Serendipity - a family touched by greatness

[TonyF]

Sorry folks, this may be a bit long, had a very weird thing happen yesterday and still trying to understand it.

Many years ago I worked at the Imperial War Museum and although it wasn't my area of expertise, I got very interested in the European Resistance to the Nazis, especially that within Germany and particularly interested in the work of the Churches there against the State. One man always stood out for me, Deitrich Bonnhoffer, a Lutheran Pastor who was executed in 1942 for basically following his beliefs, speaking out against the Nazis and when he refused to shut up, they hanged him.

So, fast forward 35 years and earlier this last week a beautifully hand written letter arrives here from an Emeritus Professor who lives in the Uk and who saw a piece about the work I now do researching and writing about religion - Jenny and I firmly belonging to the atheist wing of the Church - inviting us to lunch yesterday at his second home in Lot et Garonne. Never heard of him let alone met him, we were just at the same Uni 40 years apart and he just thought he'd invite us on the offchance that we were free.

So, we decided it looked interesting, lovely place etc etc and I phoned to accept. So yesterday, off we toddled, almost a 2 hour drive to get there, 120km, we arrive, meet him and another couple who he'd invited, also Brits, musicians, been here 20 years plus. Great lunch, wonderful company, great conversation with like-minded people, the other couple left and, as you do, we're being shown round the house by the Prof. - wont give his name, he doesn't understand the internet and is actually a very private person.

We ended up in his study, chatting about this and that and he mentioned his family were German, his mother was a Lutheran, his father a Jew, they had fled Germany prior to the War. Further conversation and he just mentioned, sort of in passing, that his mother's maiden name was Bonnhoffer! I asked him, as casually as I could, whether he was related to the Bonnhoffer who was executed and he just quietly mentioned that he was his uncle and godfather and although he didn't know him that well, he remembered him with great affection.

I was stunned and really started to fill up. As a professional historian I don't have many heros, some of the greats maybe - Locke, Newton, da Vinci, Henry IV of France - modern day, Ghandi, Mandela - but Bonnhoffer is one of my heros because this was a man of peace who knew he would be executed if he didn't stop criticising the Nazis but his faith - which I don't understand - meant that he felt he had to speak out.

So, an hour later we left, we're invited back to meet his wife in March/April, he loaned us a book he's recently edited about his family and next time round he wants to talk about Protestantisme in France and my research.

I came away feeling very odd - great day, long journey, well worth it but he's a Bonnhoffer!!!! Superb.

[zazen999]

That's a wonderful, wonderful experience!

'As casually as I could'...I can imagine the heart racing as you asked.

[Seahorse]

What an amazing thing to happen.

[bobleponge]

Mysterious thing sometimes, the world.
I studied a bit about Bonnhoffer a few years ago, whilst doing some bits and bobs, and what little I did read about him, indicates all that you have just said, a quiet peaceful man, with incredibly strong beliefs.
To have met a relative who remembers him, albeit not terribly well, must have been a fantastic if somewhat surreal experience.

[maytreefrannie]

Wonderful experience - sets us thinking about whether someone (up there) is working things out in response to the work and research you've been doing.

[bluemoon]

What a lovely story.

[Marthaclematis]

Isn't that a turn of fate. I live near the Dietrich Bonnhoffer Church, I expect you've been there. Its his birthday on 6th Feb.... one of our local 2historians wrote this piece.

"The original German Church was consecrated in 1882, but was severely damaged during World War 2. It remained a burnt-out shell until the late 1950s when the present church was built on the site, and named after its most famous pastor.

Bonhoeffer was at the church for 18 months, from late 1933 to Spring 1935. During this time he lived at 2 Manor Mount, Forest Hill where there is a plaque, hidden by a large shrub. The Parsonage, as it was called, consisted of two rooms at the top of the house; the rest was occupied by a German girls' school. The house was described by one of Bonhoeffer's visitors as "uninviting and cold… damp air penetrated through the windows" and it was infested by mice. Things got worse. The same visitor wrote that the housekeeper had "all of a sudden gone mad and had to be taken to a home".

In 1935 Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to continue the struggle against Nazism. He was an active and outspoken critic, who offered one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler, and for this he paid the ultimate price. He was arrested by the Nazis in Spring 1943 for helping a group of Jews escape to Switzerland. He was held in various concentration camps, and finally hanged on 9 April 1945"

The church has a regular bi lingual sunday service.

[kirsty b]

Wow, just wow. Thats an amazing thing to happen Tony.

[Flummery]

Some things, whether you believe in Him Upstairs or not, just seem meant to happen. What an incredible co-incidence - and the nearest thing you could even get to being close to someone who died all that time ago.
I bet you are full of it for some time to come.