Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born February 4, 1906. He studied at the universities of Berlin and Tbingen. His doctoral thesis was published in 1930 as Sanctorum Commuunio.

From the first days of the Nazi accession to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer was involved in protests against the regime. From 1933 to 1935 he was the pastor of two small congregations in London, but nonetheless was a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. In 1935 Bonhoeffer was appointed to organize and head a new seminary for the Confessing Church at Finkenwald. He described the community in and later wrote