Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army
officerAn officer is a member of an armed force who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
and Catholic aristocrat who was one of the leading members of the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to kill German dictator
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
and remove the Nazi Party from power in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Along with
Henning von TresckowMajor General Herrmann Karl Robert Henning von Tresckow was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht who organized German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the Nazi regime...
and
Hans OsterHans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and one of the earliest and most determined opponents of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a driving force of German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:He was born in Dresden, Saxony in 1887, the son of an...
, he was one of the central figures of the
German ResistanceThe German Resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Nazi Germany to the regime of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
movement within the
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
.
Early life
Stauffenberg was the third of four sons (the others being the twins
BertholdBerthold Alfred Maria Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat, lawyer and conspirator in the 20 July plot of 1944, along with his brother, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, an army colonel...
and
AlexanderAlexander Franz Clemens Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat and historian....
and his own twin brother Konrad Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who died in Jettingen on 16 November, 1907) of Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the last
Oberhofmarschall of the
Kingdom of WürttembergThe Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
, and Caroline Schenk Gräfin (Countess) von Stauffenberg,
néeNEE, Nee, Née may refer to:* Née or Nee, French for "born", indicates a person's birth surname* Nee , a band in Kannada* NEE, a political party in Flanders, Belgium* "Ne~e?", a 2003 single by Aya Matsuura- People with the family name :...
Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband. Claus was born in the Stauffenberg castle of Jettingen between
UlmUlm is a city in the German Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions...
and
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, in the eastern part of
SwabiaSwabia, Suabia, or Svebia is both a historic and linguistic region in Germany. Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg , as well as the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia...
, at that time in the
Kingdom of BavariaThe Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806–1918. Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
, part of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
. The Stauffenberg family is one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic Catholic families of southern Germany. Among his maternal Protestant ancestors were several famous
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
ns, including Field Marshal
August von GneisenauAugust Wilhelm Antonius Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau was a Prussian field marshal.-Early life:Gneisenau was born at Schildau, near Torgau. He was the son of a Saxon lieutenant of artillery, August William Neidhardt, and his wife Maria Eva Neidhardt, née Müller. He grew up in great poverty at...
.
In his youth, he and his brothers were members of the
Neupfadfinder, a
German Scout associationThe Scout movement in Germany consists of about 150 different associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides.Scouting in Germany started in 1909. German Scouting later became involved with the German Youth Movement, of which the Wandervogel was a part...
and part of the
German Youth movementThe German Youth Movement is a collective term for educational-cultural renewal movement starting from 1896 on. It consists of numerous associations of young people focused on outdoor activities...
.
Like his brothers, he was carefully educated and inclined toward literature, but eventually took up a military career. In 1926, he joined the family's traditional regiment, the
Bamberger ReiterThe Bamberg Horseman is a life-size stone equestrian statue by an anonymous medieval sculptor in the cathedral of Bamberg, Germany.Dating probably from the time before the consecration of the cathedral's new building in 1237, but after 1225, it is located on a console at the north pillar of the St...
- und Kavallerieregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
. It was around this time that the three brothers were introduced by Albrecht
von BlumenthalThe von Blumenthal family are German nobility from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other, unrelated, families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families called "Blumenthal" without "von" are to be found worldwide.The privileges of the German nobility were abolished...
to poet
Stefan GeorgeStefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
's influential circle,
Georgekreis, from which many notable members of the German resistance would later emerge. George dedicated
Das neue Reich ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the
Geheimes Deutschland ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold. The work outlines a new form of society ruled by a hierarchical spiritual aristocracy. George rejected any attempts to use it for mundane political purposes, especially Nazism.
Stauffenberg was commissioned as a
Leutnant (
second lieutenantSecond Lieutenant is the lowest commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.In British English the rank is pronounced second /lɛf'tɛnənt/ , while in American English it is pronounced second /lu'tɛnənt/ ....
) in 1930. He studied modern weapons at the
KriegsakademieKriegsakademie may refer to:* War Academy of the Royal Bavarian Army, located in Munich * Prussian Military Academy of the Royal Prussian Army, located in Berlin- See also :* military academy...
in Berlin-
MoabitMoabit is an inner city locality of Berlin. Since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it belongs to the newly regrouped governmental borough of Mitte. Previously, from 1920 to 2001, it belonged to the borough of Tiergarten. Moabit's borders are defined by three watercourses, the Spree, the...
