Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau on February 4, 1906. He had a twin sister, Sabine, and six other siblings. When he was six years old, his family relocated to Berlin, where his father Karl took over as head of the Berlin University Psychiatric Clinic. His mother, Paula, was a devout Christian who had studied to become a teacher, an uncommon path for women at the time. For the first several years, she homeschooled her children alone. The entire family was quite musically gifted, including Dietrich who played piano exceptionally. Throughout his entire life, Dietrich's connection to his parents and siblings remained strong.

In January 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer became engaged to Marie von Wedemeyer. They agreed to wait one year from their engagement to get married; however, the engaged couple would only see each other again after Dietrich's arrest, during Maria's visits to him in prison. Throughout his entire imprisonment in Berlin, they wrote each other letters, the most famous being the poem "By Good Forces" ("Von guten Mächten"), which Dietrich sent to Maria and his family at the turn of the year 1944/45.

Picture: Gütersloher Verlagshaus