A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.

He observed "Here one can truly speak and hear about sin and grace and the love of God. Bloesch. His father Karl Bonhoeffer was a distinguiDietrich Bonhoefferd neurologist.

He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and executed by hanging in April 1945 while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp just 23 days before the German surrender. He was also involved in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential and many have labelled his book The Cost of Discipleship a modern classic.