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Claus Philipp Maria Graf '''Schenk von Stauffenberg''' ( 15 November , 1907 – 21 July , 1944 ) was a German aristocrat and army Colonel during World War II . He was one of the leading figures of the July 20 Plot to Assassinate Adolf Hitler . Prior to being posted in Germany, he served with distinction in North Africa, where he lost an eye and an arm in action. As a senior staff officer in the Wehrmacht , with regular access to Hitler at his briefing meetings, Stauffenberg took a central role in the conspiracy. He was given the task of placing a briefcase, packed with explosives and a timer, near the Führer in his briefing hut at the military high command, Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg , East Prussia (today Kętrzyn , Poland ). Although four people were killed and almost all present were injured, Hitler was injured slightly as he was shielded from the blast by a solid oak conference table. Stauffenberg was arrested and tried the same day, and executed half an hour after midnight. Many co-conspirators were also executed in the following days. Today, because of the vital role he played in the July 20 Plot, Stauffenberg is celebrated as a German national hero and symbol of the German Resistance to the national socialist regime. Countless streets and squares have been named after him. Thom Gunn also wrote the Poem ''Stauffenberg'' in the Count's memory. MILITARY CAREER Stauffenberg was born the third of three sons (the others being Berthold , and Alexander) in Jettingen in Swabia near Ulm , in the Kingdom of Bavaria to one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic South German Catholic families. His parents were Alfred Graf Schenk Von Stauffenberg , the last ''Oberhofmarschall'' of the Kingdom of Württemberg, and Caroline née Von Üxküll-Gyllenbrand . Among his ancestors were several famous Prussia ns, including most notably August Von Gneisenau . His name points to the imperial Stauffenberg mountain and castle. Stauffenberg was very well educated, and was inclined to literature, but eventually took up a military career. In 1926, he joined the family regiment in Bamberg , the Reiter- und Kavallerieregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment). It was also about this time that he and Berthold were introduced by Albrecht Von Blumenthal to the influential circle of the poet Stefan George , from which many members of the German resistance were eventually drawn. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power and while some aspects of the party were repugnant to him, Stauffenberg was not initially in complete opposition to their ideas, especially in the area of nationalism. However after Kristallnacht in November, 1938, he felt that great shame had been brought upon Germany and that it deeply offended his sense of morality and justice. The systematic maltreatment of the Jews, and the suppression of religion in Germany, made the Catholic Stauffenberg more and more an opponent of the Nazis. In the military, he worked his way through the ranks and he was promoted to Hauptmann (captain) on 1 January , 1937 , a rank he would hold for the next six years. His regiment became part of the Sixth Panzer Division and was involved in the occupation of the Sudetenland and, once war broke out, in the Polish, French and Russian campaigns. Towards the end of the French campaign ( 31 May , 1940 ), he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. On 1 January , 1943 , he was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and was soon transferred to the North African campaign. There, while he was scouting out a new command area, his vehicle was strafed by marauding British fighter-bombers and he was severely wounded. He spent three months in hospital and ended up losing his left eye, his right hand, and the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand, although he later joked that he hardly knew what he had done with all ten fingers when he had them. While his uncle, Graf Nikolaus von Üxküll, had approached him to join the resistance movement, it was after the Polish campaign in 1939 that Stauffenberg's individual conscience and his religious convictions urged him to act. Initially, he felt powerless as he was in no position of authority to help organise a coup, but finally in 1943, after recuperating from his wounds, he was posted as a staff officer to the Replacement Army located in an office on the Bendlerstrasse in Berlin . Here, one of his superiors was General Friedrich Olbricht , a committed member of the resistance movement. In the Replacement Army they had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have "Operation Valkyrie" in place. This was a contingency measure which would let the Replacement Army assume control of the Reich in the event of internal disturbances where communications with the military high command were blocked. Ironically, the Valkyrie plan had been agreed to by Hitler, and was now secretly to become the means of sweeping him from power. THE JULY 20 PLOT See Also: July 20 Plot While Stauffenberg's part in the plan required him to be at the Bendlerstrasse office to telephone regular Army units from around the Reich to arrest leaders of political organisations, such as the Sicherheitsdienst and the Gestapo , in the end Stauffenberg was the only one of the conspirators who had regular access to Hitler, at his briefing meetings. Even with only three fingers remaining, Stauffenberg, in 1944 now promoted to Oberst (colonel), agreed to carry out the Assassination Of The German Führer , Adolf Hitler himself. The attempt took place at the Führer's briefing hut at the military high command Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg , East Prussia (today Kętrzyn , Poland ) on 20 July , 1944 . Colonel von Stauffenberg's briefcase was packed with explosives and a simple ten to fifteen minute timer set. He entered the briefing room where Hitler was present, placed the briefcase under the table, announced that he needed to make an urgent phone call to Berlin, and then quickly left the room. He waited in a nearby shelter until the explosion tore through the hut. From what he saw, he was convinced no one could have survived the blast. Although four people were killed and almost all present were injured, Hitler was injured only lightly as he was shielded from the blast by a heavy, solid oaken conference table. Stauffenberg and his aide de camp, Leutnant Werner Von Haeften , quickly walked away and talked their way out of the heavily guarded compound to fly back to Berlin in a waiting Heinkel He 111 . Stauffenberg only learned of the failure on his return to Berlin. While in transit, an order was issued from the Führer's headquarters to shoot von Stauffenberg and von Haeften down, but the order landed on the desk of a fellow conspirator, Friedrich Georgi of the air staff, and was not passed on. Hitler broadcast a message on the state radio, and it became obvious that the coup attempt had failed. Shortly afterwards, the conspirators were overpowered in their Bendlerstrasse office, with Stauffenberg being shot in the shoulder. Reasons for failure
Execution General Friedrich Fromm , Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, himself a suspected conspirator who was later executed, held an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg, along with fellow officers General Olbricht, Lt. von Haeften and Oberst Albrecht Mertz Von Quirnheim , were later shot that night by Firing Squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock (Headquarter of the Army) in Berlin . As his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words: ''Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland!'' ("Long live our sacred Germany!"). In an attempt to assuage his troubled conscience for assassinating his fellow conspirators, General Fromm gave the officers an honourable burial with their medals; the next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed, stripped of his medals and burned. Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Graf Schenk Von Stauffenberg . Berthold was tried in the People's Court by Roland Freisler on 10 August and was one of eight conspirators executed by strangulation, hanged slowly in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, later that day. Stauffenberg's wife and children were also arrested by the SS, and in the final hours of World War II were about to be executed when the SS decided not to carry out the order when they became aware that British troops were within 400 meters of their location. On account of the vital role he played in the July Plot, Claus von Stauffenberg is celebrated today as a national hero in Germany, and remains a symbol of the German resistance to the Nazi regime (known as the '' Widerstand ''). Since the end of the war the Bendlerblock has become a memorial to the failed anti-Nazi resistance movement. The street's name was ceremonially changed from "Bendlerstraße" to Stauffenbergstraße, and the Bendlerblock now houses the German Resistance Memorial Centre, a permanent exhibition with more than 5,000 photographs and documents showing the various resistance organisations at work during the Hitler era. The courtyard where the officers were shot is now a site of remembrance with a plaque commemorating the events, and includes a memorial bronze figure of a young man with his hands symbolically bound. FAMILY Stauffenberg had married , Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie and Konstanze. Nina was interned in a concentration camp after her husband's execution. She died aged 92 on 2006-04-02 near Bamberg. The eldest son, Berthold, became a general in West Germany 's new army, the Bundeswehr . Stauffenberg's widow described her late husband thus: :"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." NOTES |
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