July 20 Plot

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Image:Stauffenberg-signature-head.jpg The July 20 Plot was a failed coup d'état and attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It was initiated on July 20, 1944 by officers of the Wehrmacht and other bodies. The leader of the plot was Oberst (Colonel) Claus von Stauffenberg. Other participants in the plot included Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, General Ludwig Beck and Erich Hoepner, Carl Goerdeler, Oberst Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Alfred Delp, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bernardis, Oberst Wessel Freiherr von Freytag-Loringhoven, Carl Szokoll, Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, Adam von Trott zu Solz, Gottfried von Bismark and Princess Marie Vassiltchikov. Scores of others, including Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Günther von Kluge were peripherally involved and later forced to commit suicide.

1 Original plan
2 Errors, coincidence, and the bomb
3 Nearly 5,000 executed
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

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Original plan

The plan was for Stauffenberg to place a time bomb near Hitler at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, then immediately travel to Berlin to command troops in the uprising. A new shadow government had already been formed with Beck as Head of State and Goerdeler as Chancellor, although most of the plotters hoped for an eventual restoration of the German monarchy under the Hohenzollerns. The military plans were known as Operation Valkyrie, ostensibly developed to allow the military recovery of Berlin in the event of an uprising by slave laborers. This cover allowed the coup plotters to plan detailed troop deployments in advance.

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Errors, coincidence, and the bomb

Image:Erwinvonwitzleben.jpg

Because of construction work and high summer temperatures at Wolfsschanze, Hitler's scheduled meeting was moved from a bunker to a wooden structure above ground. Moreover, Stauffenberg was only able to arm one of two prepared bombs (obtained from Abwehr sources by Wessel Freiherr von Freytag-Loringhoven), which he placed in a briefcase. Stauffenberg, who was missing a hand and wore an eye patch because of war injuries, managed to get himself next to Hitler by telling him his hearing had been damaged during combat.

Stauffenberg, at 12:37 P.M., put the briefcase to the right of Hitler's feet on the inside of an oak table support, then quietly left the meeting while it was still in progress. Hitler, then receiving military briefings by one of his officers, was hunched over the table viewing a map of the Russian front. The officer was in mid-sentence when the bomb detonated at 12:42 PM. The table flew to pieces, men reportedly were knocked out of the windows, and the entire structure collapsed. Stauffenberg saw the explosion and couldn't imagine how anyone could have survived it. He talked his way through the Wolfsschanze's security perimetre and along with his aide Haeften, flew to Berlin to meet their fellow conspirators in the Bendlerblock.

Shortly before the device went off however, a colonel, trying to get a better look at the map on the table and finding the briefcase in his way, had moved it out of the way behind a heavy table leg. This shielded Hitler from the blast, which was further weakened by the inability of the wooden structure to contain the bomb's explosive pressure. Although four people were killed and almost everyone present was wounded, Hitler was badly shaken, 100 splinters had to be removed from his lower body, and he was covered in soot, but managed to scramble out of the structure with moderate damage.

Orders were given to shoot down Stauffenberg's plane but they went through a fellow-conspirator on the air staff, who ignored them. Generalfeldmarschall von Witzleben was arrested when he arrived at OKH-HQ (Oberkommando des Heeres Headquarters) in Berlin to assume command of the coup forces. In the confusion, General Friedrich Olbricht did not launch Operation Valkyrie immediately and what was left of the coup was delayed four hours until Stauffenberg arrived.

The conspirators failed to capture any radio stations so news of Hitler's survival was not suppressed. At first, reserve army troops in Berlin did carry out Stauffenberg's orders but their officers soon balked and the coup collapsed.

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Nearly 5,000 executed

The plot ringleaders, Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg, General Friedrich Olbricht, Oberst Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Leutnant Werner von Haeften were arrested after a brief skirmish late that evening and shot by firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock (War Ministry). Many (including Hitler) believed the hasty executions were intended to quickly silence the coup plotters so they would not implicate others. Hitler responded with a purge and executed nearly 5,000 known opponents of his regime, some of whom were starved and tortured to death.

In modern Germany the participants are honoured as resistance fighters. Several of them have streets named for them in Germany.

The latter half of the 1967 movie The Night of the Generals deals with the failed July 20 Plot, as does the 1990 TV movie The Plot to Kill Hitler. The latter film isn't entirely historically accurate — in one scene Hitler is shown consulting with astrologists; while some believe the Nazi leader did indeed do so, most historians discount it as false.

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References

von Klemperer, Klemens German Resistance against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938-45, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.
Marrin, Albert Hitler New York: Viking Kestrel, 1987.
Ritter, Gerhard The German Resistance : Carl Goerdeler's Struggle Against Tyranny, translated by R.T. Clark, Freeport, N.Y. : Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Rothfels, Hans The German Opposition to Hitler, An Appraisal; translated from the German by Lawrence Wilson, Chicago, Regnery Co. 1963.
Toland, John Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography New York: Doubleday & Company, 1976
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John The Nemesis of Power: German Army in Politics, 1918-1945 New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishing Company, 2005.