January 25, 2026, Berlin: “With bound Hands” … “Fall Into the Spokes of the Wheel”
Alfred DelpSunday, January 25, 2026, at 5.00 pm
Memorial Church Maria Regina Martyrum
Heckerdamm 230 | 13627 Berlin | Germany
„With bound Hands“ … „Fall into the Spokes of the Wheel“
Key texts by Alfred Delp and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Catholic and Jesuit Alfred Delp and the Protestant and student pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer were intellectual pioneers in their respective circles. Out of deep Christian conviction, they warned early on about the dangers of the Nazi regime and were active in the resistance against Hitler and his destructive, inhuman ideology. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 when his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi’s plans for a coup were uncovered. Alfred Delp was arrested after Count Stauffenberg’s failed assassination attempt on July 28, 1944. In the final months of the war, both were executed within a few weeks of each other: Delp on February 2, 1945, at the age of 37 in Berlin-Plötzensee, and 39-year-old Bonhoeffer on April 9, 1945, in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.
In view of global trends toward unvarnished authoritarianism and the increasing erosion of the foundations of our free and democratic constitutional order in Germany and elsewhere, it is worth reflecting on the clear, powerful words of Delp and Bonhoeffer and their attitude, which was born of deep faith and moral fortitude, and taking them as a guide for ourselves.
Admission: Free
Concept and introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis
Read by Gregorij H. von Leïtis and Steffen Nowak
Musical accompaniment: Christoph Kießig, saxophone
Presented by Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, in cooperation with the Memorial Church Maria Regina Martyrum and the Memorial and Meeting Place Bonhoeffer House
January 29, 2026, Munich: “With bound Hands” … “Fall Into the Spokes of the Wheel”
Dietrich BonhoefferThursday, January 29, 2026, at 7.30 pm
Parish Hall of St. Sylvester
Marschallstraße 1 b | 80802 München | Germany
„With bound Hands“ … „Fall into the Spokes of the Wheel“
Key texts by Alfred Delp and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Catholic and Jesuit Alfred Delp and the Protestant and student pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer were intellectual pioneers in their respective circles. Out of deep Christian conviction, they warned early on about the dangers of the Nazi regime and were active in the resistance against Hitler and his destructive, inhuman ideology. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 when his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi’s plans for a coup were uncovered. Alfred Delp was arrested after Count Stauffenberg’s failed assassination attempt on July 28, 1944. In the final months of the war, both were executed within a few weeks of each other: Delp on February 2, 1945, at the age of 37 in Berlin-Plötzensee, and 39-year-old Bonhoeffer on April 9, 1945, in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.
In view of global trends toward unvarnished authoritarianism and the increasing erosion of the foundations of our free and democratic constitutional order in Germany and elsewhere, it is worth reflecting on the clear, powerful words of Delp and Bonhoeffer and their attitude, which was born of deep faith and moral fortitude, and taking them as a guide for ourselves.
Admission: Free
Concept and introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis
Read by Gregorij H. von Leïtis and Joshua Schubert
Presented by Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, in cooperation with the Parish Association Alt-Schwabing
January 30, 2026, Munich: Jewish Voices from Theresienstadt
Friday, January 30, 2026
St. Georg Club
Türkenstraße 106 | 80799 München | Germany
„Out Through The Barbed Wire. Out Into Freedom!“
Jewish Voices from Theresienstadt
In the Nazi extermination machinery Theresienstadt played a special role. It was intended to distract attention from the Nazis’ efficiently organized murder machine. In June 1943, Adolf Eichmann, the organizer of the so-called “Final Solution,” presented Theresienstadt to a delegation from the International Red Cross. Those imprisoned in Theresienstadt were temporarily allowed to engage in artistic activities and organize readings, concerts, plays, and cabaret performances as part of their so-called “leisure activities.” Through music and literature, the artists of Theresienstadt encouraged their fellow prisoners, offering them comfort and hope, at least for a moment. In their thoughts and imagination, they overcame the walls of the ghetto, reaching “out through the barbed wire, out into freedom…”
But behind this façade, the Nazis and their collaborators continued to implement their murderous plans unabated: of the 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, only around 16,800 survived. 33,500 died in Theresienstadt from hunger and disease, malnutrition, and poor hygiene. 88,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor.
The artists imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp defied the Nazi’s hatred and contempt for humanity in their own way: With imagination and creativity, they defied the national socialist dictum that the Jews were sub-human and incapable of any culture.
The texts by Alice Herz-Sommer, Georg Kafka, Paul Aron Sandfort, Leo Strauss, Viktor Ullmann, and Ilse Weber bear witness to the deep humanity that these artists retained even in the limbo of Theresienstadt. They can give us courage today to break the spiral of hatred, violence, and destruction.
Gregorij H. von Leïtis, Narrator
Concept & introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis
Presented by the Cooperative of Catholic Nobility in Bavaria, in conjunction with Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive
By invitation only
