Eberhard Bethge

Eberhard Bethge (August 29 1909-March 18 2000) was the friend of the famed theologian and anti-Nazi martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and was married to Bonhoeffer's niece. Bethge himself was a fellow resister of the Nazis, editor, and biographer of the great theologian.

Bethge was born in Warchau, near Magdeburg, on August 29 1909. He attended several universities, as is customary for theology students in Germany, before attending the underground Finkenwalde Seminary in Pomerania where Bonhoeffer taught in the name of Germany's Confessing Church (part of the anti-Nazi resistance). He became Bonhoeffer's close friend and confidant, and he later also married Bonhoeffer's niece, Renate.

Though a member of the Resistance, Bethge was drafted to serve in the German army during World War II. He was later arrested, along with dozens of other resisters, after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler on July 20 1944. After the war he spent several years as pastor for the same German-speaking congregation in Sydenham, London, England that Bonhoeffer had served in 1933-35. From 1961 to his retirement in 1975, Bethge was the Director of the 'Pastoral College' of one of the Protestant regional churches in Germany, the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, charged with continuing ministerial education - a task which no doubt had an element of continuity with his and Bonhoeffer's work in the seminary in Eastern Prussia in the 1930's.

Although never formally appointed to a university post, he held various academic posts and lectureships, including stints at Harvard Divinity School, Chicago Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary in New York; he was named 'Honorary Professor' at the University of Bonn in 1969. He continued to give lectures until a year before his death in 2000.

Bethge is best known as the author of the definitive biography, "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Man of Vision, Man of Courage". (A new English-language version, "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography", was released in February 2000, edited by Victoria J. Barnett, with corrections of some translation errors, as well as some added material from the German edition -- most notably on Bonhoeffer's childhood -- that had never appeared in English.) Bethge also collected and edited "Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison" (most of the which were addressed to him), as well as the unfinished effort Bonhoeffer considered his main life's work, "Ethics". In 1995, Bethge edited "Friendship and Resistance: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer".

Given that Bonhoeffer was murdered at a relatively young age, as well as the fact that Bonhoeffer's work was mostly 'behind the scenes' rather than in the forefront of the Confessing Church movement, he was largely unknown in Germany and internationally. It was due to Bethge's untiring efforts that Bonhoeffer's theological and political legacy was preserved for future generations, and that Bonhoeffer became known as a key theologian of the 20th century.

In 1991 Bethge wrote an article for "Christian History" entitled "My Friend Dietrich." Reflecting on his former companion's work, he admitted that "the language, concepts, and thought paradigms of this man are a half century old and older. … We find in him no answers to many of our most pressing questions."

Bethge was survived by his wife, Renate (Dietrich Bonhoeffer's niece), as well as by a son and two daughters.

Works by and about Eberhard Bethge

*Eberhard Bethge (ed) "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Letters and Papers From Prison, New Greatly Enlarged Edition." (New York: Touchstone Simon & Shuster, 1997).
*Eberhard Bethge, "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologian, Christian, Man for His Times: A Biography." Rev. ed. (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2000).
*John de Gruchy, "Daring, Trusting Spirit: Bonhoeffer's Friend Eberhard Bethge." (London: SCM, 2005)

External links

* [http://www.dbonhoeffer.org International Bonhoeffer Society]
* [http://ctlibrary.com/3836 Preview of Bethge's article in Christian History: My friend Dietrich]