Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (German: [ˈklaʊs fɔn ˈʃtaʊfn̩bɛʁk] ; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer who is best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair, part of Operation Valkyrie.
Born into the ancient House of Stauffenberg in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Stauffenberg took part in the Invasion of Poland, the 1941–42 invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa and the Tunisian campaign, during which he was severely wounded, losing his left eye, right hand, and two fingers from his left hand. Alongside Major Generals Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he became a key figure in the German resistance to Nazism within the Wehrmacht. Stauffenberg was central to the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler and Operation Valkyrie, a plan to arrest the Nazi leadership following Hitler's death and negotiate an end to the Second World War.
On 20 July 1944, Stauffenberg's assassination attempt failed; the explosive he had placed only dealt Hitler minor injuries. The conspirators were arrested, and many of them executed, including Stauffenberg on the day after the attempt. His wife Nina was also arrested, giving birth to their fifth child Konstanze while imprisoned. Their children also included Berthold, who followed in his father's footsteps as a military man, and politician Franz-Ludwig.
Stauffenberg was born in Stauffenberg Castle, Jettingen, on 15 November 1907 and baptised as Claus Philipp Maria Justinian. Born into the ancient House of Stauffenberg, he was the third of four sons of Alfred Schenk Graf (Count) von Stauffenberg (1860–1936), the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg, and his wife, Caroline Gräfin (Countess) von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1875–1956), the daughter of Alfred Richard August Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1838–1877) and Valerie von Hohenthal (1841–1878).
From birth, Stauffenberg inherited the hereditary titles of Graf and Schenk, leaving him referred to by his first name and Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg until the 1919 Weimar Constitutional Law abolished privileges of nobility. His maternal ancestors included Generalfeldmarschall August Graf von Gneisenau.
Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria, where he and his brothers were members of the Neupfadfinder, a German Scout association and part of the German Youth movement.
In 1926, Stauffenberg joined the family's traditional regiment, the Reiterregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in Bamberg. Around the beginning of his time there, Albrecht von Blumenthal introduced the three brothers to the poet Stefan George's influential circle, Georgekreis, from which many notable members of the German resistance later emerged. George dedicated Das neue Reich ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the Geheimes Deutschland ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold.
By 1930, Stauffenberg had been commissioned as a leutnant (second lieutenant), studying modern weapons at the Kriegsakademie in Berlin, but remaining 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, another later member of the covert German Resistance, and the unit was among the Wehrmacht troops that moved into Sudetenland following its annexation to the Reich as per the Munich Agreement.
Though Stauffenberg had supported the German colonization of Poland and had made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he refrained from joining the Nazi Party. However, during the 1932 German presidential election, he voiced tentative support for Hitler: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.
Stauffenberg's views of Hitler were conflicted during this period. He vacillated between a strong dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen, before becoming more disassociated with the party after The Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht which he saw as proof Hitler had no intentions to pursue justice. As a practising Catholic, it was noted that the growing systematic ill-treatment of Jews and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong sense of Catholic morality and justice.
Even though Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within the Wehrmacht, like many members of the Nazi Party, he displayed a tentative opposition to parliamentary democracy.
Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the Invasion of Poland. During this time, he was a strong supporter of Poland's occupation, and the Nazi Party's colonisation, exploitation and use of Pole slave workers to bring about German prosperity. Stauffenberg himself noted, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur". After the Invasion, Stauffenberg's unit was reorganised into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its General Staff in the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.
While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, together with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, had approached Stauffenberg to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg began to consider the offer. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld had urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army, to facilitate a coup against Hitler. Though, Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German Reich, but to the person of Adolf Hitler, due to the Führereid introduced in 1934.
Operation Barbarossa, 1941–1942
During the quieter months of 1940 to 1941, Stauffenberg was transferred to the organisational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres ("Army High Command"; OKH), which was directing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and operations on the Eastern Front. Though Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plotting at this time, his brothers Berthold and Alexander maintained contact with anti-regime figures such as the Kreisau Circle and former commanders such as Hoepner.
Hoffman, in citing Brigadier Oskar Alfred-Berger's letters, noted Stauffenberg had commented openly on the ill-treatment of the Jews when he "expressed outrage and shock on this subject to fellow officers in the General Staff Headquarters in Vinnitsa, Ukraine during the summer of 1942." When Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn, was captured by the Red Army, during interrogation on 2 September 1944, Kuhn claimed that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue."
In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa whilst the 10th Panzer Division occupied Vichy France (Case Anton), consequently being transferred to fight in the Tunisian campaign, as part of the Afrika Korps. In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to Oberstleutnant i.G. (lieutenant-colonel of the general staff), and was sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff (Ia). On 19 February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive against British, American and French forces in Tunisia. The Axis commanders hoped to rapidly break through either the Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British First Army. The assault at Sbiba was halted, so Rommel concentrated on the Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italian 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Armoured Division Centauro had defeated the American defenders. During the fighting, Stauffenberg drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division. The division, together with the 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April.