, but remained focused on the use of the horse — which continued to carry out a large part of transportation duties throughout the Second World War - in modern warfare. His regiment became part of the
German 1st Light Division1.leichte-Brigade
1.leichte-Division
6.Panzer-DivisionThe German 1st Light Brigade was a mechanized unit established in October 1937 in imitation of the French Division Légère Mécanique, intended to take on the roles of army-level reconnaissance and security that had traditionally been the...
under General
Erich HoepnerErich Hoepner was a German general in World War II. A successful panzer leader, Hoepner was executed after the failed 20 July Plot in 1944.- Life :Hoepner was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg...
, who had taken part in the plans for the September 1938
German ResistanceThe German Resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Nazi Germany to the regime of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
coup, cut short by Hitler's unexpected diplomatic success in the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
. The unit was among the troops that moved into the
SudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia.The name is derived from the...
, the part of Czechoslovakia that had a German-speaking majority, as agreed upon in Munich. However, Stauffenberg disliked the method by which the Sudetenland was annexed and strongly disapproved of the invasion of
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
.
Pre-war misgivings
Although Stauffenberg agreed with some of the Nazi Party's
nationalistic aspectsNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
, he found many aspects of its ideology repugnant and never became a member of the party. Moreover, Stauffenberg remained a practicing Catholic. The Catholic Church had signed the
ReichskonkordatThe Reichskonkordat is the concordat between the Holy See and Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli and Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von Hindenburg respectively...
in 1933, the year Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Stauffenberg vacillated between a strong personal dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen. On top of this, the growing systematic ill-treatment of
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong personal sense of religious morality and justice.
Conquest of Poland, 1939
Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the
attack on PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
. He supported the occupation of Poland and its handling by the Nazi regime and the use of Poles as
slaveSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
workers to achieve German prosperity as well as German colonization and exploitation of Poland. The deeply-rooted belief common in the German aristocracy was that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles and mostly absorbed by Prussia in
partitions of PolandThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
, but taken from the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
after World War I, should be colonized as the
Teutonic KnightsThe Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem , or for short the Teutonic Order , is a German Roman Catholic religious order. It was formed to aid Catholics on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals to care for the sick and injured...
had done in the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
. Stauffenberg said, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonization in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur". It is certain that in the early stages of the war, he still held the usual aristocratic beliefs typical of late imperial times.
Early appeals to join resistance, 1939
While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von
ÜxküllIkšķile is a town in Latvia, the administrative centre of Ikšķile municipality. It was the the first capital of the catholic bishopric of Livonia, known by the German name of Üxküll. Meinhard, known from the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, was the first bishop of Üxküll. In 1197 Berthold of...
-Gyllenband, had approached him before to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg's conscience and religious convictions made him consider it.
Peter Yorck von WartenburgPeter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg was a German jurist and a member of the German Resistance against Nazism.- Biography :...
and
Ulrich Schwerin von SchwanenfeldUlrich-Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld was a German landowner, officer, and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime.- Biography :...
urged him to become the adjutant of
Walther von BrauchitschHeinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch was a German field marshal and the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht Heer in the early years of World War II.-Biography:...
, then Supreme Commander of the Army, in order to participate in a coup against Hitler. Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German
Reich, but to the person of
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
, due to the
Führereid introduced in 1934.
Battle of France, 1940
Stauffenberg's unit was reorganized into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its
general staffA military staff is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units....
in the
Battle of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
, for which he was awarded the
Iron CrossThe Iron Cross was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau...
First Class. Like many others, Stauffenberg was impressed by the overwhelming military success, which was attributed to Hitler.
Operation Barbarossa, 1941
Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
, the German invasion of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, was launched in 1941. The mass executions of Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and others, as well as what he believed was an already apparent deficiency in military leadership (Hitler had assumed the role of supreme commander in late 1941 after sacking Hoepner and others), finally convinced Stauffenberg in 1942 to sympathize with resistance groups within the
Wehrmacht, the only force that had a chance to overcome Hitler's
GestapoThe was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning in April 1934, it was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel under Heinrich Himmler in his position as leader of the SS and Chief of German Police...
,
SDThe Sicherheitsdienst was primarily the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily...
, and
SSThe , abbreviated SS- or - was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force that, fielding almost a million men ,...
. During the idle months of the so-called Phoney War, preceding the Battle of France (1939-40), he had already been transferred to the organizational department of the
Oberkommando des HeeresOberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
, the German army high command, which directed the operations on the Eastern Front. Stauffenberg opposed the
Commissar OrderThe Commissar Order was a written order given by Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941, prior to Operation Barbarossa. Its official name was OKW-Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars...
