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89-660: It was opened in 1980 in part of the Bendlerblock , a complex of offices in Stauffenbergstrasse (formerly Bendlerstrasse), south of the Großer Tiergarten in Tiergarten . It was here that Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and other leaders of the 20 July plot , who had just attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler as a decapitation strike and a prelude to regime change , were executed without trial after

178-746: A Neoclassical style as the seat of the Imperial Naval Office , until 1916 led by Grand admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . It was also the headquarters of the Imperial Admiralty Staff and the Imperial Navy Cabinet directly subordinate to Emperor Wilhelm II . After World War I , the German Weimar government had to face the regulations of the 1919 Versailles treaty , whereafter the remaining Reichswehr and Reichsmarine forces had to be greatly reduced and from that time on used

267-509: A foster home for the remainder of the war and were forced to use new surnames, as Stauffenberg was considered taboo . Nina died at the age of 92 on 2 April 2006 at Kirchlauter near Bamberg and was buried there on 8 April. Berthold went on to become a general in West Germany 's post-war Bundeswehr . Franz-Ludwig became a member of both the German and European parliaments, representing

356-480: A moral duty ( German : Innere Führung ) which goes beyond blind obedience to superior orders , and that the officers who plotted to kill Hitler were not traitors, but heroes who died trying to save the German people from continued rule by a genocidal police state . Every 20 July, the German government and armed forces perform a joint memorial ceremony and military funeral for the executed officers, during which

445-555: A prisoner of war 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 Gorbachev presented these documents to German chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl . The conspirators' motivations have been a matter of discussion for years in Germany since the war. Many thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end

534-652: A hospital in Munich , where he was treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch . Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and two 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 Badge in Gold on 14 April and for his courage the German Cross in Gold on 8 May. For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg

623-567: A large part of transportation duties throughout World War II —in modern warfare. His regiment became part of the German 1st Light Division under General Erich Hoepner , another later member of the covert German Resistance , and the unit was among the Wehrmacht troops that moved into Sudetenland following its annexation to the Reich as per the Munich Agreement. Though Stauffenberg had supported

712-535: A man driven by reasons which had little to do with Christian ideals or repugnance of Nazi ideology. In his autobiographical Bis zum bitteren Ende ("To the Bitter End"), Gisevius wrote: Stauffenberg wanted to retain all the totalitarian, militaristic and socialistic elements of National Socialism (p. 504). What he had in mind was the salvation of Germany by military men who could break with corruption and maladministration, provide an orderly military government and inspire

801-693: A presumptuous and ignorant amateur. ... Stauffenberg must have been informed of Gisevius's background and it cannot have inspired his confidence. Gisevius was understandably upset by Stauffenberg's attitude toward him. ... Stauffenberg seemed to regard him merely as an incidental source of background information. British historian Richard J. Evans , in his books on the Third Reich, covered various aspects of Stauffenberg's beliefs and philosophy. He wrote an article originally published in Süddeutsche Zeitung , 23 January 2009. entitled "Why did Stauffenberg plant

890-413: A transmitter of historical information for which he had displayed strong personal feelings, and in light of what is known about both Gisevius's alleged sources and Stauffenberg himself, Gisevius's account is at best questionable hearsay. Gisevius disliked Stauffenberg. He sensed that this dynamic leader would be an obstacle to his own far-reaching ambitions and intrigues. In his book he mocked Stauffenberg as

979-491: A unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have Operation Valkyrie in place. This was a contingency measure to let it assume control of the Reich in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. The Valkyrie plan had been agreed to by Hitler but was secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power in the event of his death. In 1943, Henning von Tresckow

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1068-624: A wreath is solemnly laid at the site of their deaths before a Nazi firing squad . During these annual ceremonies, the traditional German soldiers' lament Ich hatt' einen Kameraden , which dates from the Napoleonic Wars , is played on the trumpet. At the museum, refugees living in the comparative safety of the German diaspora , including dissident intellectuals, like Thomas Mann , Bertolt Brecht , and Hannah Arendt , who published anti-Nazi Exilliteratur or who, like Hollywood actors Marlene Dietrich and Conrad Veidt , otherwise assisted

1157-532: Is best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair . Alongside Major Generals Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster , Stauffenberg was a central figure in the conspiracy against Hitler within the Wehrmacht . Shortly following the failed Operation Valkyrie plot, he was executed by firing squad. As a military officer from a noble background, Stauffenberg took part in

