No other act of resistance against the national socialism had such a long-term effect, such as the failed assassination attempt of 20. In July 1944, count Stauffenberg. Controversial it remained nevertheless, till today.
Stauffenberg (left) had direct contact to Hitler (in the middle). Only he came as an assassin in question.
At 12:42 PM, barrack detonates in the Meeting in the headquarters wolf’s lair in East Prussia, a bomb. It’s made to kill Adolf Hitler. Has put them to the Wehrmacht officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The initially ardent national socialist, now sees no other option than the murder of the dictator. “Nothing else remains, then, as to kill him,” he said a few days earlier to his closest Confidants.
Stauffenberg is not only bombers, but also the most important organizer of a large-scale coup attempt by conservative circles, including high-ranking military, diplomats and administrative officials. The Colonel of the barracks at this 20. July 1944, shortly before the Explosion of the ticking time-bomb left and thinks the leader is dead, while he flies in a military plane to Berlin. The “Operation Valkyrie on running”, originally a Plan of the armed forces to suppress a possible uprising. The conspirators scattered at critical Points in the state apparatus, want to repurpose “Valkyrie” for their coup.
Rommel denied
But Hitler got away with only minor injuries. The heavy oak table top and because of the summer heat wide-open window of the barracks have derived the pressure of the Explosion. However, a coup seems initially unpromising, would have just pulled all Involved in the “Operation Valkyrie” undeterred by.
Hitler shows the Italian dictator Mussolini the damage after the Explosion in the barracks
But there are delays, glitches, and poor planning. Also, some of the initiates remain under the enormous pressure, to be discovered, finally, in a passive, or even change the page. Until the evening of the coup attempt failed. Hitler turns on the radio to the people and speaks of the “Providence” that saved him. Stauffenberg and several co-conspirators to be arrested, and still in the night stand legally shot. Others can be discovered only later. A total of about 200 resistance fighters are killed. The historian Wolfgang Benz, sees the main reason of failure is that “none of the famous military leader” of the time, such as General Erwin Rommel, was: “at Least one of which would have to be at the top of that then the people say: ‘Aha, the drum feels the same way that Hitler is a criminal’.”
A strong Symbol
Nevertheless, the resistance against Hitler with the 20. July, 1944, a powerful Symbol get. Stauffenberg co-conspirator Henning von Tresckow was to come a few days earlier, to the conclusion, it doesn’t even get to the success, “but to the fact that the German resistance movement dared to in front of the world and the history of life the decisive throw”.
20. July, 2010, the former co-conspirators, Ewald von Kleist took part in a pledge ceremony of the Bundeswehr
There had been other actions, to kill the in 1939, just a failed attempt at the art of carpenter Georg Elser, Hitler by a homemade bomb in Munich’s bürgerbräu cellar, or the flight sheet action of the circle of friends of White Rose. They were later unjustly in the shadow “of late, to say, the delayed resistance of conservative elites,” as Wolfgang Benz, on the 20. July judge.
“The Holocaust, those interested”
The commemoration of the assassination has a history. Long after the end of the war, the authors are considered to be traitors. Stauffenberg’s widow initially refused the officer’s widow’s pension. Later, the conspirators get an official hero status. Already there are roads, schools, and barracks with your name. Public buildings are at the 20. July flags. It recruits takes place on the anniversary of vow celebrations for armed forces: The military of the democratic Germany, is relying on the insurgents to the former officer of the Wehrmacht, Stauffenberg.
Stauffenberg was in 1940, after Poland and France campaign, intoxicated by the victory
But there were always also critical tones. Stauffenberg biographer Thomas Karlauf indicates that the group was only in the summer of 1944, shortly after the allied landing in Normandy. Stauffenberg has warms in 1940, after the rapid military Victories over Poland and France still swollen: “What change in what time!” It had been with him and other men of the military resistance a “very, very long way of purification,” Benz says, and adds: “The Holocaust is not interested at all.” You have, because the military defeat became clear, a coup want to try to save for Germany, “what to save”.
No rights identification figure
His colleague Johannes Hürter is of the view that Stauffenberg was not a Democrat, he had an authoritarian form of government for Germany in the sense of, would have succeeded the assassination. Wolfgang Benz will judge a little less harshly: “Under all circumstances, Germany would once again become a state of law. But a democracy according to our pattern, as it was then established in the basic law, was not the idea of the conspirators of the 20th century. July.”
On the left of the 1944 of the co-conspirator Josef Wirmer-designed national flag during a Pegida Demonstration
However, Stauffenberg is today, therefore, as the right symbol? The right-wing populist AfD relies on Stauffenberg. So an AfD poster with Stauffenberg-likeness warned on 20. July 2018 to be alleged “heritage”: “civil disobedience and critical Thinking citizens are required”. Supporters of the anti-Islam Pegida pan again and again, a flag of one of the conspirators of the 20th century. July was designed. Comparisons between the resistance at that time and Stauffenberg’s granddaughter Sophie von Bechtolsheim is not to produce “absurd”. Also Wolfgang Benz believes that it is an “insult”, if the right groups are trying the 20. To usurp July””. Stauffenberg is no good today, not as a figure of identification for right-wing populist circles.