, which Hitler wrote and then cancelled after a year. He tried to soften the German occupation policy in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union by pointing out the benefits of getting volunteers for the
OstlegionenOstlegionen or Ostgruppen were conscripts and volunteers from the occupied eastern territories recruited into the German Army of the Third Reich during the Second World War.On June 22,1941, Germany invaded soviet Russia...
which were commanded by his department. Guidelines were issued on 2 June, 1942 for the proper treatment of prisoners of war from the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
region who had been captured by
Heeresgruppe A. The
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
had not signed the
1929 Geneva ConventionThe Geneva Convention was signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929. Its official name is the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27, 1929. It entered into force 19 June, 1931. It is this version of the Geneva Conventions which covered the treatment of prisoners of war...
. However, a month after the German invasion in 1941, an offer was made for a reciprocal adherence to the
Hague ConventionsThe Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of...
. This 'note' was left unanswered by Third
Reich officials. Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plot at this time. Hitler was at the peak of his power in 1942. The Stauffenberg brothers (Berthold and Claus) maintained contact with former commanders like Hoepner, and with the
Kreisau CircleThe Kreisau Circle was the name the Nazi Gestapo gave to a group of German dissidents centered on the Kreisau estate of Helmuth James, Graf von Moltke. The Kreisauer Kreis is celebrated as one of the few instances of German resistance to the Nazi regime...
; they also included civilians and social democrats like
Julius LeberJulius Leber was a German politician of the SPD and a member of the German Resistance against the Nazi régime.-Early history:...
in their scenarios for an administration after Hitler.
Being interrogated after his capture by the Red Army on September 2, 1944, Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn stated that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue" After his arrest in July 1944, Stauffenberg’s older brother
Berthold von StauffenbergBerthold Alfred Maria Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat, lawyer and conspirator in the 20 July plot of 1944, along with his brother, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, an army colonel...
told the Gestapo that: “He and his brother had basically approved of the racial principle of National Socialism, but considered it to be
exaggerated and
excessive”.
Tunisia, 1942
In November 1942, the Allies
landed in French North AfricaOperation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942....
, and the 10th Panzer Division occupied
Vichy FranceVichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. This government, which succeeded the Third Republic, officially called itself the French State , in contrast with the previous designation, "French Republic." Marshal...
(
Case AntonOperation Anton was the codename for the military occupation of Vichy France carried out by Germany and Italy in 1942.-Background:...
) before being transferred to the Tunisian Campaign, as part of the
Afrika KorpsThe German Afrika Korps was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
.
In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to
OberstleutnantOberstleutnant is a German military rank equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel, above Major, and below Oberst. During World War II, the SS maintained an equivalent rank known as Obersturmbannführer....
i.G. (lieutenant-colonel of the general staff), and was sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff (Ia). On 19 February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive against British, American and French forces in Tunisia. The Axis commanders hoped to break rapidly through either the Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British 1st Army. The assault at Sbiba was halted, so that Rommel concentrated on Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italians in the form of their 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Centauro Armoured Division had defeated the American defenders. During the fighting, Stauffenberg drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division.
The division, together with the 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April.
While he was driving from unit to unit, directing them, his vehicle was strafed on 7 April, 1943 by British fighter-bombers and he was severely wounded. He spent three months in hospital in Munich, where he was treated by
Ferdinand SauerbruchErnst Ferdinand Sauerbruch was a German surgeon.Sauerbruch was born in Barmen , Germany. He studied medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg, the University of Greifswald, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and the University of Leipzig, from the last of which he graduated in 1902...
. Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and 2 fingers on his left hand. He jokingly remarked to friends never to have really known what to do with so many fingers when he still had all of them. For his injuries, Stauffenberg was awarded the
Wound BadgeWound Badge was a German military award for wounded or frost-bitten soldiers of Imperial German Army in World War I, the Reichswehr between the wars, and the Wehrmacht, SS and the auxiliary service organizations during the Second World War...
in Gold on 14 April, 1943 and for his courage the
German CrossThe German Cross was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 16 November 1941 as an award ranking higher than the Iron Cross First Class but below the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross....
in Gold on 8 May, 1943.
In the resistance, 1943–1944
For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg was sent to his home, Schloss Lautlingen (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. Initially, he felt frustrated not to be in a position to stage a coup himself. But by the beginning of September 1943, after a somewhat slow recovery from his wounds, he was positioned by the conspirators and was introduced to
Henning von TresckowMajor General Herrmann Karl Robert Henning von Tresckow was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht who organized German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the Nazi regime...
as a staff officer to the headquarters of the
Ersatzheer ("Replacement Army" - charged with training soldiers to reinforce first line divisions at the front), located on the
Bendlerstrasse (later
Stauffenbergstrasse) in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Friedrich OlbrichtGeneral Friedrich Olbricht was a German general and one of the plotters involved in the attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia on 20 July 1944.- Life :...