1246-687: Is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur". After the Invasion, Stauffenberg's unit was reorganised into the 6th Panzer Division , and he served as an officer on its General Staff in the Battle of France , for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband , together with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg , had approached Stauffenberg to join

1335-437: Is given to 20 July plot military resistance leaders such as Claus von Stauffenberg , Ludwig Beck , Erwin von Witzleben , Günther von Kluge , Erich Hoepner , Hans Oster and Friedrich Olbricht . This is because their legacy has permanently changed the ideology of the German armed forces. Since its creation during West German rearmament in the 1950s, the modern Bundeswehr holds that military officers and enlisted men have

1424-550: Is unlikely that the military coup planned to follow it would have moved the leading conspirators smoothly into power". However, Karl Heinz Bohrer , a cultural critic, literary scholar, and publisher, criticized Evans' views in an article originally published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , 30 January 2010. Although agreeing that Evans is historically correct in much of his writing, Bohrer feels that Evans twists time lines and misrepresents certain aspects. He wrote of Evans, "In

1513-467: The Führerbunker to Albert Speer 's wooden hut due to the heat on this summer's day. He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially adapted pliers. This was a difficult task for him as he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left hand. 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

1602-620: The Deutscher Fernsehpreis . The Ministry hesitated to grant permission for filming scenes of the Tom Cruise -starred movie Valkyrie about the 20 July Plot, especially a re-enactment of the execution on the original location. However, permission was eventually granted, and filming took place. (The movie was primarily photographed in and around Berlin, with some African and other scenes filmed in California.) Director Bryan Singer led

1691-758: The 10th Panzer Division occupied Vichy France ( Case Anton ) before being transferred to fight in the Tunisian campaign , as part of the Afrika Korps . In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to Oberstleutnant 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 rapidly break through either

1780-699: The Invasion of Poland , the 1941–42 invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa and the Tunisian campaign during the Second World War . Stauffenberg was born in Stauffenberg Castle, Jettingen on 15 November 1907 and baptised as Claus Philipp Maria Justinian. Born into the ancient House of Stauffenberg , he was the third of four sons of Count Alfred Schenk von Stauffenberg (1860–1936),

1869-627: The Ministry of the Reichswehr after World War I. Significantly enlarged under Nazi rule, it was used by several departments of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) from 1938, especially the Oberkommando des Heeres and the Abwehr intelligence agency. The building is notable as the headquarters of a resistance band of Wehrmacht officers who staged the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler in 1944. As

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1958-764: The Munich Agreement , whereby the major European powers reconciled by permitting the annexation of the " Sudetenland ". In the early 1940s, the OKH Army Office under the leadership of General Olbricht became the focus of military resistance to the Nazi regime. In October 1943, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was transferred to the General Army Office as chief of staff. It was at the Bendlerblock that Stauffenberg and Major General Henning von Tresckow secretly modified

2047-544: The NATO military alliance . 52°30′28″N 13°21′45″E  /  52.50778°N 13.36250°E  / 52.50778; 13.36250 Bendlerblock The Bendlerblock ( German pronunciation: [ˈbɛndlɐˌblɔk] ) is a building complex in the Tiergarten district of Berlin , Germany , located on Stauffenbergstraße (formerly named Bendlerstraße ). Erected in 1914 as headquarters of several Imperial German Navy ( Kaiserliche Marine ) offices, it served

2136-599: The Wehrmacht , like many members of the Nazi Party , he displayed a tentative opposition to parliamentary democracy. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the Invasion of Poland . During this time, he was a strong supporter of Poland's occupation, and the Nazi Party's colonisation, exploitation and use of Pole slave workers to bring about German prosperity. Stauffenberg himself noted, "It

2225-524: The single party state of the era and its ideology, for whatever reason. All resisters are given equal respect. The museum, while seeking to show the many strands of German culture which engaged in opposition to the state, does not seek to disguise the fact that the majority of Germans believed, at least publicly, in the cult of personality and the Hitler Myth or that there was never an effective or unified national resistance movement. Particular attention

2314-557: The 1919 Weimar Constitutional Law abolished privileges of nobility . His maternal ancestors included Field Marshal August von Gneisenau . In his youth, Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria, where he and his brothers were members of the Neupfadfinder , a German Scout association and part of the German Youth movement . Though he and his brothers were carefully educated, and Stauffenberg

