Week 12: The July 20th Plot and Its Aftermath

1.Metaxas narrates the Operation Valkyrie plot with extraordinary tension. Stauffenberg planted the bomb, flew back to Berlin, and for several crucial hours the conspirators believed Hitler was dead and began to execute the planned takeover. Then came the news that Hitler had survived. How do you read the failure of this plot theologically? Does it represent the abandonment of God, the limits of human agency, or something else?

2.After the July 20 failure, the Gestapo launched a systematic investigation that began to unravel the full extent of the conspiracy. Bonhoeffer, already imprisoned, was now directly implicated as documents were discovered in a secret safe at the Abwehr. What does the unraveling of the conspiracy — its ultimate failure to achieve its military goal — say about the difference between faithfulness and success?

3.Hans von Dohnanyi — Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law and the person most responsible for drawing him into the conspiracy — was also arrested and eventually executed. Metaxas describes the close bonds between the Bonhoeffer family and their experience of mass grief. How do you think about the cost of the conspiracy not just for Dietrich but for an entire extended family — siblings, spouses, children?