Emilie Amalie Charlotte "Emmi" Bonhoeffer ( Delbrück; 13 May 1905,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
– 12 March 1991,
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
) was the wife of anti-Hitler activist
Klaus Bonhoeffer
Klaus Bonhoeffer (5 January 1901 – 23 April 1945) was a German jurist and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime who was executed after the July 1944 plot to kill Hitler.
Early life
Klaus Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany, now Wro ...
and sister-in-law of theologian,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the s ...
. She married Bonhoeffer on 3 September 1930.
Klaus was chief counsel of the
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...
Airline Company and was the leading civilian member of the military resistance to the Hitler regime. While occupied with raising their children, Emmi supported her husband's decision to oppose Nazism, assisting him on countless occasions both morally and practically. Her husband was arrested in October 1944 in connection with the plot to kill Hitler. He was sentenced to death in February 1945, and killed by the SS as the war was ending on 23 April 1945.
Emmi barely escaped her own death when her house was destroyed in the last days of the war. She moved with her children to
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
to start a new life in June 1945. She was active in projects aiding war refugees, as well as anti-Nazi educational work and various humanitarian efforts.
Emmi Bonhoeffer was also the author of ''Auschwitz Trials: Letters from an eyewitness''.
She was the sister of biophysicist
Max Delbr%C3%BCck
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical science, physical scientist ...
.
References
Further reading
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External links
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German anti-fascists
1905 births
1991 deaths
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Female anti-fascists
Emmi
{{Germany-activist-stub