2403-503: The 20 July Plot as an excuse to eliminate anyone he feared would oppose him. The traditional military salute was replaced with the Nazi salute . Eventually, over 20,000 Germans were killed or sent to concentration camps in the purge. Defunct Defunct One of the few surviving members of the German resistance, Hans Bernd Gisevius , portrayed Colonel Stauffenberg, whom he had met in July 1944, as

2492-488: The 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April. On 7 April 1943, Stauffenberg was involved in driving from one unit to another, directing their movement. Near Mezzouna, his vehicle was part of a column strafed by P-40 Kittyhawk fighter bombers of the Desert Air Force – most likely from No. 3 Squadron RAAF – and he received multiple severe wounds. Stauffenberg spent three months in

2581-467: The Allied war effort against Nazi Germany , are also treated not as traitors, but as heroes who also sought to rescue the German people from tyranny. The museum also makes a particular point of both demonstrating and criticizing how Hitler manipulated, exploited, and weaponized anti-Semitism , Eugenics , ultra-nationalism , and scientific racism to seize absolute power and then led the German people to

2670-571: 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 Poznań . Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as Austria and the Sudetenland within the Reich, giving autonomy to Alsace-Lorraine and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in

2759-624: 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 organisations such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Gestapo . When General Hellmuth Stieff, Chief of Operation at Army High Command , who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg

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2848-606: The Eastern Front. Though Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plotting at this time, his brothers Berthold and Alexander maintained contact with anti-regime figures such as the Kreisau Circle and former commanders such as Hoepner. Hoffman, in citing Brigadier Oskar Alfred-Berger's letters, noted Stauffenberg had commented openly on the ill-treatment of the Jews when he "expressed outrage and shock on this subject to fellow officers in

2937-524: The Federal Minister of Defence's Berlin office was moved to the Bendlerblock. The Ministry of Defence as proprietor tends to restrict access to the Bendlerblock, due to its historical significance and lingering sensitivities about Germany's role in World War II. Filming permission was first granted in 2003 to a TV studio for the filming of Stauffenberg , starring Sebastian Koch . It was awarded with

3026-749: The General Staff Headquarters in Vinnitsa, Ukraine during the summer of 1942." When Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn, was captured by the Red Army , during interrogation on 2 September 1944, Kuhn claimed that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue." In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa , and

3115-459: The German colonization of Poland and had made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he refrained from joining the Nazi Party. However, during the 1932 German presidential election , he voiced tentative support for Hitler: The idea of the Führer principle [...] bound together with a Volksgemeinschaft , the principle "The community good before the individual good," and the fight against corruption,

3204-741: 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 Resistance , a permanent exhibition with more than 5,000 photographs and documents showing

3293-527: The German resistance later emerged. George dedicated Das neue Reich ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the Geheimes Deutschland ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold. By 1930, Stauffenberg had been commissioned as a leutnant ( second lieutenant ), studying modern weapons at the Kriegsakademie in Berlin, but remaining focused on the use of horses – which continued to carry out

3382-518: The Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators in an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg, his aide 1st Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed before 1:00 in the morning (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in

3471-690: The Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British First Army . The assault at Sbiba was halted, so Rommel concentrated on the Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italian 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Armoured Division Centauro 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

3560-410: The Soviet Red Army at 6:00 a.m. on 2 May. The section of the Bendlerblock around the courtyard, where Stauffenberg and the other conspirators were executed, now houses the Memorial to the German Resistance . It is also used as one of the ceremonial sites where new members of the Wachbataillon of the Bundeswehr (German military's drill unit) take their oaths. Following German reunification,

3649-409: The Wehrmacht " Operation Valkyrie " plan for the suppression of a possible revolt into a scheme for a coup attempt upon an assassination on Hitler. Stauffenberg's position gave him direct access to situation briefings in Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia . On 20 July 1944, he set the fuse of a bomb there and immediately returned to Berlin. The bomb went off, but Hitler survived. As

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3738-475: The anti-Nazi circle. Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honours in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin's Schöneberg district. The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals and insignia, and cremated. Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . On 10 August 1944, Berthold

3827-450: The bomb?" which states, "Was it because Hitler was losing the war? Was it to put an end to the mass murder of the Jews? Or was it to save Germany's honour? The overwhelming support, toleration, or silent acquiescence" from the people of his country for Hitler, which was also being heavily censored and constantly fed propaganda, meant any action must be swift and successful. Evans writes, "Had Stauffenberg's bomb succeeded in killing Hitler, it