, a committed member of the resistance movement. The
Ersatzheer had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have
Operation ValkyrieOperation Valkyrie was an emergency continuity of government operations plan developed for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement should, for whatever reason, there come to be a general breakdown in civil order of the nation; caused by the failure of the nominal civilian...
in place. This was a contingency measure which would let it assume control of the
Reich in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. Ironically, the
Valkyrie plan had been agreed to by Hitler but was now secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power in the event of his death.
A detailed military plan was developed not only to occupy Berlin, but also to take the different headquarters of the German army and of Hitler in
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
by military force after the suicide assassination by Axel von dem Bussche in late November 1943. Stauffenberg had von dem Bussche transmit these written orders personally to Major Kuhn once he had arrived at
WolfsschanzeWolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
(Wolf's Lair) near
RastenburgKętrzyn , is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,351 inhabitants . Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship . It is the capital of Kętrzyn County...
,
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
(today
KętrzynKętrzyn , is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,351 inhabitants . Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship . It is the capital of Kętrzyn County...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
). However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was canceled, and the attempt could not be made. Kuhn hid these compromising documents under a watch tower of the OKW, located not far from the Wolfsschanze.
Kuhn became a
prisoner of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
of the Soviets after the 20 July plot. He led the Soviets to the hiding place of the documents in February 1945. In 1989, Soviet leader
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
presented these documents to then-German chancellor Dr.
Helmut KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
. These documents, produced by Stauffenberg and his fellow officers in 1943 in Berlin, evince the idealistic motivation of the resistance group. This had been doubted and was a matter of discussion for years in Germany after the war. Some thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end the war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility.
On 6 June, 1944, the Allies had landed in France on D-Day. Stauffenberg, like most other German professional military officers, had absolutely no doubt that the war was lost. Only an immediate armistice could avoid more unnecessary bloodshed and further damage to Germany, its people, and other European nations. However, in late 1943, he had written out demands with which he felt the Allies had to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace. These demands included Germany retaining its 1914 eastern borders, including the Polish territories of Wielkopolska and
PoznańPoznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
. Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and the
SudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia.The name is derived from the...
within the Reich, giving autonomy to
Alsace-LorraineAlsace-Lorraine was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and on the east of the Vosges Mountains...
, and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol as far as Bolzano and Meran. Non-territorial demands included such points as refusal of any occupation of Germany by the Allies, as well as refusal to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of "nations to deal with its own criminals". These proposals were only directed to the Western Allies - Stauffenberg wanted Germany only to retreat from western, southern and northern positions, while demanding the right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east.
20 July plot
From the beginning of September 1943 until 20 July, 1944, von Stauffenberg was the driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany. His resolve, organizational abilities, and radical approach put an end to inactivity caused by doubts and long discussions on whether military virtues had been made obsolete by Hitler's behavior. With the help of his friend
Henning von TresckowMajor General Herrmann Karl Robert Henning von Tresckow was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht who organized German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the Nazi regime...
, he united the conspirators and drove them into action.
Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing
high treasonHigh treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country. Participating in a war against one's country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps the...
. He openly told young conspirator Axel von dem Bussche in late 1943, "
ich betreibe mit allen mir zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln den Hochverrat..." ("I am committing high treason with all my might and means...."). He justified himself to Bussche by referring to the right under natural law ("
Naturrecht") to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler ("
Nothilfe").
Stauffenberg decided, only after the conspirator General
Helmuth StieffHelmuth Stieff was a German general and a member of the OKH during World War II. He took part in attempts by the German resistance to assassinate Hitler, on July 7 and on July 20, 1944....
on 7 July, 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin. By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about the possibility of success. Tresckow convinced him to go on with it even if it had no chance of success at all, "The assassination must be attempted. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin", as this would be the only way to prove to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany were not one and the same and that not all Germans supported the regime.
Stauffenberg's part in the original plan required him to stay at the Bendlerstrasse offices in Berlin, so he could phone regular army units all over Europe in an attempt to convince them to arrest leaders of Nazi political organizations such as the
SicherheitsdienstThe Sicherheitsdienst was primarily the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily...
