Klaus Bonhoeffer

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Klaus Hans Martin Bonhoeffer (born January 5, 1901 in Breslau ; † April 23, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and involved in the resistance against National Socialism on July 20, 1944 .

Life

Grave of Klaus Bonhoeffer and others in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin (2008)
Stumbling block at the house, Alte Allee 9–11, in Berlin-Westend

Klaus Bonhoeffer was the son of Karl Bonhoeffer (professor of psychiatry and neurology ) and his wife Paula (née von Hase). Together with his younger brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his later brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi , he attended the Grunewald High School in Berlin . He then studied in Heidelberg jurisprudence .

Bonhoeffer did his doctorate on “Most Favored Nationhood in Modern International Law”; afterwards he continued his education in Berlin , Geneva and Amsterdam . On September 3, 1930, he married Emmi Delbrück , daughter of Hans Delbrück and sister of Justus and Max Delbrück . Bonhoeffer worked as a lawyer and since 1935 as legal counsel (chief general counsel from 1937 to 1944) at Lufthansa . This activity involved extensive travel.

From 1940, Klaus Bonhoeffer systematically established contacts with several resistance groups against the Nazi regime. Through his brother Dietrich he had contact with the church resistance and through his brothers-in-law Justus Delbrück , Hans von Dohnanyi and Rüdiger Schleicher numerous contacts with the military resistance against Hitler , above all with the circle around Wilhelm Canaris in the Foreign Office / Defense of the High Command of the Wehrmacht . Through a cousin of his wife, Ernst von Harnack , Bonhoeffer also had connections to the social democratic resistance. He introduced his colleague Otto John , who later became the first President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Federal Republic of Germany , to the resistance. He also used his travel opportunities for the resistance. He was privy to the assassination and coup plans of July 20, 1944 .

According to the record book of the Lehrter Strasse cell prison , in which the Gestapo had set up a special department for political prisoners , Bonhoeffer was arrested on October 1, 1944 and sentenced to death by the People's Court on February 2, 1945 . On the night of 22 April 23, 1945, when the troops of the Red Army had already reached the outskirts of Berlin, Bonhoeffer was, along with twelve other prisoners, including his brother Rudiger Schleicher and Friedrich Justus Perels , by a detail of the Reich Security Main Office at March from the prison to the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais murdered by a shot in the neck on a rubble site near Invalidenstrasse .

The Lufthansa Seeheim conference hotel has had his name since 1990.

On June 23, 2015 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former place of residence, Berlin-Westend , Alte Allee 9-11, which was replaced by a new version on November 14, 2015.

Quotes

"I'm not afraid of getting hanged, but I never want to see these faces again ... this level of depravity ... I'd rather die than see those faces again. I've seen the devil, I can't get rid of that. "

- Klaus Bonhoeffer : Note on paper before the death sentence, quoted from Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer , Munich, 5th edition 1983, p. 1039

literature

  • Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologe - Christian - Contemporary . 8th edition, Gütersloh 2004.
  • Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . Revised new edition, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-50684-X .
  • Sigrid Grabner / Hendrik Röder (eds.): Emmi Bonhoeffer. Moving evidence of a courageous life . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-62164-9 .
  • Patricia McCormick: The Plot to Kill Hitler . Balzer + Bray, New York 2016

Web links

Commons : Klaus Bonhoeffer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Klaus Bonhoeffer. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014 ; accessed on October 7, 2014 .
  2. ↑ See Joachim Fest: Coup. The long way to July 20th. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-88680-539-5 , p. 320.
  3. ↑ Dr. Klaus Bonhoeffer. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014 ; accessed on October 7, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Bonhoeffer, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bonhoeffer, Klaus Hans Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1945
Place of death Berlin