3916-409: The bombs. He left the second bomb with his aide-de-camp , Werner von Haeften , 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 received a planned phone call. He then excused himself and left the room. After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel Heinz Brandt . When the explosion tore through

4005-482: The building. A fifth plotter, Generaloberst Ludwig Beck , was allowed to shoot himself. Fromm's opportunism did not pay off: he was arrested for connivance the next day, condemned to death and executed on 12 March 1945. During the Battle of Berlin in the last days of World War II in late April and early May 1945, General Helmuth Weidling , commander of the Berlin Defence Area, used the Bendlerblock as his headquarters before surrendering to General Vasily Chuikov of

4094-444: The civil service, intelligence organs and armed forces. The visitor enters the museum from Stauffenbergstrasse through an archway, on the wall of which is inscribed: "Here in the former Supreme Headquarters of the Army, Germans organized the attempt of 20 July 1944 to end the Nazi rule of injustice. For this, they sacrificed their lives. The Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Berlin created this new memorial place in

4183-450: The commander-in-chief of the German Army ( Heer ). After the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair in 1938, Colonel-general Walther von Brauchitsch took command and from 1941 Hitler took command himself. Already in 1938, the head of the Abwehr intelligence agency under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster evolved plans for a coup d'état in the course of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia . These plans were upset by

4272-522: The complex jointly. It also served as the seat of the first Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske and supreme army commander Walther Reinhardt . In Minister Noske's office, Truppenamt chief Major General Hans von Seeckt openly rejected an intervention of Reichswehr troops against paramilitary Freikorps forces during the 1920 Kapp Putsch ("Reichswehr do not fire on Reichswehr"). On 3 February 1933, four days after his appointment by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg , Chancellor Adolf Hitler sought

4361-430: The coup once Hitler was dead. This requirement, alone, greatly increased the chance of a successful coup. After several unsuccessful attempts by Stauffenberg to encounter Hitler, Göring , and Himmler at the same time, he went ahead with the attempt at the Wolfsschanze on 20 July 1944. Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs. The location had unexpectedly been changed from

4450-529: The course of his problematic argument he walks into two traps: 1. by contesting Stauffenberg's "moral motivation"; 2. by contesting Stauffenberg's suitability as role model." He further writes, "If then, as Evans notes with initial objectivity, Stauffenberg had a strong moral imperative – whether this stemmed from an aristocratic code of honour, Catholic doctrine or Romantic poetry – then this also underpinned his initial affinity for National Socialism which Stauffenberg misinterpreted as 'spiritual renewal'". In 1980,

4539-582: The courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck. Stauffenberg was third in line to be executed, with Lieutenant von Haeften after. However, when it was Stauffenberg's turn, Lieutenant von Haeften placed himself between the firing squad and Stauffenberg, and received the bullets meant for Stauffenberg. When his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, "Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!" ("Long live sacred Germany!"), or, possibly, "Es lebe das geheime Deutschland!" ("Long live secret Germany!"), in reference to Stefan George and

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4628-412: The day progressed and the news spread, the conspirators were unable to take control of Germany. Following the arrest of the conspirators in the Bendlerblock by order of General Friedrich Fromm , the resistance fighters Colonel von Stauffenberg, General Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim , and Stauffenberg's adjutant Werner von Haeften , were executed by firing squad that same night in the courtyard of

4717-401: The divided, ideologically different, and often mutually hostile nature of the many different resistance groups, however, Germany was actually highly similar to other countries in Nazi-ruled Europe. Nevertheless, the umbrella term " German Resistance " ( Deutscher Widerstand ) is now widely used to describe all elements of opposition and resistance under the Orwellian Nazi Regime , including

4806-424: The fight against the spirit of the large urban cities, the racial thought ( Rassengedanke ), and the will towards a new German-formed legal order appears to us healthy and auspicious. Stauffenberg's views of Hitler were conflicted during this period. He vacillated between a strong dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen, before becoming more disassociated with

4895-426: The film crew in a minute of silence before filming began, in honour of those who were killed on the site in 1944. 52°30′25″N 13°21′41″E  /  52.50694°N 13.36139°E  / 52.50694; 13.36139 Claus von Stauffenberg Count Claus von Stauffenberg ( German: [ˈklaʊs fɔn ˈʃtaʊfn̩bɛʁk] ; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer who

