ASSASSINS

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Facts About Claus von Stauffenberg

Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

He held the hereditary titles of “Graf” (count) and “Schenk” (cupbearer). He took part in the attack on Poland, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and the Tunisian Campaign during the Second World War.

Along with Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he was one of the central figures of the conspiracy against Hitler within the Wehrmacht and paid the price by being executed by firing squad shortly after Operation Valkyrie.

1. He Came From One Of The Oldest And Most Distinguished Families

Stauffenberg’s full name was Claus Philipp Maria Justinian, followed by the noble title of “Count of Stauffenberg”. He was born on 15th November 1907 at the Stauffenberg Castle Jettingen. He was the youngest of three brothers.

 It is believed that the Stauffenberg family was one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic Catholic families of southern Germany between Ulm and Augsburg, in the eastern part of Swabia, at that time in the Kingdom of Bavaria. This was part of the German Empire.

2. He Had A noble Title To His Name

In the German language, the titles “Graf” and “Gräfin” define count and countess, respectively. Schenk (i.e., cupbearer/butler) was an additional hereditary noble title. The ancestral castle of the nobility was the last part of the title, which was Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and used as part of the name.

 Among his maternal Protestant ancestors were several famous Prussians, including Field Marshal August von Gneisenau.

3. As A Devout Christian, His Inspiration Was From The Mediaval Writings

Stauffenberg grew up under the influence of Catholicism, though his family was non-practicing Christians.

As a devout Christian, he found inspiration in the writings of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas and the poetry of George, a poet “then held in extraordinary esteem. The circle of young admirers were captivated by his vague, neo-conservative cultural mysticism which looked away from the sterilities of bourgeois existence and pointed towards a new elite of aristocratic aestheticism, godliness, and manliness.”

4. Together With His Brothers They All Served in the Family’s Traditional Regiment Army

With his education, he took up a military career in 1926, where together with his three brothers served the family’s traditional regiment, the Reiterregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in Bamberg. They were also introduced by Albrecht von Blumenthal to the poet Stefan George’s influential circle, Georgekreis, from which many notable members of the German resistance later emerged.

Stauffenberg was commissioned as a lieutenant (second lieutenant) in 1930. Whereas he studied modern weapons at the Kriegsakademie in Belin, he remained focused on the use of horses—which continued to carry out a large part of transportation duties throughout World War II—in modern warfare.

His regiment became part of the German 1st Light Division under General Erich Hoepner, who had taken part in the plans for the September 1938 German Resistance coup. However, it was cut short by Hitler’s unexpected diplomatic success in the Munich Agreement. The unit was among the Wehrmacht troops that moved into Sudetenland following its annexation to the Reich as per the Munich Agreement.

5. He Supported Hitler During The Presidential Elections

Historians tell us that although Stauffenberg agreed with the Nazi Party’s racist and nationalistic aspects and supported the German colonization of Poland and made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he never became a member. Interestingly 1932 during the German presidential election, in 1932, he voiced support for Hitler. What a contrast.

He said, “The idea of the Führer principle […] bound together with a Volksgemeinschaft, the principle “The community good before the individual good,” and the fight against corruption, the fight against the spirit of the large urban cities, the racial thought (Rassengedanke), and the will towards a new German-formed legal order appears to us healthy and auspicious.”

6. He Believed In German Colonization and Exploitation of Poland

His regiment took part in the attack on Poland at the onset of the second world war. He supported the occupation of Poland and its handling by the Nazi regime and the use of Poles as slave workers to achieve German prosperity.

He believed in German colonization and exploitation of Poland. They believed that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles and partly absorbed by Prussia in partitions of Poland, but taken from the German Empire after World War I,  should be colonized.

7. His Execution Was Dramatic

His co-conspirator in the failed murder of Hitler, General Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of court-martial) charged other conspirators in an impromptu court-martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death.

Stauffenberg, his aide 1st Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht, and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed before 1:00 in the morning (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock. It  was lit by the headlights of a truck.

Interestingly, Stauffenberg was third in line to be executed, with Lieutenant von Haeften after. However, when it was Stauffenberg’s turn, Lieutenant von Haeften placed himself between the firing squad and Stauffenberg and received the bullets meant for Stauffenberg.

When his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, “Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!” (“Long live our sacred Germany!”) or, possibly, “Es lebe das geheime Deutschland!” (“Long live the secret Germany!”), about Stefan George and the anti-Nazi circle. 

He received an immediate burial with military honors in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin’s Schöneberg district. The next day, however, Stauffenberg’s body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals and insignia, and cremated. This brought to an end the life of this gallant German army officer.

8. He Was a Socialist 

Stauffenberg is said to have possessed all the totalitarian, militaristic and socialistic elements of National Socialism in German. He had a strong will to liberate Germany from military men who could break with corruption and maladministration, provide an orderly military government and inspire the people to make one last great effort.

He was motivated by the impulsive passions of the disillusioned military man whose eyes had been opened by the defeat of German arms. 

9. He Had a Humanitarian Heart

When he was performing his duties of the General staff after being injured in war, he also took time to assist the civilian population of conquered territories within his jurisdiction. Because of his aristocratic lineage, he felt that it was his duty to foster the progress of man and serve the community.

For instance, in the town of Meis, he assembled the local authorities as well as divisional officers to buy and distribute food to the local communities. He also ensured the supply of petrol and gas was at a cost price.

10. He Was Also Quick to Punish Those Who Committed War Crimes

An incident during the Polish campaigns of 1939 is a case in point. Two women were arrested and summarily executed by the officer in charge for using flashlights with claims of signaling Allied planes. Yet they were using them to navigate their way around in the dark during an artillery barrage. Stauffenberg was outraged and ordered the officer court-martialed despite him being an old friend.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking