Stauffenberg's attack on Hitler
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Stauffenberg's attack on Hitler Alternative title: Operation Walküre - Stauffenberg's attack on Hitler |
| Original title | Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean-Pierre Isbouts |
| script | Jean-Pierre Isbouts |
| production |
William A. Schwartz Jonathan Barbee M. Catherine Labrador |
| music |
Michael Labrador Jean-Pierre Isbouts |
| camera | Alicia Robbins |
| cut | Jean-Pierre Isbouts |
| occupation | |
| |
Stauffenberg's attack on Hitler (original title: Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler ) is a documentary from 2008 by Jean-Pierre Isbouts about the resistance against National Socialism and the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 . The film was made with the support of the Research Association on July 20, 1944 .
content
The July 20 assassination attempt
On July 20, 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg entered the office of General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in Wolfsschanze , the Führer headquarters in East Prussia responsible for the Eastern Front . Stauffenberg is supposed to report to Hitler about the operational readiness of the replacement army . Keitel explains that the meeting will not take place in the bunker as usual, but in the conference room of the nearby barracks. Stauffenberg states that he has to change his shirt first. Keitel's adjutant Ernst John von Freyend then leads him to a bedroom. Meanwhile, Stauffenberg received a phone call from Erich Fellgiebel , the general of the intelligence service . Stauffenberg sends a message that he will call back. Keitel is already waiting impatiently for Stauffenberg and when he shows up, they make their way to the conference room, which is on the opposite side of the inner restricted circle of Wolfsschanze. At 12:35 p.m. Stauffenberg enters the conference room, seven minutes later the room is shaken by an explosion.
prehistory
In 1934, one year after Hitler was appointed Chancellor , he was considered the undisputed ruler in Germany and his party, the NSDAP , had sole control over the country. Opposition parties were banned in the Reichstag, and many party leaders were arrested. After the death of Paul von Hindenburg , Hitler combined the office of Reich Chancellor with that of Reich President and became the sole head of the German Reich, its leader . Since Hitler expected opposition from the church, Hitler had already concluded a concordat with the Vatican in 1933 . Large parts of the church were tacit or even loyal to the Nazi regime. A few, like the Catholic Bishop Clemens von Galen or the Protestant theologians Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller , publicly criticized the killing of so-called " life unworthy of life ". There were also civil resistance movements such as the White Rose that originated at Munich University . The most effective resistance movement, however, arose where the Gestapo least expected it: in the hierarchy of the German Wehrmacht .
The first seeds of resistance formed in the military intelligence service and in the authority of Colonel General Ludwig Beck , the chief of the Army General Staff. Most of them, however, supported Hitler's regime for the first four years. In 1938, the first officers of the General Staff were concerned because Hitler invested many millions in rearmament and, in violation of the Versailles Treaty, ordered troops to the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland , and on March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. Neither France nor the UK did anything about it. The former mayor of Leipzig Carl Friedrich Goerdeler traveled to London to ask the British government not to give in to Hitler's demands to take over Czechoslovakia . Goerdeler was of the opinion that a new war in Europe could only be prevented if the western allies, especially Great Britain, showed Hitler its limits. During the 1938 conference in Munich ( Munich Agreement ), however, Great Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave in to Hitler's demands: the western part of Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland were ceded to Germany without resistance.
Outbreak of war
Hitler had now regained all German-speaking areas (with the exception of the Polish) and was now at the height of his power. The criticism of Hitler within Germany therefore increasingly fell silent. However, Hitler was not satisfied with his successes, but also had troops march into Prague on March 15, 1939 ( smashing the rest of the Czech Republic ), thereby violating the agreement previously concluded in Munich. Next he ordered the preparation of Fall Weiß , the attack on Poland . Meanwhile, France and Great Britain were also alarmed and warned Hitler that every military step against Poland would result in a new world war. In the meantime, Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with his archenemy, the Soviet Union, and thus secured the right flank of the Wehrmacht. The attack on Poland took place on September 1, 1939, and two days later France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. On September 17th, when Poland was divided in half, the Russians invaded from the east, and the Polish resistance ended very quickly. Although France and Great Britain had officially declared war, they were not yet ready for it and could do nothing against the capture of Poland.