4984-451: The help of his friend Henning von Tresckow, he united the conspirators and drove them into action. Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing high treason . 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 means at my disposal..."). He justified himself to Bussche by referring to

5073-501: 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 leg, which Colonel Brandt had placed the briefcase bomb behind, 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

5162-400: The institution of the presidency of the German Reich , but to the person of Adolf Hitler , due to the Führereid introduced in 1934. During the quieter months of 1940 to 1941, Stauffenberg was transferred to the organisational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres ("Army High Command"; OKH), which was directing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and operations on

5251-421: The last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg and his wife, Countess Caroline von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1875–1956), the daughter of Count Alfred Richard August von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1838–1877) and Countess Valerie von Hohenthal (1841–1878). From birth, Stauffenberg inherited the hereditary titles of Graf and Schenk , leaving him referred to by his first name and Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg until

5340-409: The leaders of the conspiracy were summarily shot in the courtyard, the Bendlerblock also includes the Memorial to the German Resistance . Since 1993, the building complex has served as a secondary seat of the German Federal Ministry of Defence . The complex got its name from the street it was on. Today, it is on Stauffenbergstraße (Stauffenberg street named in honour of Claus von Stauffenberg ) which

5429-480: The mid-1930s onwards, large annexes were erected along Bendlerstraße according to plans designed by Wilhelm Kreis . From 1938 the enlarged "Bendlerblock" again was used by the Seekriegsleitung (Maritime Warfare Command) of the Oberkommando der Marine and the OKW Amt Abwehr . The main building served the General Army Office of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) under General Friedrich Fromm , succeeded by General Friedrich Olbricht in 1940, and still as seat of

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5518-414: The museum and memorial, U.S. President John F. Kennedy praised the Federal Republic of Germany on 25 June 1963 for having carefully studied and learned what he considered the morally correct lessons from both the best and worst chapters of German history , and how this understanding was still being used to build a future for post-war Germany with a democratically elected government and membership in

5607-401: The party after The Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht which he saw as proof Hitler had no intentions to pursue justice. As a practicing Catholic, it was noted that the growing systematic ill-treatment of Jews and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong sense of Catholic morality and justice. Even though Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within

5696-459: The people to make one last great effort. Reduced to a formula, he wanted the nation to remain soldierly and become socialistic (p. 503). Stauffenberg was motivated by the impulsive passions of the disillusioned military man whose eyes had been opened by the defeat of German arms (p. 510). Stauffenberg had shifted to the rebel side only after Stalingrad (p. 512). The difference between Stauffenberg, Helldorf and Schulenburg – all of them counts –

5785-435: The plot failed. Although the memorial is primarily intended to commemorate those members of the German Army who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944, it is also a memorial to the German resistance in the broader sense. Historians agree that there was no united, national resistance movement in Nazi Germany at any time during Hitler's years in power (1933–45). Joachim Fest describes it as "the resistance that never was." In

5874-422: 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 was 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

5963-451: The resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg began to consider the offer. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld had urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch , then Supreme Commander of the Army, to facilitate a coup against Hitler. Though, Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to

6052-601: The right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east. As early as September 1942, Stauffenberg was considering Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt , author of Unser Weg zum Meer , as a replacement for Hitler. From the beginning of September 1943 until 20 July 1944, 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 behaviour. With

6141-427: The right under natural law ( Naturrecht ) to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler. Only after the conspirator General Hellmuth Stieff on 7 July 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, did Stauffenberg decide to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin. By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about

6230-409: The ruin and starvation of the Second World War and its aftermath as their dictator . Graphic examples of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda are accordingly displayed. The museum reproduces many official documents, newspapers, posters, anti-Nazi samizdat handbills, private letters and photographs: more than 5,000 individual items in all. Although it was nearly two decades before the foundation of

6319-497: The second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders. Joseph Goebbels announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realised 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. In an ultimately failed attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator General Friedrich Fromm , Commander-in-Chief of

6408-404: The shame. You resisted. You bestowed the eternally vigilant signal to turn back by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour. The entrance to the museum, which occupies three floors of one of the Bendlerblock buildings, is nearby. The museum consists of a series of displays chronicling the history of Nazi Germany and of all those individuals and groups who opposed

