Coming from the German nobility, Count Klaus von Stauffenberg considered it his duty to protect the nation from external and internal threats. At first, he believed that Hitler was a man capable of restoring the country's power. But while serving in the German army, Stauffenberg lost his illusions about the Fuhrer and joined the conspiracy against the regime in the framework of Operation Valkyrie.
early years
By the time Klaus was born in 1907, the von Stauffenberg dynasty had already existed for 600 years and had been one of the most influential families of the German aristocracy since the 13th century.
Young Klaus took his origins very seriously. He believed that the main task of the aristocracy is to serve as a moral guideline for the nation and to protect it from external and internal threats.
Two of his ancestors at one time helped to knock Napoleon out of Prussia. Their example of fighting the dictator had a strong influence on the subsequent generations of the dynasty.
Stauffenberg was an educated youth with a romantic outlook. He loved poetry and music. But like many other Germans of his time, he witnessed the horrors of the First World War and the chaos that swept the country after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
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Devil's Advocate
When the nobility was forced to give up their privileges, Klaus remained loyal to his country and surprised many of his supporters when he joined the German army. In 1926, motivated by the desire to serve his homeland, Stauffenberg, according to family tradition, joined the 17th Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg. A few years later, he had already risen to the rank of lieutenant.
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in the same year that Klaus married Nina von Lerchenfeld. She later referred to her husband as a "devil's advocate" who could not be attributed either to the ardent defenders of the Nazi regime or to the conservatives. Stauffenberg initially supported Hitler's rise to power, believing that the Fuhrer would restore the country's former power and prestige.
First doubts
But after Night of the Long Knives in 1934, doubts began to arise. During this period, Hitler, seeking to consolidate his power, betrayed many people who helped him rise.
The dictator's desire to destroy his former friends and allies should have served as a dark warning to the country's leaders. However, the army took an oath of allegiance to Hitler. Their oath was not "to faithfully serve my people and homeland", but "to show unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer."
Many aristocrats, including Stauffenberg, considered such an oath to serve a single ruler, not a homeland, an insult to their moral principles.
Meanwhile, Klaus and Nina had five children. Stauffenberg made efforts to hide his true attitude towards the Third Reich from children. His son Berthold later recalled how he, as a boy, dreamed of becoming a Nazi. “But we never discussed this in the family. Even if the conversation turned to politics, the father never showed his true feelings, it was too dangerous. Children don't know how to keep secrets."
Another event that undermined Stauffenberg's faith in the regime occurred in 1938. For two days, the Nazis carried out a lawlessness against the Jews, called "Night of Broken Glass" or "Kristallnacht". Klaus took this event as a blow to the honor of the nation.
Service in Tunisia
Around this time, he met Officer Genning von Treskov, who shared his beliefs.
Stauffenberg was promoted to colonel and sent to serve in Africa in 1943. At the front, he quickly realized that the country had no chance of winning the war. He was disappointed by other German officers who did not want to inform the Fuhrer about the real state of affairs, as well as the numerous deaths among the soldiers under his command.
Meanwhile, he himself was seriously injured, as a result of which he lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers on the left. Doctors even doubted that he would survive. But he survived, and later joked that "he doesn't remember why he needed ten fingers on his hands."
Failed attempts
This injury only reinforced his confidence in the need to remove the Fuhrer. After returning to Berlin, he quickly became friends with like-minded officers such as Friedrich Olbricht.
Earlier, in March 1943, von Treskow had already made an attempt to kill Hitler by planting a bomb in a brandy bottle on the Fuehrer's plane. But to his horror, the device did not work, and Hitler, safe and sound, flew safely to Berlin.
Just a week later, another officer, Rudolf von Gertsdorff, tied a bomb to himself and was about to throw it at the dictator during his visit. But this attempt also failed when the Fuhrer, on a sudden whim, left ahead of time.
Operation Valkyrie in 1944
After these setbacks, the resistance officers began to lose hope and despair. They decided that it was better to wait for the Soviet military forces to attack Berlin. However, Stauffenberg refused to back down.
The conspirators' idea was based on the existing emergency plan. It consisted in the fact that power over the capital temporarily passed into the hands of the reserve army in the event of unrest in the country. The planned operation was named "Valkyrie" and was agreed by Hitler himself. Of course, according to the idea of the conspirators, the main result of the transfer of power to the reserve army was the death of the Fuhrer.
Stauffenberg volunteered to take part in the most dangerous phase of the conspiracy. The exercise was scheduled for 20 July, when Hitler had a conference scheduled at his Prussian headquarters (codenamed "Wolf's Lair").
Klaus entered the room and neatly placed his briefcase under the oak table, at which the Fuehrer was sitting with other officers. Soon Klaus left under some pretext. As he approached the car, he heard "a deafening rumble that broke the silence of the afternoon, and a bright flame lit up the heavens." Stauffenberg got into the car and then flew to Berlin, confident that no one could survive after such an explosion.
Failure and consequences
Unfortunately for Klaus and the other conspirators, Hitler was once again saved by incredible luck. He survived the explosion that killed four other people in the room, only getting off with a hand injury.
Stauffenberg and three other conspirators were betrayed by another participant in the operation. On July 21, 1944, Klaus and Olbricht were shot. They say that before his death, Stauffenberg shouted: "Long live free Germany!"
In the days that followed, hundreds of other conspirators were hunted down and killed. Klaus's brother, Berthold, who was also involved in the conspiracy, was hanged, then reanimated and hanged again - several times, until he was finally allowed to die. Hitler ordered video footage of the torment to be re-watched to cheer up.
Klaus's wife was sent to a concentration camp, her children were sent to an orphanage. After the war, they managed to reunite. Nina never got married again.
In the courtyard where Klaus von Stauffenberg was executed, there is now a memorial in his honor.
Author: Maxim Ewald