On May 10, 1940, German troops advanced against French and British troops in the Ardennes , while German troops attacked the Netherlands and Belgium. In the so-called Blitzkrieg , German troops finally achieved victory against France. On June 22, 1940, the Compiègne armistice was reached . Hitler was able to triumph in his refuge on the Berghof (Obersalzberg) , the resistance fighters were demoralized because they no longer saw the public on their side due to Hitler's military successes. In the meantime, Hitler was already planning his campaign against the Soviet Union, and concerns in the military leadership were wiped away by the recent successes. The invasion of the Soviet Union started on June 22nd with Operation Barbarossa . Hitler had the troops split up into three different shock troops (to the north on Leningrad , south to the oil fields of the Caucasus and rather weakly manned a central attack on Moscow ), which turned out to be a fatal mistake. Because of the onset of winter, the invasion stalled and the central advance towards Moscow came to a standstill. After the retreat of the Army Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch , Hitler personally took control of all military operations in the east. On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire led to the entry of the United States into the war , which had so far been neutral.
The resistance in the German Wehrmacht got a boost and Colonel General Beck was looking for like-minded officers. Beck understood that Germany only had one chance if a peace agreement could be negotiated with the West. Beck turned to the chief of the General Army Office, General Friedrich Olbricht , who was also the adjutant of Colonel General Fromm , the commander of the replacement army, whose authority was located in Berlin's Bendlerstrasse.
Stauffenberg
Also in Berlin was a young officer on the General Staff of the German High Command: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . The Stauffenberg noble family belonged to one of the oldest aristocratic families in southern Germany. Claus von Stauffenberg was born in 1907 at Jettingen Castle as the third son of the Catholic-conservative family, his twin brother Konrad died one day after the birth. The family initially grew up in the privileged circumstances enjoyed by the German nobility under Kaiser Wilhelm II .
The defeat of Germany in World War I and the subsequent Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1919 were viewed by Stauffenberg's family as a "national humiliation". When Claus found out that Germany had asked for an armistice, he is said to have burst into tears. He later decided to become an officer, believing that the officer corps had always served as a powerful, stabilizing force in German life. In 1926, as is customary in his family, he joined the 17 Reiter Regiment in Bamberg. Later he voluntarily joined the George circle of the poet Stefan George and was a member of his elitist circle Secret Germany . The circle dreamed that Germany should be led by a kind of “aesthetic elite” whose aim should be to renew Germany from within. Stauffenberg hoped that one day the circle would rise to lead Germany back into a "proud monarchy ".
Stauffenberg got to know the 16 year old Elisabeth Freiin von Lerchenfeld (called Nina). After the 23-year-old Claus had been promoted to lieutenant, in 1930 he asked Nina, who also accepted his request. However, the couple knew of the army regulations, according to which marriage was prohibited until he was 27 years old or had completed his eight-year service.
In 1923 the Weimar Republic suffered from inflation, in 1930 from the Great Depression . Economic problems and unrest paved the way for Adolf Hitler's rise into politics. At the time, Stauffenberg felt that many of the National Socialists' ideas matched the ideals of the George Circle and supported Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, some contemporary witnesses stated that his reaction to Hitler should have been downright enthusiastic. In the aristocratic and elite circles, there was largely approval for Hitler, as the National Socialists promised a kind of rebirth of the country and an end to the humiliation of the First World War. The promises and idealized goals, which apparently coincided with the goals of his George circle, made Stauffenberg initially blind to the cruel reality of the National Socialists. Many of his later co-conspirators of Operation Valkyrie were aware of the danger posed by Hitler and the Nazis much earlier than Stauffenberg.
