June 27, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS – Now available from Fortress Press, Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940-1945 documents the final period of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, from the end of his pastoral and educational work through his participation in the resistance conspiracy against Hitler until his execution by the Nazis in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945.

Here Bonhoeffer leaves the world of ecclesiastical opposition to National Socialism to operate in the public realm of history. His involvement in a conspiracy with diplomats, lawyers, and military leaders makes the volume of particular value to historians.

Conspiracy and Imprisonment is a case study in the life and intellectual work of a great theologian in a dictatorship-intensified by the secrecy demanded by Bonhoeffer's active involvement in the conspiracy to overthrow the Nazi regime. This volume includes documentation of plans for the coup and of the reconstruction of Germany and its churches after the fall of Nazism as well as a personal glimpse into how Bonhoeffer and his family, friends, and colleagues struggled to maintain some vestige of normalcy in an extraordinary situation. Especially moving are Bonhoeffer's letters to his Finkenwalde seminarians, many of whom had been sent as soldiers to the front.

Also included is the first publication of ten early letters from Bonhoeffer to his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer.

Conspiracy and Imprisonment is an important companion to his other, well-known writings from this period, Ethics, Fiction from Tegel Prison, and Letters and Papers from Prison.

"An abundance of riches awaits anyone who turns to this magnificent volume. Never before could we see in such luminous detail how Bonhoeffer related his ethics to his involvement in political resistance. This is Bonhoeffer up close and personal during the last period of his life. Letters, essays, sermons and more show him addressing challenges, ambiguities and terrors that were pressing for him then, and as will be clear to many, are . . . no less pressing for us today." – George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary

"This final volume of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works provides essential information on the Confessing Church and the conspiracy against the Nazi regime. Mark Brocker's introduction includes a particularly clear account of Bonhoeffer's complex life from his return to Germany in late 1939 to his death in April, 1945. In the documents collected here, we see how a new vision of both church and state began to emerge in Germany well before the end of the war. Conspiracy and Imprisonment shows the importance of Bonhoeffer's contribution to that vision and . . . the sacrifices he and others made for it." – Robin W. Lovin, Southern Methodist University

Mark Brocker, editor, is Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Tacoma, Washington, and teaches at the Northwest House of Theological Studies, Salem, and at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley.

Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940-1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 16, Translated by Lisa E. Dahill, edited by Mark Brocker, ISBN: 0-8006-8316-1, Price: $60.00, Format: 6" x 9," hardcover with jacket, 955 pp, Publisher: Fortress Press.

To order volumes from the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press