In the summer of 1945, Eberhard Bethge began the search for traces of his colleague and friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer. From as early as September 1945, Hermann Pünder provided Bethge a first-hand account of Bonhoeffer’s final days. Five years on, another resource arrived in the guise of the British agent Captain Payne Best, whose 1950 publication
The Venlo Incident
quickly became a bestseller. Bethge was much impressed with the Englishman’s account, so much so that he opted for a wholesale incorporation of the relevant section of Best’s work in his own narrative. The tale of the final week of Bonhoeffer’s life came to be told to an expanding international audience by a captured British spy. So things would remain for over seventy years. But now, Best’s account need no longer be the sole and defining narrative voice. Other first-hand accounts and sources have been unearthed.
By dint of revisiting original, newly published, and unpublished sources in six languages, much translation work, and input from Hermann’s son, Dr Tilman Pünder, John McCabe tells the full story of Bonhoeffer’s final week. "Myths" that have grown up and been extensively reiterated can now be exposed, mistakes corrected, and perspectives broadened.
Adding more substance, color, and depth to a previously monochrome narrative, the book’s "layered approach," which includes historical material from the time period in question, aims to provide a better framework from within which to understand more fully the witness and contribution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. McCabe proposes that a richer appreciation of the resisting spirit of Bonhoeffer (and others) may further study of, and engagement with, the Bonhoeffer corpus.