Thanks to a special permit , Claus was able to marry Nina in the St. Jakob church in Bamberg on September 26, 1933, while Claus was wearing his uniform with a steel helmet . In 1939, Stauffenberg passed the entrance exam for the Berlin War Academy. His older brother Berthold also moved to Berlin with his wife Mika, as did his cousin Caesar von Hofacker , who later also joined the resistance. Due to excellent grades at the academy, Stauffenberg received a travel grant for Great Britain and spent a week in London in 1936. In 1937 Stauffenberg was promoted to captain of the cavalry and in 1938 he was transferred to the 1st Light Division (later known as the 6th Panzer Division ) as Second General Staff Officer . In 1939 Stauffenberg had three children (Franz Ludwig, Heimeran and Berthold), a year later a fourth child was born (Valerie). In 1937 there was the Reichskristallnacht initiated by the SA and SS . Stauffenberg had advocated limiting Jewish influence in the arts and public life, but condemned violence and looting against Jews. When high-ranking officers, including his uncle, asked him for assistance in a coup d'état against Hitler, he refused. However, he increasingly began to question the Nazi regime. Stauffenberg was later also there on May 10, 1940 when his 6th Panzer Division invaded Luxembourg and Belgium. He was withdrawn from the front against his will and transferred to the Army General Staff.
From doubt to active resistance
Stauffenberg was quartermaster in the 1st Light Division when Hitler marched into Poland in September 1939 and he was approached in November 1939 for support in the overthrow against Hitler. His answer was: "I'm not ready yet". Colonel Henning von Tresckow , who served on the Eastern Front in Army Group Center , had planned Hitler's disempowerment for a long time and saw unique opportunities for the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front to plan a conspiracy, as it was practically independent of the Gestapo , SD and SS could act. When Stauffenberg visited Tresckow in July 1941, Stauffenberg agreed that Hitler was a danger to Germany, but was still not ready to join the resistance. He explained to his brother Berthold: “We have to win the war first. You can't do that during a war. But after that, when we get home, we will clean up the brown plague ”. In autumn 1942, during one of his information trips through the Ukraine, Stauffenberg was convinced that the Eastern Front could be held. In the same year Stauffenberg learned of the atrocities and mass murders of Russian Jews by special SS units, the Einsatzgruppen . It is believed that what was committed there in the name of Germany was the trigger for Stauffenberg's change of direction and that Stauffenberg's active resistance began around April 1942.
In the winter of 1942 the advance of the German army came to a halt in front of Stalingrad ( Battle of Stalingrad ). When the 6th Army under General Friedrich Paulus faced certain defeat, Hitler refused to withdraw the soldiers and sent them to certain death, which finally convinced Stauffenberg that Hitler had to be ousted.
Tunisia
Since Stauffenberg openly expressed his criticism in the meantime, he was transferred to the 10th Panzer Division in Tunisia . In this out-of-the-way post, if he voiced criticism in front of the wrong people, he couldn't get himself or the group in trouble.
In Libya and Tunisia, the winning streak of the Afrikakorps under Erwin Rommel came to an end in 1943 . The US Army landed in North Africa during Operation Torch . On April 7, 1943, Stauffenberg tried to lead his column through the narrow El Hafay Pass. The troops were discovered by Allied fighter planes and Stauffenberg was badly wounded. He lost his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye. He was taken to a field hospital in Sfax . In April 1943 he came to Munich and on July 5th he returned to Lautlingen . Meanwhile, the position of chief of staff at the General Army Office became vacant. General Olbricht made sure that the position was offered to Stauffenberg, which Stauffenberg accepted in autumn 1943.
Further assassination attempts
At the end of 1939, Hitler felt unassailable and traveled to Munich for the annual commemoration of the failed coup in 1923 ( Hitler putsch ). On November 8, 1939, he gave only a very short speech in the Bürgerbräukeller and quickly left the party to take the train back to Berlin. Just 13 minutes after Hitler left the lectern, a bomb exploded in a pillar behind the lectern, killing eight people. The bomb was placed there by Georg Elser , whom Hitler had murdered in 1945.
In the first months of 1943, Tresckow's group had already carried out a number of assassination attempts. Tresckow was able to bring two bombs disguised as cognac bottles onto Hitler's plane. Since the detonators were very sensitive to frost and were stored in the hold, they did not explode there.