(SD) and the
GestapoThe was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning in April 1934, it was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel under Heinrich Himmler in his position as leader of the SS and Chief of German Police...
. Unfortunately, when General
Helmuth StieffHelmuth Stieff was a German general and a member of the OKH during World War II. He took part in attempts by the German resistance to assassinate Hitler, on July 7 and on July 20, 1944....
, Chief of Operation at Army High Command, who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg was forced to take on two critical roles: kill Hitler far from Berlin
and trigger the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the very same day. Beside Stieff, he was the only conspirator who had regular access to Hitler (during his briefings) by mid-1944, as well as being the only officer among the conspirators thought to have the resolve and persuasiveness to convince German military leaders to throw in with the coup once Hitler was dead. This requirement greatly reduced the chance of a successful coup.
After several unsuccessful tries by Stauffenberg to meet Hitler,
GöringHermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe...
and Himmler when they were together, he went ahead with the attempt at
WolfsschanzeWolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
on 20 July, 1944. Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs. The location had unexpectedly been changed from the subterranean
Führerbunker to
SpeerSpeer is a surname.*Albert Speer, chief architect of Nazi Germany*Albert Speer, Jr., a German architect and city planner, son of Albert Speer*Bill Speer, a retired professional ice hockey player...
's wooden barrack/hut. He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially-adapted
pliersPliers are a type of hand tool used to hold objects firmly, or for cutting and bending tough materials such as wire. Generally, pliers consist of a pair of metal levers joined at a pivot positioned closer to one end of the levers, creating short jaws on one side of the pivot, and longer handles on...
, a task made difficult because he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left. A guard knocked and opened the door, urging him to hurry as the meeting was about to begin. As a result, Stauffenberg was able to arm only one of the bombs. He left the second bomb with his
aide-de-camp,
Werner von HaeftenWerner Karl von Haeften was an Oberleutnant in the Wehrmacht, who took part in the military-based conspiracy against Adolf Hitler known as the July 20 Plot...
, and returned to the briefing room, where he placed the briefcase under the conference table, as close as he could to Hitler. Some minutes later, he excused himself and left the room. After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel
Heinz BrandtOberst Heinz Brandt was a German Wehrmacht staff officer who served during World War II as an aide to Generalleutnant Adolf Heusinger, who was the head of the operations unit of the General Staff...
.
When the explosion tore through the hut, Stauffenberg was convinced that no one in the room could have survived. Although four people were killed and almost all survivors were injured, Hitler himself was shielded from the blast by the heavy, solid-oak conference table and was only slightly wounded.
Stauffenberg and Haeften quickly left and drove to the nearby airfield. After his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg immediately began to motivate his friends to initiate the second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders. When
Joseph GoebbelsPaul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reichsminister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945...
announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler himself personally spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realized that the coup had failed. They were tracked to their
Bendlerstrasse offices and overpowered after a brief shoot-out, during which Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder.
Execution
In what turned out to be a futile attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator
Generaloberst Friedrich FrommFriedrich Fromm was a German army officer.-Early life:Fromm was born in Charlottenburg. He served as a lieutenant during World War I.-20 July Plot:...
, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the
BendlerblockThe Bendlerblock is a building in Berlin, located on the Stauffenbergsstraße , south of the Tiergarten. The building was erected between 1911 and 1914 for the Imperial German Navy Offices. During the Weimar Republic it additionally served as the seat of the Reichswehr Command...
(Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators in an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg and fellow officers Colonel General Olbricht, Lieutenant von Haeften, and
OberstOberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway...
(Colonel)
Albrecht Mertz von QuirnheimAlbrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim was a German officer and a resistance fighter in Nazi Germany involved in the 20 July Plot against Adolf Hitler.-Biography:...
were shot before 1:00 a.m. that night (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck.
As his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, "
Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland!" ("Long live our sacred Germany!")
Others say the last words were: "Es lebe das geheime Deutschland"("Long live the secret Germany!")
Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honors in the Matthäus Churchyard in Berlin's Schöneberg district. The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals, and cremated.
Today, there is a stone in memorial of this event.
Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother,
Berthold Schenk Graf von StauffenbergBerthold Alfred Maria Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat, lawyer and conspirator in the 20 July plot of 1944, along with his brother, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, an army colonel...
. On 10 August 1944, Berthold was tried before Judge-President
Roland FreislerRoland Freisler was a prominent and notorious Nazi German judge. He became State Secretary of Adolf Hitler's Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the Volksgerichtshof , which was set up outside constitutional authority...
in the special "People's Court" (
Volksgerichtshof). This court was established by Hitler for political offenses. Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation (reputedly with piano wire used as the
garroteA garrote or garrote vil is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line used to strangle someone. The term especially refers to an execution device but is sometimes used in assassination, because it can be completely silent...
