81 years of resistance: Memory of Stauffenberg's assassination attempt on Hitler

81 years of resistance: Memory of Stauffenberg's assassination attempt on Hitler

Kętrzyn, Polen - on July 20, 1944, at 12.40 p.m., Hitler's leadership headquarters, the Wolfschanzen in East Prussia, to one of the decisive ones Moments of resistance to the National Socialist regime. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase with a bomb and hastily left the room. The explosion killed at least four of those present, but Hitler only slightly survived the attack.

The attempt to assassinate was the result of long plans by a group of civil and military oppositioners, which included more than 200 members. Among them were close employees of Stauffenberg such as General Friedrich Olbricht as well as contacts with Kreisauer Kreis and other resistance groups. Stauffenberg, who was originally not a decisive opponent of the Nazi regime, had changed his view due to the warfare of Hitler and the associated crimes. He has been actively committed to a coup d'état since 1942.

The uprising of conscience

The failed attempt to cope will go into history as a "uprising of conscience". July 20 is the symbolic day of courage against National Socialist terror. District City Councilor Christoph Brzezinski will settle a wreath for the victims of National Socialism on the memorial stone on July 20, 2025 at 10 a.m.

The "Valkyrie" operation, a secret plan to take on government responsibility after the overthrow, was already specifically developed. Stauffenberg and other primary responsible, including Ludwig Beck, were shot after the attack. The Gestapo then carried out thousands of arrests, and numerous regime gegen, including women who were involved in the conspiracy, were executed.

The resistance movement

The resistance to the Nazi regime was diverse and the motifs of the fighters were different. Personalities like Rudolf von Scheliha and Carl Friedrich Goerdeler merged to overthrow the regime. Scheliha, diplomat in Warsaw, Half persecuted Jews and transmitted information about the extermination of Jews abroad before he was arrested and executed in 1942.

The Goerdeler-Kreis, from which Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators emerged, tried to return to a monarchical system and the creation of a new Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime. The discussion about the motives and historical classification of these resistance fighter is still an integral part of the political culture of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The memories of July 20 and the still existing divergence on the interpretation of resistance to Hitler shape the German culture of commemorative and remembrance. Even in the first years after the war, the image of Stauffenberg and its colleagues was controversial. In a 2004 survey, the assassination attempt was increasingly being rated.

July 20 is not only a memorial for failure and the crimes of the Nazi system, but also for the tireless courage of numerous opponents who raised their voices against the regime, in the belief in a better future.