Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

by Eric Metaxas

It was a grotesque50 and painful task, since Hindenburg was a monarchist. But for the sake of the nation, he went to the Belgian city Spa and delivered the epochal ultimatum to his kaiser. When Hindenburg left the conference room after that meeting, a seventeen-year-old orderly from Grunewald was standing in the hallway. Klaus Bonhoeffer never forgot the moment when the stout Hindenburg brushed past him. After the death of Walter, with Karl-Friedrich still in the infantry, it’s no wonder the Bonhoeffer parents wanted to find their youngest soldier a position out of harm’s way. As a result, he was stationed at Spa, and that day witnessed history. He later described the exiting Hindenburg as being “rigid as a statue both in countenance and bearing.”