) in
Plötzensee PrisonPlötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at Plötzensee Prison...
, Berlin, later that day. More than two hundred were condemned in
show trialThe term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial. The term was first recorded in the 1930s. There is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant and that the actual trial has as its only goal to present the...
s and executed.
In 1980, the German government established a memorial for the failed anti-Nazi resistance movement in a part of the Bendlerblock, the remainder of which currently houses the Berlin offices of the German Ministry of Defense (whose main offices remain in Bonn). The
Bendlerstrasse was renamed the
Stauffenbergstrasse, and the Bendlerblock now houses the
Memorial to the German ResistanceThe Memorial to the German Resistance , is a memorial and museum in Berlin, capital of Germany. It was opened in 1980 in part of the Bendlerblock, a complex of offices in Stauffenbergstrasse , south of the Tiergarten in western Berlin...
, a permanent exhibition with more than 5,000 photographs and documents showing the various resistance organizations at work during the Hitler era. The courtyard where the officers were shot on 21 July 1944, is now a memorial site, with a plaque commemorating the events and a bronze figure of a young man with his hands symbolically bound which resembles Count von Stauffenberg.
Family
Stauffenberg married
Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld"Nina" Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg collaborated with her husband, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, for which she was arrested and placed in custody, where she delivered her youngest child...
on 26 September, 1933 in
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
. They had five children:
BertholdBerthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is a retired German Bundeswehr general.He is the oldest of five children of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and nephew of Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, two German aristocrats who were active in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf...
, Heimeran,
Franz-LudwigFranz-Ludwig Gustav Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is a German attorney and politician from the CSU. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1976 to 1987 and of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1992....
, Valerie, and Konstanze, who was born in
Frankfurt on the OderFrankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
after Stauffenberg's execution. Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig and Valerie, who were not told of their father's deed, were placed in foster home for the remainder of the war and were forced to use new surnames, as
Stauffenberg was now considered
tabooA taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan language, and appears in many Polynesian cultures...
. Nina died at the age of 92 on 2 April, 2006 at
KirchlauterKirchlauter is a municipality in the Bavarian Administrative Region of Lower Franconia in the district of Haßberge in Germany. It is a part of the Verwaltungsgemeinde of Ebelsbach.-Geography:...
near
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, and was buried there on 8 April. Berthold went on to become a general in
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
's post-war
BundeswehrThe Bundeswehr comprises the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
, and Franz-Ludwig became a member of both the German and European parliaments. In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg wrote a best-selling book about her mother,
Nina Schenk Graefin von Stauffenberg.
Describing her late husband, Nina von Stauffenberg said:
He let things come to him, and then he made up his mind ... one of his characteristics was that he really enjoyed playing the devil's advocate. Conservatives were convinced that he was a ferocious Nazi, and ferocious Nazis were convinced he was an unreconstructed conservative. He was neither.
Assignments, promotions and decorations
Assignments
- 1 January, 1926 - 17th (Bavarian) Cavalry Regiment, Bamberg
- 17 October, 1927 - Infantry School, Dresden
- 1 October, 1928 - Cavalry School, Hannover
- 30 July, 1930 - Pioneer Course
- 18 November, 1930 - Mortar Course
- 1 October, 1934 - Cavalry School, Hannover / Adjutant
- 6 October, 1936 - War Academy, Berlin
- 1 August, 1938 - 1st Light Division (renamed 6th Panzer Division 18 October, 1939) / Second Staff Officer (Ib)
- 31 May, 1940 - OKH / General Staff / Organization Branch / Section Head II
- 15 February, 1943 - 10th Panzer Division / Senior Staff Officer (Ia)
- 7 April, 1943 - Seriously wounded in Tunisia, assigned to Officer Reserve Pool
- 1 November, 1943 - OKH / General Army Office / Chief of Staff
- 20 June, 1944 - OKW / Chief of Replacement Army / Chief of General Staff
- 4 August, 1944 - (Posthumous) Expelled from Wehrmacht by the Führer at the recommendation of the Army Court of Honour
Promotions
- 18 August, 1927 - Fahnenjunker-Gefreiter
- 15 October, 1927 - Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier
- 1 August, 1929 - Fähnrich
- 1 January, 1930 - Leutnant
- 1 May, 1933 - Oberleutnant
- 1 January, 1937 - Rittmeister (Hauptmann i.G. from 1 November, 1939)
- 1 January, 1941 - Major i.G.
- 1 January, 1943 - Oberstleutnant i.G.
- 1 April, 1944 - Oberst i.G.
Decorations and awards
- 17 August, 1929 - Sword of Honor
- 2 October, 1936 - Distinguished Service Badge, IVth Class
- 1 April, 1938 - Distinguished Service Badge, IIIrd Class
- 31 May, 1940 - Iron Cross, Ist Class
- 25 October, 1941 - Royal Bulgarian Order of Bravery, IVth Class
- 11 December, 1942 - Finnish Liberty Cross, IIIrd Class
- 14 April, 1943 - Wound Badge in Gold
- 20 April, 1943 - Italian-German Remembrance Medal
- 8 May, 1943 - German Cross in Gold
In popular culture
German films
- 1955
The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....
: , played by Wolfgang PreissWolfgang Preiss was a German theatre, film and television actor.The son of a teacher, in the early 1930s Preiss studied philosophy, German and drama. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schlenck, making his stage début in Munich in 1932...
. Directed by ex-resistance-fighter Falk Harnack.
- 1955: (It happened July 20), played by Bernhard Wicki
Bernhard Wicki was an Austrian actor and film director.-Life:He studied in the city of Breslau such topics as Art History, History und German Literature. In 1938, he transferred to the Schauspielschule des Staatlichen Schauspielhauses in Berlin...
. Directed by Georg Wilhelm PabstGeorg Wilhelm Pabst was an Austrian film director. Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee....
.
- 1989
-Events:* "Batman" is released on June 23, and went on to become the biggest blockbuster of the year; Grossing over $250 million at the box office.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...
: Stauffenberg. 13 Bilder über einen Täter, by Hans Bentzien and Erich Thiede, a documentary movie
- 1990
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....
: Stauffenberg – Verschwörung gegen Hitler
- 2004
The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
: , semi-documentary movie
American films
- 1951
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...
: The Desert Fox: The Story of RommelThe Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel is a 1951 biographical film about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in the later stages of World War II. It stars James Mason in the title role. It is based on the book Rommel by Brigadier General Desmond Young.-Plot:...
, played by Eduard FranzEduard Franz was an American actor of theater, film, and television. Franz portrayed King Ahab in the 1953 biblical low-budget film Sins of Jezebel and Jethro in The Ten Commandments three years later.He was a leading Broadway actor for nearly 20 years, in such plays as First Stop to Heaven and...
(the first movie to feature Stauffenberg as a character)
- 1967
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:*December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....
: The Night of the GeneralsThe Night of the Generals is a suspense/thriller film set in World War II, adapted from the novel of the same name by Hans Hellmut Kirst. It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Joanna Pettet and Philippe Noiret....
, played by Gérard Buhr
- 1976
The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
: The Eagle Has LandedThe Eagle Has Landed is a 1976 film version of the novel The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. It was directed by John Sturges and starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall. It is also Sturges' final film for which Caine described him as rather more bothered by the fishing, a point...
, the character played by Robert DuvallRobert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards....
appears to be a compositeA composite character is a character in a fictional work or non-fictional work that is composed of two or more individuals.In fictional works the composite character may be real historical or biographical figures used as models for an original piece of fiction, or they may be fictional themselves...
of various characters, including Stauffenberg
- 2008
The year 2008 in film saw many new films released worldwide, including several major mainstream sequels, prequels, and remakes as well as original films.-Top grossing films:...
: ValkyrieValkyrie is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country...
, Stauffenberg is the main character and is played by Tom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American actor and film producer. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards...
German television
- 1971
The year 1971 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1971.For the American TV schedule, see: 1971-72 American network television schedule.-Events:...
: , played by Joachim HansenJoachim Hansen was a German actor. He was best known for film roles in the 1960s and 1970s where he was often cast in roles portraying Nazi officers and World War II German officials....
in the docudramaA docudrama is a dramatization of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction.-Generalities:Docudramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics:...
part of the 199 min. documentary featuring Joachim FestJoachim Clemens Fest , German historian, journalist, critic and editor, is best known for his writings and public commentary on Nazi Germany, including an important biography of Adolf Hitler and books about Albert Speer and the German Resistance...
.
- 2004
The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004-05 United States network television schedule.-Events:...
: , played by Sebastian KochSebastian Koch is a German actor.Koch grew up in Stuttgart, and studied acting at the respected Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich from 1982 to 1985. He is the only actor to have won two Adolf Grimme Awards for two different productions in one year .-Life:Koch was born in Karlsruhe in 1962...