6497-453: The ship of state a military gray and set it afloat again (p. 513–514). Historian Peter Hoffman questions Gisevius's evaluations based on the latter's brief acquaintance with Stauffenberg, misreporting of Stauffenberg's actions, and apparent rivalry with him: Gisevius met Stauffenberg for the first time in Berlin on July 12, 1944, eight days before the colonel's last assassination attempt against Hitler. ... In view of Gisevius's own record as

6586-500: The south by annexing Tyrol as far as Bozen 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 directed to only the Western Allies – Stauffenberg wanted Germany to retreat from only the western, southern, and northern positions, while demanding

6675-481: The suicide assassination attempt 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 Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg , East Prussia. However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was cancelled, and the attempt could not be made. Kuhn became

6764-453: The support of Reichswehr commander-in-chief General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord , unveiling his political ideology in an extended declamation. Despite the support by new Reichswehr Minister Werner von Blomberg , Hitler's appearance resulted in a grave crisis with the army command and Hammerstein-Equord's resignation in December. He was succeeded by Lieutenant General Werner von Fritsch . From

6853-599: The underground networks of the Social Democrats and Communists , dissident writers and intellectuals living a secret life of inner emigration and who defied government censorship by illegally circulated anti-Nazi samizdat literature like The White Rose , opposition activities of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations such as the Confessing Church , along with the resistance groups based in

6942-573: The various resistance organisations 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. Stauffenberg married Elisabeth Magdalena Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld on 26 September 1933 in Bamberg. Born into an old Bavarian nobility, House of Lerchenfeld , she

7031-536: The war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility. On D-Day , 6 June 1944, the Allies had landed in France. 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

7120-539: The year 1980." The visitor then enters the central courtyard, in which a statue of a naked man marks the place where the conspirators were executed. A plaque on a wall nearby commemorates this event. In front of the statue, embedded in the ground, is a plaque that reads in German: Ihr trugt die Schande nicht. Ihr wehrtet euch. Ihr gabt das große ewig wache Zeichen der Umkehr, opfernd Euer heißes Leben für Freiheit, Recht und Ehre. This translates as: You did not bear

7209-459: Was deployed on the Eastern Front, giving Stauffenberg control of the resistance. (Tresckow never returned to Germany, as he committed suicide at Królowy Most , Poland, in 1944, after learning of the plot's failure.) 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 Prussia by military force after

7298-427: 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

7387-549: Was inclined towards literature, he eventually took up a military career, fitting with his family's traditional expectations. In 1926, he joined the family's traditional regiment, the Reiterregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in Bamberg . Around the beginning of his time in Bamberg, Albrecht von Blumenthal introduced the three brothers to the poet Stefan George 's influential circle, Georgekreis , from which many notable members of

7476-587: Was introduced to Henning von Tresckow 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 Berlin . There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was General Friedrich Olbricht , a committed member of the resistance movement. The Ersatzheer had

7565-553: Was previously known as Bendlerstraße from 1837 until 20 July 1955, after Johann Christoph Bendler (1789–1873) from Hoym in Prussian Halberstadt . Bendler, a chief mason and member of the Berlin city council, had acquired large estates south of the Großer Tiergarten park in order to develop the later mansion district on Tiergartenstraße . The main building on the Landwehr Canal was erected between 1911 and 1914 in

7654-459: Was sent to his home, Schloss Lautlingen (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. The Torfels near Meßstetten Bueloch had been visited many times. 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 propositioned by the conspirators and

7743-528: Was that Helldorf had come to the Nazi Movement as a primitive, I might almost say an unpolitical revolutionary. The other two had been attracted primarily by a political ideology. Therefore, it was possible for Helldorf to throw everything overboard at once: Hitler, the Party, the entire system. Stauffenberg, Schulenberg and their clique wanted to drop no more ballast than was absolutely necessary; then they would paint

7832-582: Was third cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , consort of Elizabeth II . They had five children: Berthold , Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig , Valerie, and Konstanze , who was born in Frankfurt on the Oder seven months after Stauffenberg's execution. Stauffenberg lived with his family in Berlin- Wannsee . Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie and Kostanze, who were not told of their father's deed, were placed in

7921-538: Was tried before Judge-President Roland Freisler in the special "People's Court" ( Volksgerichtshof ). This court was established by Hitler for political offences. Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation at Plötzensee Prison , Berlin, later that day. Before he was killed, Berthold was throttled and then revived multiple times. The entire execution and multiple resuscitations were filmed for Hitler to view at his leisure. More than 200 were condemned in show trials and executed. Hitler used

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