Constantin von Dietze 

Nationality

Germany

Date of Birth

1891

Date of Death

1973

Political
Preference

Friedrich Carl Nicolaus Constantin von Dietze was born in Gottesgnaden, Saxony-Anhalt and studied law in Halle-Wittenberg, Tübingen and Oxford. Von Dietze was a lawyer, economist, and theologian, a member of the Confessing Church and one of the founding members of the Freiburger Circle.

As President of the German Economic Association, Dietze acted directly against the Nazi regime by granting a Jewish doctoral candidate his doctorate in 1935. In 1936, Dietze moved to Freiburg im Breisgau to replace Karl Diehl at the University of Freiburg as professor of political economy. Dietze became increasingly active in the Confessing Church. He worked with Adolf Lampe and Walter Eucken to found the Erwin von Beckerath working group which would later become part of the Freiburg Circles.

After having met with Bell and Schönfeld in Sweden in 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked the Freiburgers to write a memorandum on the possibilities for post-war order in Germany. But even before he put in this demand, Bonhoeffer had already made contact with von Dietze in Berlin in the summer of 1942. To work out Bonhoeffer’s request, von Dietze formed a closer working group of the Freiburg Council, which initially included Eucken, Lampe and Ritter. Together, they wrote a highly secretive memorandum.

After the failure of the attempt assassination of Hitler on 20 July 1994, Dietze was arrested for his relationship with Goerdeler and Bonhoeffer. He was imprisoned but the Allies released Dietze, before he could be prosecuted – and presumably be sentenced to death.

Dietze resumed teaching at the Freiburg University and served as its Rector from 1946 until 1949. Dietze also stayed active in the ecumenical movement, and together with Wolf he made sure that the work of the Freiburger Circle was also used in the preparations for the World Council Conference in 1948 in Amsterdam. Dietze served as president of the Evangelical Church in Germany from 1955 until 1961.