Bonhoeffer Commemorative Site

Dedicated in 1999, the memorial commemorates the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wehrmacht General Friedrich von Rabenau, and Wehrmacht Captain Ludwig Gehre, who were held in the detention cellar of the SS casern as "special prisoners" of the Main Security Office of the Reich (Reichssicherheitshauptamt).

General view of the remains of the wall, which today form the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Memorial. The walls form the walls of a cellar, which today is open to the top. — 1/2

Visitors to the Dietrich Bonhöffer Memorial, 2008. Photo: Katharina Brand.

©Buchenwald Memorial

They had been arrested for participating in the conspiracy against Hitler, which had culminated in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944. They spent the last weeks of their lives here, before being executed on April 9, 1945, at the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

In the 1990s, various youth groups engaged in excavations to find and uncover the remains of the detention cellar.

On May 25, 2014, the memorial was anonymously vandalized. Its immediate restoration was generously supported by donations from the International Bonhoeffer Society and the Protestant-Lutheran Church Parish of Weimar.