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1906: Feb 4: Dietrich and twin sister, Sabine, born in Breslau

1912: Bonhoeffers move to Berlin

1913: Dietrich enters grammar school after early years of home schooling

1918: Oldest brother, Walter, killed in World War I

1920: At 14, decides he will be a theologian

1921: Confirmed at Grunewald Church, Berlin

1923: Begins theological studies at Tübingen University

1924: Travels to Rome and North Africa with brother Klaus; Begins studies at Berlin University

1927: Receives licentiate in theology, summa cum laude; defends doctoral thesis, The Communion of Saints

1928: Assistant pastor of congregation in Barcelona, Spain

1929: Assistant in systematic theology department at Berlin University

1930: Second dissertation, Act and Being, qualifies him for teaching position; July 31: first public lecture; Sept. 5: begins year of study at Union Theological Seminary in New York

1931: July: meets theologian Karl Barth; Aug.: appointed lecturer in theology at Berlin University; Sept.: appointed youth secretary of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches; Oct.: appointed chaplain at Technical College, Berlin (serves until 1933); Nov. 15: ordained; during this period, “becomes a Christian”

1932: Teaches confirmation class in poor section of Berlin (classes begin in late ’31); attends ecumenical meetings in Geneva and elsewhere

1933: Feb. 1: radio broadcast on “the leadership principle” cut off the air; April: article on “The Church and the Jewish Question”; Sept. 21: with Martin Niemöller, organizes Pastors’ Emergency League, which opposes the “Aryan Clause” excluding Jews from ministry; Oct. 17: pastors two congregations in London (until March 1935); develops friendship with Bishop George Bell

1934: May 29–31: the Confessing Church adopts Barmen Confession of Faith; Aug. 23–30: Bonhoeffer delivers speech on peace to ecumenical conference at Fan, Denmark

1935: April 26: preachers’ seminary opens at Zingsthof on the Baltic Sea; June 24: seminary relocates to Finkenwalde; Bonhoeffer publishes influential article on “The Confessing Church and the Ecumenical Movement”

1936: Declared a “pacifist and enemy of the State,” Bonhoeffer has his authorization to teach at Berlin University terminated; lectures at Confessing Church program near Olympic stadium

1937: Feb.: at ecumenical meeting in London, resigns as youth secretary in protest of the World Alliance’s failure to speak out for the Jews; Sept.: seminary at Finkenwalde closed by Gestapo; Nov.: “The Cost of Discipleship” published; Dec.: leads “collective pastorates” for clandestine training of clergy

1938: Jan. 11: forbidden to live or work in Berlin; Feb.: contacts leaders of the political resistance, including Gen. Wilhelm Canaris; Sept.: writes “Life Together;” helps twin sister and her husband escape Germany

1939: Mar.: in London, meets with Bishop Bell, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dutch ecumenical leader Willem Visser’t Hooft; June 2: travels to U.S. for lecture tour; July 8: decides he must return to Germany and suffer with his people; Aug.: becomes civilian agent of the Abwehr, German military intelligence agency

1940: Mar.: collective pastorates closed by Gestapo; Sept. 9: prohibited from public speaking and ordered to report regularly to police; begins writing “Ethics”; Nov.: assigned to Abwehr staff in Munich; stays at Benedictine abbey nearby

1941: Meets Barth and Visser’t Hooft in Switzerland; Mar. 27: forbidden to publish because of his “subversive activities”

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