Count von Stauffenberg: a hero or ...?

The Men Who Almost Saved Germany From Hitler

20.07.2004

Germany Remembers Plot to Kill Hitler

Tuesday marks the 60th anniversary of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg's attempt to assassinate Hitler. While some debate whether he acted out of personal interest or altruism, most Germans are taking a positive view.

On July 20, 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, an aristocratic colonel in the Nazi army, took the fate of the German people into his own hands. Increasingly disillusioned with Adolf Hitler, Stauffenberg and numerous other co-conspirators within the German military, including Friedrich Olbricht and Henning von Tresckow, plotted to assassinate the dictator and seize the reins of power.

Shortly after noon on a hot summer day, Stauffenberg smuggled an explosives-filled briefcase into a meeting at Hitler's "Wolf's Lair" hideaway (in what is today Poland), where the dictator was seated around a large wooden table with 22 other Nazi officials.

Stauffenberg placed the briefcase under the table, made an excuse to leave, and watched the explosion from afar as he raced towards his getaway car. Confident he had completed his mission and an impending coup would soon place him and like-minded co-conspirators in power, Stauffenberg made haste to return to Berlin.

But, in what is largely viewed as one of the greatest tragedies in history, things did not work out that way. Miraculously, Hitler survived the blast that killed four others, and the opposition's poor planning, lack of support and hesitation at crucial moments played into the Führer's hands.

By midnight -- just twelve hours later -- Hitler had regained the upper hand and squashed the rebellion. Stauffenberg and three others were executed by firing squad in Berlin. In the coming weeks, an additional 140 people implicated in the plot were killed and more than 5,000 conspirators and political opponents were rounded-up.


Hero or traitor?

Had Stauffenberg been successful, the final phase of the war would certainly have gone differently. The fact remains that more people died between the July assassination attempt and the end of the war than in the four-and-a-half years prior to that. Few doubt that Hitler's demise would not have seriously affected the German army's ability to go on fighting, if not ended hostilities sooner and saved thousands of lives. Yet, Stauffenberg's place in history as a hero of the German resistance has not been so easily established.

In the initial decade after the end of the war, the German public largely viewed him as a traitor. His wife was denied a pension, and no memorials were erected to mark the bravery of those within Hitler's own military establishment who risked their lives to set the country on a different course.

In the 1960's, as a younger generation of Germans confronted their parents over their country's Nazi past, Stauffenberg was not necessarily rehabilitated into an honorable symbol of the German resistance. Some were suspicious of his motives, accusing him of acting more out of self-interest, and less out of benevolent concern for the plight of the Jews and other victims of Nazi war crimes.


A surge of new interest

But as the 60th anniversary of the assassination attempt approached, a number of new films, documentaries and books enlivened the debate and once again drew attention to Stauffenberg and his band of subversives. German public broadcaster SWR produced a film by director Jo Baier entitled "Stauffenberg," which topped prime time ratings with a 23 percent audience share. Another German broadcaster produced a four-part documentary entitled "They Wanted to Kill Hitler," which proved equally popular. Numerous new autobiographies and books chronicling the event hit the shelves in bookstores.

Along with this surge of interest, the German public's view, it seems, has also shifted. According to a recent poll in the German news weekly Spiegel more than 75 percent of Germans surveyed said they esteem or admire Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators.

In what is perhaps a final nod of approval, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder presides over a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination attempt.


Perspectives change over time

The German public's growing esteem for Stauffenberg and company begs the question: what's changed? According to Johannes Tuchel, Director of the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin, most Germans were -- implicitly, at least -- Hitler supporters, and those in the resistance were in the minority.

"After the war, Germany did not change its population," he said in an interview with DW-WORLD. "Now we have a new generation, and they are interested in what happened on July 20, 1944."

That interest has manifested itself in the spate of recent movies and books. Many are drawn to the material in the hopes of learning how a group of military officers changed their view of Hitler radically enough to plot a coup.

For that question, however, there is no easy answer. "They had a broad spectrum of motivations," says Tuchel of those involved in the plot. "Some were social democrats, some former labor union activists, some had authoritarian goals."

Two things, according to Tuchel, united them: they wanted to re-establish the rule of law and end the war. In the case of Stauffenberg, Tuchel says historical evidence proves that a growing disgust for Nazi war crimes was his primary motivating factor.


The German resistance

Academics have long debated whether the guilt for Nazi crimes should be borne individually, by those who committed the crimes, or collectively, by the German people. In the 1997 book "Hitler's Willing Executioners," US historian Daniel Goldhagen (photo) argued in favor of the theory of collective guilt. Not surprisingly, his theory proved highly controversial in Germany. It's no wonder that the German public is fascinated by more inspiring tales of resistance.

The German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin features exhibitions on Stauffenberg, as well as others like the "White Rose" student movement which sprung up in Munich. But Tuchel is careful not to exaggerate the size of the resistance, pointing out that Hitler's opponents -- those willing to take action -- were always in the minority. "This was such a small operation, that the same man (Stauffenberg) who planted the bomb, had to run back to Berlin on the same day to help organize the coup," he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Schröder will urge Germans to remember Stauffenberg and his network of co-conspirators. How they choose to recall the event will remain a matter of ongoing debate.

Author Kristine Ziwica
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