Story of Heroes

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German career officer in the Wehrmacht during the second world war.

In 1933, Stauffenberg welcomed Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor and supported the nationalist and revisionist aspirations of the National Socialist Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). These were Germany's darkest times and as time passed in World War II, von Stauffenberg recognized the criminal nature of the Nazi Party's dictatorship and its crimes against humanity.

As time passed after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), which led to the loss of the German army at Stalingrad, von Stauffenberg decided to take part in the active resistance against the Nazi regime and became one of the central figures of the military resistance within the Wehrmacht.

Throughout his life von Stauffenberg was interested in politics and supported the conservative revolution during the Weimar Republic. Starting in the early 1930s, like many like-minded officers in the German army, von Stauffenberg identified with Adolf Hitler and supported his views, but all this changed after realizing the damage caused to Germany as a result of Hitler's activities, especially after the loss of control of the German army in the Soviet Union.

One of the well-known assassination attempts on Hitler was known as the "Twentieth of July Connection". The same attempt was led by Klaus Schenk von Stauffenberg and a group of Wehrmacht officers and other elements to overthrow the Nazi regime in Germany and assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. The connection failed, after a bag containing a bomb placed near Hitler was moved a little. As a result, others were killed, but Hitler was slightly wounded. The organizers of the assassination attempt were executed including Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg by firing squad on July 21, 1944.

von Stauffenberg became one of the greatest heroes of the resistance struggle against the Nazis and his portrait can be found in the Mitte area in Berlin. His story was recorded in the well known movie - Valkyrie, which was released in 2008 and his character was played by the actor Tom Cruise.

Another well known failed assassination attempt was tried by Georg Elser back in 1939. Elser was a German opponent of Nazism. Following the Sudetenland crisis and the signing of the Munich Agreement between Germany, England and France at the end of September 1938,  Elser was convinced that Hitler was facing war. Elzer did not believe Hitler's declarations of peace, and considered the possibility of eliminating the Nazi regime through political assassination.

On November 8, 1939 Elser traveled to Munich to watch Hitler's annual speech on the anniversary of the Putsch in the beer cellar. Elser chose the next anniversary of the failed putsch, when Hitler would return to Munich and speak at the event. He decided to assassinate him with a bomb, which he wanted to hide in the wall next to the lectern. 

Hitler was forced to leave early due to the time constraints of the train, and shortened his speech early. He finished at 21:07 and left with the top of the party. When the bomb exploded at 21:20, exactly according to Elser's plan, about 120 to 150 people remained in the hall. The explosion injured 63 of them and 8 were killed. Elser's plan to assassinate Hitler and the party leaders failed.  Elser was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camps and later in Dachau. He was kept in special custody and all the investigation material was classified as top secret. Elser was not executed because the Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, wanted to hold a show trial for him in which his connections with foreign parties would be shown.

In April 1945, in light of the imminent defeat of the Nazis, Hitler ordered the elimination of Elser. Elser was shot by SS man Theodor Bongertz on April 9, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp, one month before the surrender of Nazi Germany. Only from the mid-1990s Elser gained publicity and recognition as an opponent of the Nazis.

Georg Elser's portrait in Berlin