Prayers from prison: Prayers and poems

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

English, German (translation)

Genres: Poetry, Christian

94 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1978

About the author

Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Protestant theologian of Germany, concern Christianity in the modern world; for his role in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, people executed him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer served as a Lutheran pastor. He, also a participant in the movement of Resistance against Nazism and a member, founded the confessing church. Members of the Abwehr, the military intelligence office planned his involvement, which resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent hanging in April 1945 shortly before the end of the war. His secular view influenced very many people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietric...

Reviews

[Mary Arkless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed from the library. I'm doing a reading challenge for the year, and the list was written by a friend. One of the topics was a book of poetry in translation on a topic other than love. I'm not that keen on poetry, so didn't want to purchase a book. I speak and read German, so after some research on German poets, I found our library service had this book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The book contains eleven poems written by Bonhoeffer while in a Gestapo prison during WWII. He was a theologian who had spoken against Hitler, so was arrested by the Nazis. He spent over 1 1/2 years in prison in Tegel then was transferred to Buchenwald for a couple of months. I haven't researched the rest, but I think he was marched, possibly with other prisoners to Flossenburg. Just a month before the official end of the war, he was hastily tried, found guilty, and hanged.

These poems/prayers written by a theologian have a strong religious and/or spiritual theme. They speak to me. I am a practising Christian, so the spirituality does bother me. Several of the poems moved me. There was much for me to think about and ponder. The translations are so good, I never once thought about what the original German text might have been. This hardly ever happens, so I'm very pleased with it.

The actual poems/prayers are just 35 pages, the rest of the book consists of "An Interpretation" by Johann Christoph Hampe and a poem by W.H. Auden. Hampe gives an explanation and discussion of each of the poems. Through each essay we learn little tidbits about Bonhoeffer, his family, and his friend Eberhard Bethge to whom many of the poems were sent from the prison in Tegel. I don't want to give anything away, so will not comment further.

I have come to treasure this slim book, so have purchased a copy. I was pleased to see several copies available, as it was published in 1977. Again, I don't care that much for poetry and generally struggle to read it, so it is high praise from me that I have purchased the book despite having read it already.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems are wonderful if you know and appreciate Bonhoeffer’s story. The other half of the book has “explanations” of his poetry. The second half is mostly unneeded and unhelpful. The poems are rather straight forward and the musings threaten to take away their power. However, they do provide some extra context or details of Bonhoeffer’s life that is useful.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aesthetically speaking, these are not the most beautiful poems I've ever read. Their power lies in knowing the difficult context they came from and the life of the man writing them. A good addendum to my other Bonhoeffer reading.

[Rob Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A martyr for our century.