Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg(1907-1944)

A charismatic German resistance member and would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler, Claus Phillip Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was born 15 November 1907, 1:00 a.m. CET, in the family's castle in the small Bavarian town of Jettingen (today known as Jettingen-Scheppach). He was born one of a set of twins (his other twin, Konrad Maria, only lived for one day after birth). His parents, Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and Caroline Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband, already had given birth to another set of twins, Alexander and Berthold (b. 15 March 1905). The father came from a well-known aristocratic Swabian family, while their mother, although born and raised in Austria, had eastern Prussian and Swedish roots. Claus is described as having been a rather withdrawn child, although far from being shy. His closest intimate, from childhood on, was his brother Berthold. Claus developed passions for literature, music, arts and horseback riding at a very early age and kept them all his life. Unfortunately, in his youth he suffered from poor health, and it was likely that this contributed to his lack of ambition, which in turn contributed to his "average" grades in school while his healthier older brothers managed to be straight-A students. Skilled in singing and playing both violoncello and piano, Claus considered becoming a musician at one point, but had more serious plans about studying architecture. In 1926 he finished school, by which time he had changed his career plans from music to the military and soon enlisted in the army, and after training was posted to the 17th Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg. One year later he was transferred for additional training to Dresden's cavalry school. Although one of the best trainees of his age group, Claus was not popular with his superiors because of minor rule-breaking. His infractions weren't serious--things like smoking in his superiors' presence or always wanting to have the last word--but he nonetheless provoked the authorities at the school, who transferred him to Hanover in 1928.

On the other hand, though not a favorite with his superiors, his colleagues described him as very likable and social, if somewhat stand-offish. Unlike his fellow trainees, however, Claus was interested neither in philandering nor carousing--he preferred to study Russian parallel to his training. During a dancing lesson he met the mother of his future wife Nina, who raved about him to her daughter when she came home from boarding school. They were introduced to each other by the mother and soon became a couple, engaged on 15 November 1930 and married on 26 September 1933. Four children resulted from the marriage: Berthold Maria (born 3 July 1934), Heimeran (born 9 July 1936), Franz Ludwig (born 4 May 1938) and Valerie (born 15 November 1940). The young officer also became more and more successful in his career, and at his various promotions was often the youngest of his rank, due mainly to his variety of skills and outstanding organizational abilities. He was quite the workaholic, although a contributing factor may have been his suffering from sleeping disorders. Surprisingly, he never had health problems because of his stressful and somewhat unhealthy lifestyle--he smoked several packs of cigarettes a day and also was "quite fond" of coffee and wine.

In April 1943, now a colonel and serving in Tunisia, he was seriously wounded in combat--he lost his right hand, his left eye and two fingers of his left hand, in addition to receiving a leg injury, although it was not that serious. He spent five months in a military hospital in Munich and later was sent home to his estate in Jettingen for further recovery. In the fall of 1943, however, he was back at work (now in Berlin) despite both his doctors' and his family's objections. The war, and his injuries, had changed him from a strong supporter of Hitler's regime into a fervent opponent of it, and he became one of the most important conspirators in a plan by senior army officers to overthrow Hitler. Although some of his fellow conspirators preferred just to arrest Hitler and take over the government, von Stauffenberg was adamant that the entire Nazi system had to be destroyed, including Hitler, which is why he volunteered to carry out the assassination personally, a task made easier by his recent appointment as Chief of Staff. On 20 July 1944 the plot was put into motion. Von Stauffenberg was one of the few officers who had direct access to Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg, Eastern Prussia. He originally planned to place two bombs under Hitler's desk, but was interrupted and was only able to arm one of them. Unfortunately, the bomb--placed in a briefcase--was accidentally moved behind a strong wooden support of the table it was beneath, which was between it and its intended target, Hitler. After the explosion von Stauffenberg saw a dead body being carried out of the building, believed it to be Hitler and notified his fellow conspirators in Berlin so they could put the second part of their plan into motion, which was to seize control of the government. Unfortunately, he was wrong--the body was obviously not that of Hitler, who had survived with only minor injuries because the wooden support of the desk absorbed most of the blast from the bomb. When it became known that Hitler had survived, some of the conspirators lost their nerve and the plot failed. Hours after his flight back to Berlin von Stauffenberg was arrested, as were many of the other conspirators. He was executed on the same night, and more than 200 other conspirators met that same fate within the next few weeks (before being killed many of them were gruesomely tortured, which was filmed by their executioners "for posterity"). Pregnant Nina von Stauffenberg, who barely had known anything about the plot, was taken into clan liability and gave birth to daughter Konstanze on 27 January 1945, in a Nazi maternity clinic.