In March 1943, Hitler planned to visit the armory in Berlin on the occasion of the Heroes' Remembrance Day. Rudolf von Gersdorff was supposed to guide Hitler through the exhibition of Soviet looted weapons and explain the exhibits to him. He planned to carry out a suicide attack on Hitler and to blow himself up with two British clam mines in his coat pockets. However, Hitler ran through the exhibition so quickly that there was no way to kill him.
Operation Valkyrie
The Walküre Plan was an official plan of action in the event of massive unrest within Germany. Since there were around 4.4 million foreign workers in Germany in 1944, there was particular concern that foreign workers might cause unrest or uprisings. These should be put down with the Valkyrie plan. In August 1943, Stauffenberg arranged several meetings with Tresckow to discuss the implementation of the Valkyrie Plan and to determine the leadership after the coup. Colonel General Beck was to become the head of state as general governor, Goerdeler would be the new Chancellor and Tresckow would take over command of the entire German police, including the Gestapo and SD . The only minister from Hitler's government they would have taken over would have been Armaments Minister Albert Speer .
When Stauffenberg was promoted to Chief of Staff under Colonel General Fromm, the commander of the replacement army, in June 1944, he had the opportunity to meet Hitler more often and was therefore best suited for the assassination attempt within the group.
plans
It turned out to be problematic that Stauffenberg was both instrumental in carrying out Operation Valkyrie in Berlin and at the same time had to be the assassin in Wolfsschanze, some 550 km away . Since Stauffenberg was supposed to come to Berlin alive after the attack, the use of a time fuse for the bomb was necessary. Boeselager found out through tests that English detonators were the best, also because, unlike other detonators, they did not make any loud noises. Since there were always duds , it was clear to him that two bombs would be needed for safety. Major General Hellmuth Stieff had the necessary bombs and detonators procured from Boeselager. The goal of Operation Valkyrie was not exclusively Hitler, rather the entire German leadership was to be eliminated, especially Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring . However, the three could only be found together on a few occasions.
On July 11, 1944, von Stauffenberg and Stieff planned an assassination attempt at the Berghof. When neither Himmler nor Goering appeared, Stieff decided to break off the action. Only three days later, on July 14, 1944, Hitler moved his headquarters from Berghof to Wolfsschanze. Wolfsschanze was built in 1941 during preparations for Operation Barbarossa and has since been expanded into a huge complex with three restricted areas. The first complex, called Sperrkreis II, contained barracks for staff and guests. The offices of the leaders, including Göring, Jodl and Keitel, were located in restricted area I. Next to Sperrkreis I was the Führer-Sperrkreis, where there was a bunker for the Führer and wooden barracks. In a barrack there was a card room for briefings.
On July 14, 1944, Stauffenberg and Fromm received the order to appear in Wolfsschanze on July 15. In Berlin, General Olbricht was already issuing instructions for Operation Valkyrie. Since Himmler and Göring were not present, the assassination attempt was stopped again. Since Stauffenberg realized during the test run that the chance of activating the detonators in the driver's bunker was very slim, he decided that he had to activate the detonators beforehand in Keitel's office. As there was a distance of 365 meters between the buildings, a longer walk had to be planned. A conventional 10-minute igniter would therefore not be sufficient; it would therefore require a 30-minute igniter.
execution
On July 20, 1944 at around 10.15 a.m., Stauffenberg and von Haeften landed with a Heinkel 111 at Rastenburg Airport . At 10:48 a.m., Stauffenberg reached Sperrkreis II. Shortly after 11 a.m., he entered Keitel's office. There he learned that the conference would not take place in the bunker, as usual, but in the barracks, a wooden building reinforced with concrete. Keitel explained that due to an upcoming visit from Mussolini , the conference had been moved up to 12.30 p.m. Stauffenberg asked where he could change his shirt and von Freyend took Stauffenberg and von Haeften to a bedroom. When the officers were about to arm the detonators and equip the bomb, Voss tried to open the door to inform Stauffenberg about a phone call. Von Haeften was only able to complete the first bomb when Keitel was already impatient and sent word to Stauffenberg that he should hurry up, which is why they set off with only one bomb in his briefcase. In the conference room, Hitler had just received a report from Adolf Heusinger . Heusinger stood directly next to Hitler on his right side, next to Heusinger Heinz Brandt . Brandt asked von Freyend to stand aside so that Stauffenberg could stand closer to Hitler. After Stauffenberg had placed his briefcase under the table, he left the room because he had an important phone call to make.
