BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN.

BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. is a historical drama about Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s courageous battle against racism and the National Socialist Party’s murderous regime in Germany under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 40s. BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. tells a powerful, dramatic story about one Christian man’s resistance to political oppression, religious persecution and mass murder.

The movie is told from the perspective of Dietrich Bohoeffer’s memories as he lies in prison after being arrested by Hitler’s regime on April 5, 1943.

The flashbacks begin in 1914 by showing the relationship between Dietrich and his older brother, Walter, when Dietrich was eight. Four years later, Walter joins the German Army in World War I but dies in action nearly immediately. His brother’s death affects Dietrich deeply, and he decides to study theology.

The movie cuts to 1930, where Dietrich moves to New York City for a fellowship at the Union Theological Seminary. There, he befriends a black seminarian named Albert Franklin Fisher. Fisher introduces Dietrich to jazz music and the Pentecostal form of worship at the Abysinnian Baptist Church in Harlem. Dietrich starts teaching Sunday School there and befriends the pastor, Adam Clayton Powell. Fisher and the Reverend Powell introduce Dietrich to the evils of racism and forced segregation in the United States. As a result, Dietrich becomes even more convinced the Christians must take strong public stands against any form of racial oppression.

Thus, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party take control of Germany on Jan. 30, 1933, Dietrich immediately takes a public stand against it. Things get worse when Hitler moves to create a national church based on his National Socialist ideals of racial purity that Spring and Summer.

Dietrich and other anti-Hitler Protestants oppose these moves by Hitler. Things come to a head in late June, when Hitler appoints a fervent antisemite and Party fanatic, Ludwig Müller, to head the “Reich Church,” the new national church giving total allegiance to Hitler. Soon afterwards on July 6, the new church leaders vote to adopt a resolution that excommunicates all Christian pastors of Jewish descent, even pastors with wives of Jewish descent. The pro-Nazi leaders also wanted to remove the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish Jesus from the Bible.

Dietrich and other Christians opposed to all this form a separate Protestant group. Eventually, the group is called “the Confessing Church.” Of course, the situation becomes more and more dire as Hitler and the Nazi Party increase their oppression of Jews and Protestant Christians opposed to the Nazification of the Lutheran Church in Germany. (It should also be noted that immediately after seizing power on Jan. 30, he started cracking down on the mass media. Too many Christians and traditional conservatives forget that the mass media controls the culture that elects the politicians.)

Meanwhile, in the Fall of 1933, Dietrich accepts a two-year appointment to be pastor of two German-speaking Lutheran congregations in London. There, he tries to generate support in England for the Confessing Church in Germany.

Back in Germany in 1935, Dietrich becomes the head of an underground Christian seminary, but the Nazis close it down two years later and arrest the students and other pastors while Dietrich is away. In 1938, his brother-in-law, Hans, introduces him to a group of men in military intelligence seeking to overthrow Hitler.

A year later, when Hans learns that war is imminent, he, Dietrich’s family and other friends urge Dietrich to flee to New York City and stay there until Hitler’s regime is no longer running Germany. However, after arriving in New York, Dietrich’s conscience bids him to return to Germany, to participate in the travails of his fellow Christians there. If he stays in America, Dietrich reasons, how can he in all good conscience participate in any renewal of Christianity when Hitler is gone?

The rest of the movie details Dietrich’s involvement with the Resistance in Germany and further persecution by the Nazis, eventually leading to Dietrich’s arrest.

BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. tells a powerful, dramatic story about one man’s resistance to Hitler’s National Socialist regime and its oppression, and then murder, of millions of Jews, thousands of Catholics (especially Catholic priests and nuns in Poland) and many German Protestants. Sadly, only about 3,000 Protestant clergy in Germany, out of about 18,000, resisted the Nazi Party’s control of Protestant churches. Even more sadly, the historical record shows that the Christian opposition to Hitler limited its opposition to non-political matters. Also, most German Protestants remained neutral in the fight.

That said, the purpose of this new movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer is to spotlight his courageous Christian opposition to tyranny, in the face of intense persecution and deadly threats. In recreating Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christian courage, BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. inspires viewers to take a stand for Truth, Goodness and Justice against all kinds of socialist, diabolical tyranny.

By the way, there are many excellent movies about BONHOEFFER on www.movieguide.org. The best is the MOVIEGUIDE® Award winner BONHOEFFER: AGENT OF GRACE, a German movie that show his character growth and personal life in powerful ways. Chack out that review at: https://www.movieguide.org/reviews/movies/bonhoeffer-agent-of-grace.html

“But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” – Acts 5:29 (ESV).