. TV movie by Jo Baier.
- 2004: , played by Harald Schrott. TV movie.
- 2005
The year 2005 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2005.For the American TV schedule, see: 2005-06 United States network television schedule.-Events:* January 1 -**The U.S...
: Stauffenberg, TV documentary
American television
- 1988
The year 1988 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1988.For the American TV schedule, see: 1988-89 United States network television schedule.-Events:...
: War and RemembranceWar and Remembrance is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in 1978, which is the sequel to The Winds of War. It continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on 15 December 1941 and ending on 6 August 1945. This article mainly describes the mini-series...
, played by Sky Dumont in parts 6, 9-10.
- 1990
The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.-Events:...
: The Plot to Kill Hitler#The Plot to Kill Hitler is a 1990 Television movie. It is about the 20 July 1944 plot by German officers to kill Adolf Hitler. Brad Davis stars as Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg who plants a bomb in the conference room at the Führer's headquarters.- Plot summary :“The Plot to Kill...
, played by Brad DavisRobert Creel "Brad" Davis was an American actor, best known for his role in the 1978 film Midnight Express.-Early life:...
- Highlander -The Valkyrie. Season 5 episode 10
Additionally, the TV series
Hogan's HeroesHogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network. Starring Bob Crane as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, the show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War...
paid homage to Stauffenberg in an episode entitled "Operation: Briefcase", where a case with a bomb was dropped with a British agent for Hogan's men to retrieve; they delivered the briefcase to "General Stauffen", who came to "inspect Stalag 13." General Stauffen was played by actor
Oscar BeregiOscar Beregi, Jr. was a Hungarian-born film and television actor. He was the son of actor Oscar Beregi, Sr...
Jr.
Related movies
- The Restless Conscience (USA 1991)
- Der Untergang
Downfall is a 2004 German-Austrian drama film, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's life in his Berlin bunker and Nazi Germany in 1945...
(Germany, 2004)
- Valkyrie
Valkyrie is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country...
(USA, 2008)
Literature
Christian Müller:
Oberst i.G. Stauffenberg. Eine Biographie. Droste, Düsseldorf 1970, ISBN 3-7700-0228-8. (First great biography)
- Hoffman, Peter (1995). Stauffenberg : A Family History, 1905-1944. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3544-2. Translation of the German-language original, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine Brüder.
- Roger Moorhouse
Roger Moorhouse is a British historian and author. Though born in Stockport, Cheshire, he was raised in Hertfordshire and was educated at Berkhamsted School...
(2006), Killing Hitler, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-224-07121-1
- Wheeler-Bennett, John
Sir John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett, GCVO, MCG, OBE, FRSL, FBA, was a conservative British historian of German and diplomatic history.Wheeler-Bennett was born in Keston, Kent, the son of a wealthy importer on 13 October, 1902. He was educated at a school in Westgate on Sea and Malvern College. He did...
; Overly, Richard (1968). The Nemesis of Power: German Army in Politics, 1918–1945. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishing Company (New Impression edition). ISBN 0-333-06864-5. Hoffmann, Peter (1998). Stauffenberg und der 20. Juli 1944. München: C.H.Beck. ISBN 3-406-43302-2.
- Burleigh, Michael (2000). The Third Reich: A New History. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-64487-5.
- Stig Dalager, "Zwei Tage im Juli", documentary novel dealing with the 20th of July. Aufbau Taschenbuch-Verlag 2006.
- Gerd Wunder, "Die Schenken von Stauffenberg". Stuttgart 1972, Mueller und Graeff
- Claus Von Stauffenberg, the 20 July plot, and its aftermath are the subject of Paul West's novel The Very Rich Hours of Count von Stauffenberg, New York: Harper & Row, 1980, First Edition. (ISBN 0060145935).
- Von Stauffenberg and other participants in the 20 July uprising are seen planning and executing the assassination attempt in Ethan Mordden
Ethan Mordden is an American author.-Biography:Mordden was raised in Pennsylvania, in Venice, Italy, and on Long Island, and is a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania...
's novel The Jewcatcher, published in 2008.
- Claus Von Stauffenberg featured as a character in Justin Cartwright's 2007 novel, The Song Before It Is Sung
- Herman Wouk: "War and Remembrance" chronicles the attempted assassination of Hitler and von Stauffenberg's subsequent execution in his epic novel, which was also made into a television mini-series.
- Christopher Ailsby: "The Third Reich: Day by Day"
External links