"Von guten Mächten" (By good forces) is a Christian poem written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1944 while imprisoned in the basement prison of the Reich Security Main Office because of his resistance to the Nazis.

[1] The seventh and last stanza "Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen" respectively "By loving forces wonderfully sheltered" is used as a refrain in this popular rendition.

From there he wrote on 19 December 1944 to his betrothed Maria von Wedemeyer, adding the poem with the comments "ein paar Verse, die mir in den letzten Abenden einfielen" (a few verses that occurred to me the last evenings) and "als ein Weihnachtsgruß für Dich und die Eltern und Geschwister" (as a Christmas greeting for you and the parents and siblings).

[2] The poem refers both to his own situation and that of his family: he had to face possible execution, his brother Klaus and his brothers-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and Rüdiger Schleicher were in prison, his brother Walter had died as a soldier, and his twin sister Sabine [de] had left the country with her Jewish husband Gerhard Leibholz [de].

[3] A derived typed copy appeared first in Geneva in 1945 in the ecumenical Gedenkschrift (memorial writing) Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Das Zeugnis eines Boten.

[4] This version was believed to be authentic when Eberhard Bethge included it in his collection of Bonhoeffer's letters, Widerstand und Ergebung ('Resistance and Resignation'), in 1951.

[6] The poem is in seven even stanzas, different from Bonhoeffer's other poetic texts from the period, such as "Glück und Unglück", "Wer bin ich?

des Leids, gefüllt bis an den höchsten Rand, so nehmen wir ihn dankbar ohne Zittern aus deiner guten und geliebten Hand.

die du in unsre Dunkelheit gebracht, führ, wenn es sein kann, wieder uns zusammen.

so let us hear that vibrant sound of the world, which invisibly enshrouds us, all Thy children's high lauding hymns.