Third Reich - The Beginning Of Defeat - Encyclopedia Britannica

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The plot against Hitler

Graf Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg1 of 2
Graf Claus Schenk von StauffenbergGerman army officer Claus (count) Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg.(more)
July Plot: A failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler2 of 2
July Plot: A failed attempt to assassinate Adolf HitlerLearn about the July Plot of 1944, in which Claus, Count Schenk von Stauffenberg, and others tried to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime.(more)See all videos for this article

Realizing that Hitler’s refusal to consider surrender would do irreparable harm to Germany, a group of German patriots had for some time been plotting to assassinate him. The German opposition was composed of a number of loosely connected groups, fluctuating in membership, with little common organization or common purpose other than their detestation of the Nazi regime. The two senior members, who had been engaged in conspiring to overthrow Hitler from before the war, were Gen. Ludwig Beck, chief of staff of the army until 1938, and Carl Goerdeler, a former Oberburgermeister (mayor) of Leipzig. The only institution in Germany able to stage a successful coup d’etat was the army, and one of the principal centers of the plot was the Abwehr (the counterintelligence service of the armed forces). This plot was broken up by Himmler during 1943, but it was replaced by a small group in the command headquarters of the reserve army, whose outstanding personality was Col. Claus Schenk, Graf von Stauffenberg.

Hitler and Mussolini after the July Plot failed
Hitler and Mussolini after the July Plot failedAdolf Hitler (third from right) and Benito Mussolini (fifth from right) at the damaged Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, after an assassination attempt on Hitler, July 1944.(more)

On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg placed a bomb concealed in his briefcase under the table during a conference at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia. By chance, however, Hitler, although injured, was not among those killed. The attempt of the conspirators to seize power in Berlin and bring the army over openly to their side failed, and both there and in Paris the coup was suppressed before the morning of July 21.

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