Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Operation Valkyrie and the German Resistance
Transcript
- Lucas: So far in this series we've traced Germany's path from the ashes of the Weimar Republic into the full catastrophe of the Nazi era. We've covered the book burnings, the Night of the Long Knives, the steady consolidation of power. But there's a story that often gets less attention, and it's one that challenges the common image of Germans under Hitler. Luna: You mean the resistance? The people who tried to stop him from inside? Lucas: Exactly. And the most famous moment is the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Operation Valkyrie. But the story is much bigger than that single day. There were dozens of plots, some involving the military, some civilians, and they stretched back years before the war ended. Lucas: The central figure, of course, is Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg — a colonel in the German army. He was a decorated officer who had served in North Africa and lost an eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand from an Allied strafing attack. By 1944, he was convinced that Hitler was leading Germany to total ruin and that assassination was the only way to save what could be saved. Luna: But wasn't he an aristocrat? It's interesting that someone from his background would turn against the regime. Lucas: The resistance drew heavily from the old Prussian military elite — people like Stauffenberg, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, and General Ludwig Beck, who had been Chief of the General Staff before the war. Beck was actually a key figure in the resistance; he had resigned in 1938 over Hitler's plans to invade Czechoslovakia. For these men, the turning point was often the atrocities they witnessed on the Eastern Front, or the realization that Hitler's strategic blunders were destroying the army. Lucas: But there was also a civilian wing, led by people like Carl Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig, and the Kreisau Circle, a group of intellectuals and clergy who met at the estate of Helmuth James von Moltke. They were planning for a post-Hitler Germany, drafting constitutions and thinking about how to rebuild a democratic state. Luna: So there were really two groups — the military plotters and the civilians — and they didn't always see eye to eye? Lucas: That's right. There was tension. Goerdeler, for instance, envisioned a conservative, authoritarian state with a restored monarchy. Stauffenberg was more open to social democracy. They also disagreed on tactics — Goerdeler thought they should arrest Hitler and put him on trial, while Stauffenberg knew that only a quick death would break the oath of loyalty that bound soldiers to the Führer. