marienburger Allee 43 in Berlin. We invite you to a live digital conversation (in English) and excerpts from her book (in German) and ask for registration: brezger@bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de „Wie ich Welt und Weg Dietrich Bonhoeffers entdeckte“ („Exploring the world and wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer“) is the subtitle of the book. The key to the house given to her becomes a mission for Laura to also give other people a key to connect their own questions and experiences with the …
Literature reference – Laura M. Fabrycky
Laura M. Fabrycky, a US-American, lived in Berlin with her family during her husband’s service at the US Embassy and became familiar with this country. In the Bonhoeffer House, this very special historical place of learning, she went in search of traces. As a member of the Bonhoeffer House team, she accompanied in English visitors through the Bonhoeffer family home for two years. She came from the outside and reported from the inside. The book is an exploratory journey which, when read, opens up interesting approaches to the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in its historical context and in …
Video presentation of a guided tour
Memorial and Place of Encounter – Bonhoeffer House Registered Association Marienburger Allee 43 14055 Berlin Gottfried Brezger, Rev. ret. Chairman of the board 1. I am standing here in front of the Bonhoeffer family home. Karl Bonhoeffer, one of the most famous psychiatrists and neurologists of his time,and his wife Paula had this house built as their retirement home. When they moved in in 1935, Karl was already 68 years old, but he still continued to practise. This was done on the ground floor, where he also had his library. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his seven sisters and brothers …
Dr. Wojciech Szczerba, Dr. Marek Kucharski und Dr. Piotr Lorek visiting the Bonhoeffer Haus
Bonhoeffer-Haus, 26 May 2021. Dr Wojciech Szczerba, Dr Marek Kucharski and Dr Piotr Lorek, professors of the „Evangelical School of Theology, EWST”, Wroclaw, talking to the members of the team at Bonhoeffer-Haus Martina Dethloff, Ingrid Portmann, Gottfried Brezger (photo). The visitors from Wroclaw have come to Berlin to explore opportunities of cooperation with the Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin and also with the Bonhoeffer Haus within the framework of the ERASMUS programme. In doing so, they were following up on their meeting with members of the Bonhoeffer House team during their study trip to Wroclaw from 26-29 September 2019. EWST …
Commemoration of the 76th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death
On April 9, 1945, Hans von Dohnanyi was murdered in Sachsenhausen and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Flossenbürg together with the co-conspirators from the headquarter of the Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, like last year, we cannot open the Bonhoeffer-Haus to visitors on the 76th anniversary of death due to the pandemic. With the thoughts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his „Account at the Turn of the Year 1942-1943, however, we can remain in memory of him and the others who gave their lives for the „coming generation“. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Some Statements of Faith on God’s Action in History „I believe that God can and will …
Remember – commemorate – act
Remember – commemorate – act – under this heading, over 50 people took part in the remembrance path to places on the evening of November 9, 2020. The Bonhoeffer-Haus e.V. memorial and meeting place, the Stolperstein Initiative of the Eichkamp settlers‘ association and the Evangelical Peace Congregation had invited guests. Victims of National Socialist persecution were commemorated in the following places: 1. Memorial plaque at the Mommsenstadion in memory of Jewish athletes who were excluded from clubs such as the Sport-Club Charlottenburg during National Socialism. They had to flee Germany; even Olympic champions were not protected from deportation and murder. …
So much strength to resist! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (13) Trinity, June 6, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de So much strength to resist! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (13)Trinity, June 6, 2020 This is the last episode on the website of the Bonhoeffer House (see: Aktuelles / News) in the se-ries of blogs since Sunday JUDICA on March 29, 2020. This should enable the House, which has been visited by small groups of up to 5 people again since the beginning of May, to be kept digital-ly open. In the 13 episodes, very different Bonhoeffer texts were placed in their historical and cur-rent context under the aspect:»How do political resistance and …
So much strength to resist! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (12) Pentecost, May 31, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de PENTECOST: “In a way we accommodate God and the whole world within us.” TEXTLetters and Papers from Prison, DBW, volume 8 June 8, 1943, Karl Bonhoeffer to Dietrich in the Prison (DBW vol. 8,100)We had actually hoped to have a letter from you yesterday or the day before. Since none has arrived today, I decided to write to you without waiting any longer: we hope that the delay is not caused by any health problems on your part. We cannot complain about our own health. Our life essentially goes in thoughts of you …
So much strength to resist! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (11) Exaudi, May 24, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de EXAUDI: The Church of Aaron against the Church of Moses– the Eternal Conflict in the Church of Christ TEXT DBW 12.472 ff., Sermon on Exodus 32:1-8, 15-16- 18-20-30-35 (The Golden Calf)May 28, 1933, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Berlin, on behalf of Gerhard Jacobi The priest against the prophet, the church of the world against the church of faith, the church of Aaron against the church of Moses – this eternal conflict in the church of Christ and its resolu-tion, is what we are going to hear about today. Moses and Aaron, two brothers from the same …
So much strength to resist! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (10) Ascension Day, May 21, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de ASCENSION DAY: pulled up the whole world with him to life and to the light TEXTS 1DBW 11.444 ff., June 19, 1932 Sermon on Colossians 3:1-4, (4th Sunday after Trinitatis),Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Berlin, on behalf of Gerhard JacobiWe have not been left alone at all in our lostness; instead, there is one who has stepped across the boundary that separates us from the Creator and from true life, has broken into our territory of death, has tasted all our living and dying to its deepest depths, and has still broken through this death, broken through …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (9) May 17, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (9) May 17, 2020 ROGATE: “Lord, teach us, to pray!” Praying along with Christ TEXT A “Lord, teach us to pray!” So spoke the disciples to Jesus. In doing so, they were acknowledging that they were not able to pray on their own: they had to learn. »To learn to pray« sounds con-tradictory to us. Either the heart is so overflowing that it begins to pray by itself, we say, or it will never learn to pray. But this is a dangerous …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (8) May 8, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlinwww.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de CANTATE: O sing to the Lord a New Song! TEXT A O sing to the Lord a new song. The emphasis is on the word new. What is this new song, if it is not a song that makes someone a new person, when a person leaves darkness and worry and fear behind and breaks forth into new hope, new faith, new confidence? The new song is the one that awakens God’s presence anew in us- even if it is a very old song, of the God who, as Job says, “gives songs …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (7) May 8, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlin www.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de The huge masquerade of evil TEXT A The huge masquerade of evil has thrown all ethical concepts into confusion. That evil should appear in the form of light, good deeds, historical necessity, social justice is absolutely bewil-dering for one coming from the world of ethical concepts that we have received. For the Chris-tians who live by the Bible, it is the very confirmation of the abysmal wickedness of evil. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Who Stands Firm? Prolog in Letters and Papers from Prison, DBW 8, 38. TEXT B Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical time (6) May 3, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlin www.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de _________________________________________________________ If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! Bible for Sunday Jubilate from 2 Corinthians 5:17 __________________________________________________________ TEXT A The miracle of Christ’s resurrection has overturned the idolization of death that rules among us … Where death is final, earthly life is all or nothing … Where, however, it is recognized that the power of death has been broken, where the miracle of the resurrection and new life shines right into the world of death, there one demands no …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical times (5)
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlin www.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de _______________________________________ Ways with us: „through the lush pastures and through the dark valley“ (Psalm 23) _______________________________________ TEXT God’s ways are the ways that he has tread before and that we are to walk with him now. God does not allow us to walk a path that he has not walked before and on which he would not precede us. It is the way cleared by God and protected by God on which he calls us. This is truly His way … With God, one does not just mark time but one walks …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical times (4) Quasimodogeniti, April 19, 2020
Memorial and Place of Encounter Bonhoeffer-Haus Berlin „Praise be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead“ (1. Peter 1:3) ____________ What do we know from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s last sermon, on Sunday Quasimodogeniti, April 8, 1945 in Schönberg? Nearly nothing. CONTEXT & TEXT On February 7, 1945, unlike his superiors Lieutenant-General Canaris and Brigadier Oster, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not transferred from the Gestapo prison in the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin directly to the …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical times (3) Sunday 12 April 2020
Reflection on Easter: Resurrection The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s Yes to Christ and his work of expiation. The cross was the end, the death of the Son of God, curse and judgement on all flesh. If the cross had been the last word about Jesus, then the world would be lost in death and damnation without hope; then the world would have triumphed over God. But God … raised Christ from the dead … The resurrection is the day of the begetting of the Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4). The Son receives back his eternal divine …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical times (2) Sunday, 5 April 2020
Christians stand by God in God’s own pain 1. People go to God when they’re in need, plead for help, pray for blessing and bread, for rescue from their sickness, guilt, and death. So do they all, all of them, Christians and heathens. 2. People go to God when God’s in need, find God poor, reviled, without shelter or bread, see God devoured by sin, weakness, and death. Christians stand by God in God’s own pain. 3. God goes to all people in their need, fills body and soul with God’s own bread, goes for Christians and heathens to Calvary’s …
So much strength to resist ! Read Bonhoeffer in critical times (1) Sunday 29 March 2020
Some Statemens of Faith on God’s Action in History „I believe that God can and will let good come out of everything, even the greatest evil. For that to happen, God needs human beings who let everything work out for the best. I believe that in every moment of distress God will give us as much strength to resist as we need. But it is not given to us in advance, lest we rely on ourselves and not on God alone. In such faith all fear of the future should be overcome. I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings …