Adolf Hitler's
methods were losing the war for all the industrialists who were supporting
him, devaluing their companies and bankrupting the nation. The solution was
to eliminate the root cause of their losses. They had to kill the Fuhrer.
Operation Valkyrie, the assassination plot, attempt to kill Adolf Hitler, took place at the Wolf's Lair on 20th July 1944.
The key conspirators in the July 20 plot can be divided between civilians and active military (mostly army) officers. Almost all of the conspirators shared a conservative, nationalist perspective and an aristocratic background.
The civilians were mainly individuals who had resigned from the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, for example, had been the mayor of Leipzig from 1930 to 1937, but resigned his position in opposition to Nazi policy. Ludwig Beck, another important civilian, was a former general who had resigned in opposition to Hitler’s aggressive war plans in 1938.
The most important military conspirators were General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, along with Claus-Heinrich Stülpnagel, the German military commander in France.
The motivations of the conspirators were likely varied and remain contested to this day. Some, like Goerdeler, objected to Nazi anti-Jewish policy as well as the general mismanagement of the war leading Germany to ruin. Tresckow, too, appeared to be deeply dismayed by the Nazi’s antisemitic policies and privately described Kristallnacht as an act of barbarism.
PLOT FAILURE
On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg placed one of two bombs in a briefcase under the table in Hitler’s briefing room in the Wolf’s Lair. He was unable to arm the second bomb in time. After Stauffenberg left the room, the briefcase was coincidentally moved under the heavy support of the table leg. It detonated, but failed to kill Hitler. This was not, however, immediately known to the conspirators. An ally at Hitler’s headquarters cut off all communication as Stauffenberg returned to Berlin to coordinate the implementation of Valkyrie.
At first, the plan seemed to go smoothly as the Reserve Army began taking action, but delays, confusion, and poor communication robbed the coup of its initiative. Eventually, the fact of Hitler’s survival was broadcast, and the plot rapidly unraveled.
THE
WOLF'S LAIR
The Wolf's Lair (German: Wolfsschanze; Polish: Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in
World War II.
The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the village of Görlitz in Ostpreußen (now Gierłoż), about 8 kilometres (5 miles) east of the small East Prussian town of Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn), in present-day Poland. The central complex and the Führer's bunker were surrounded by three security zones guarded by two Schutzstaffel (SS) units: the SS-Begleitkommando des Führers, and the Reichssicherheitsdienst. The
Wehrmacht's armoured Führerbegleitbrigade was held in readiness nearby but, as a part of the Heer's elite Großdeutschland Division, was used to counter-attack Red Army break-throughs in Army Group Centre's front and rescue cut-off Heer, Luftwaffe Fallschirmjager and SS panzer troops.
The
Wolf's Lair - military bunker situation at Gorlitz in Prussia, now Poland.
The attempt did not succeed. As part of the plan, Colonel Stauffenberg would travel to Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia (the “Wolf’s Lair”), where he would place a briefcase containing two bombs under Hitler’s briefing table. Once Hitler died in the explosion, the military would claim the assassination had been part of an attempted coup by the Nazi Party and would then implement Operation Valkyrie. The Reserve Army would seize key installations in Berlin and arrest high-ranking Nazi officials, including Goebbels, while disarming loyal SS units. Meanwhile, upon receipt of the Valkyrie orders, Stülpnagel would consolidate army power in France as well. In the confusion of Hitler’s death, Göring, Himmler, and other major Nazi leaders would be arrested, and a new government established with Goerdeler as Chancellor and Beck as president. This government would then be positioned to negotiate an armistice to end the war with more generous terms for Germany.
A
- Z OF NAZI GERMANY
|
|
Please use our
A-Z to
navigate this site or return HOME
The rights of Jameson Hunter and Cleaner Ocean Foundation to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This website and the associated Cleopatra
artwork is Copyright © 2023 Cleaner Ocean Foundation and Jameson Hunter.
This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the
authors' imaginations, and any resemblance to any person, living or
departed, is entirely coincidental.
|
