On July 20, 1944, a bomb exploded at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia. But the attempt to kill him fails. Nevertheless, the assassination is now considered a symbol of the German resistance.
by Dirk Hempel
It is 12:42 p.m. on Thursday, July 20, 1944, when the bomb intended to kill Hitler explodes. Finally, after years of discussions, secret preparations and failed attempts. The criminal regime is to be eliminated and the bloody Second World War is to be ended. In the "Führer's headquarters" Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed the explosive charge in a briefcase under the table, near the dictator. Then he left the meeting room under a pretext and hurriedly made his way to the airfield in nearby Rastenburg. The colonel is expected in Berlin by his co-conspirators. Urgently. For he is to lead the coup that is about to begin.
Several attempts to assassinate Hitler have already failed
High military officials have had plans to kill the dictator since September 1938, when Hitler's policy in the Sudeten crisis seemed to be headed for war. But the agreement with England and France at the Munich conference thwarts the plans for the time being.
Numerous assassination attempts also fail in the following years:In November 1939, a bomb in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, which the carpenter Georg Elser had hidden, exploded only after Hitler had already left.
In June 1940, a parade in Paris at which officers wanted to shoot the dictator was canceled. In March 1943, an officer wants to blow himself up with Hitler - but he leaves the exhibition before the assassin can act.
The resistance has long been divided
In view of the Nazi crimes, Stauffenberg turned to the resistance.Resistance to the Nazi regime has existed in Germany from the very beginning. But officers and civilians, conservatives and social democrats, Christians and communists have little in common and work side by side in secret.
Only during the course of the war and under the impression of the murder of the Jews in the occupied areas of Eastern Europe did three groups come together more closely:the conservatives around the former mayor of Leipzig, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, and the chief of staff, Ludwig Beck, who resigned after the Sudeten crisis; the Christian and socialist Kreisau circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and the military resistance supported by senior officers, in which a young colonel soon sets the tone:Graf Stauffenberg.
"Operation Valkyrie":The plan for the overthrow
At headquarters in the Wolfsschanze, Hitler met the Wehrmacht command staff - here on July 15, 1944. Stauffenberg (on the left in the picture) belonged to the inner circle and was able to contact the dictator directly.He did not initially reject the Nazi regime, but has since turned into a bitter opponent, and has also built up connections with social democrats and communists. Now, with like-minded officers, including numerous members of the German nobility, he forges a plan for the overthrow. It's called:"Operation Valkyrie".
Since the beginning of the war, the Wehrmacht has taken precautions against possible uprisings by the civilian population. The replacement army, whose chief of staff is Stauffenberg, is supposed to occupy important places and arrest suspects. The putschists now want to use this plan to eliminate the leaders of the SS, Gestapo and NSDAP after Hitler's assassination. After the overthrow, Beck is to become head of state and Goerdeler to become Reich Chancellor. However, no one has yet been able to agree on a form of government.
Stauffenberg's attempt on Hitler failed
On July 20, 1944, the moment to act came. Stauffenberg was ordered to report to Hitler at headquarters in East Prussia. Unfortunately, he can only use one of the two explosive charges provided there. Nevertheless, a deafening bang shatters the midday summer silence in the forest. Yellow and blue jets of flame blaze out of the barracks, splinters of glass, pieces of wood, and charred scraps of paper fly through the air. Then there are calls for doctors.
Stauffenberg is already on his way to his getaway car, which is supposed to take him to the airport. He only found out hours later in Berlin that Hitler had survived. There, the coup had only started hesitantly before his arrival, and "Valkyrie" was triggered belatedly. The coup fails:the sealing off of the government district, the arrest of the SS and Gestapo leadership and the capture of the Deutschlandsender broadcaster fail.
Hundreds of opponents of the regime arrested and killed
When the radio reported Hitler's survival that evening, the tide turned completely. The conspirators are arrested in the Bendlerblock, the command center of the reserve army, and Stauffenberg and three other officers are shot that night. In the days that followed, the Gestapo arrested thousands of conspirators, accomplices and accomplices all over the country. For months, trials were conducted before the "People's Court". Hitler has hundreds of opponents of the regime executed and their relatives abducted.
The bloody war continued for ten months after July 20th, during which almost twice as many people died in Germany as in the five previous war years, the bombing damage exceeded that of previous years, and cities such as Braunschweig, Kiel, Hildesheim and Dresden were totally destroyed . And the SS murdered hundreds of thousands of people in the concentration camps.
Commemoration has been problematic for decades
A memorial in the inner courtyard of the Bendler Block commemorates the conspirators who were executed there.Society in the young Federal Republic initially found it difficult to commemorate the men and women of July 20th. The Nazi propaganda of oathbreakers and traitors to the fatherland has had an effect for too long. In the GDR, on the other hand, which focuses on the communist resistance, the coup d'état is seen as an uprising by reactionary aristocrats.
Today, on the other hand, their tremendous achievement is undisputed, even if some of the conspirators' political objectives do not seem exemplary for a post-war order from today's perspective. It is not their failure that determines the commemoration, but daring. It can be read in the words of Stauffenberg's close comrade-in-arms Henning von Tresckow, with whom he urged Hitlers to be eliminated:namely, to show at home and abroad "that the German resistance movement dared to make the decisive leap before the world and before history has".