Stauffenberg left the Führer-Sperrkreis and went to the adjutant building where General Fellgiebel was waiting for him. After the explosion, Stauffenberg saw a lifeless body being carried out on a stretcher covered with Hitler's long coat. Stauffenberg and von Haeften were able to pass the first two checkpoints unhindered with their car. After the commander of Wolfsschanze imposed a total curfew, the two were stopped at the last barrier. He was put through the phone to Wolfsschanze and happened to get Captain von Möllendorf on the phone with which he had had breakfast together that morning. This gave Stauffenberg permission to leave the site. At 1:15 p.m. they took off by plane for Berlin. Due to strong headwinds, Stauffenberg and von Haeften landed in Berlin around 4 p.m. and arrived in Bendlerstrasse at 4:30 p.m.
In the meantime the information situation was unclear and one was not sure whether the attack was a success or whether Hitler was still alive. General Olbricht decided to postpone the start of Operation Walküre until he received a personal report from Stauffenberg. When Stauffenberg landed in Berlin and learned that nothing had been done, he was annoyed that valuable time was wasted in which they had the element of surprise on their side.
Fromm refused to put Operation Valkyrie into effect, having learned from Keitel that Hitler was alive. Stauffenberg replied that this was just propaganda from Wolfsschanze. When Fromm wanted to order everyone to be arrested, Stauffenberg had Fromm placed under arrest instead. Together with Olbricht and von Quirnheim , Stauffenberg sent telexes to the various army units to carry out Walküre. When Radio Berlin reported on the failed assassination attempt, the conspiracy against Hitler was doomed to fail.
The consequences
Hitler was convinced that he owed his salvation to “Providence”. When Hitler later showed Mussolini the ruins of the barracks, he declared: "You see, nothing is left of them, but I got away without a scratch." In fact, Hitler was injured on his shoulder.
At first it was still believed that the bomb must have been placed by one of the workers who worked on the barracks. Due to the disappearance of Stauffenberg, suspicions against him grew.
Major Remer, who had refused Hase's orders, brought his troops into position around the Bendler block . When Fromm was released from his arrest, he ordered the conspirators to be killed on the spot so as not to give them an opportunity to testify against him and thereby reveal his own involvement. Stauffenberg, von Haeften and von Quirnheim were sentenced to death in an express trial. A firing squad led them into the courtyard of the Bendler Block, where they were executed on July 21, 1944 at around 1 a.m.
Hitler had a clean-up operation carried out in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht and took the opportunity to get rid of opposition members in the Reichstag ( action grid ). He also ordered a number of show trials before the People's Court, chaired by Roland Freisler .
Why did the attack fail?
When Brandt bumped the briefcase under the table with his foot, he moved it to the right side of the massive table post that shielded Hitler from the explosion. All those killed by the bomb (Major General Schmundt , General Korten , Colonel Brandt , and the stenographer Heinrich Berger) stood unprotected by table posts to the right of the bomb. Keitel's impatience was compounded by Fellgiebel's call, which resulted in the assassins being urged to start without the second bomb. With twice the explosive force, Hitler would have been killed with a high degree of probability. The biggest obstacle to success, however, is the relocation of the meeting from the windowless concrete bunker to the wooden barracks. Had the bomb exploded in the bunker, most likely everyone in the room would have been killed.
background
- Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager , the last living protagonist of Operation Walküre at the time of filming , can be seen in his last interview in the film; he died two months later. The film is dedicated to him in the credits.
- It was first published in the USA on November 11, 2008, and in Germany on July 9, 2009.
- In the original English language, the narrator is spoken by John H. Mayer.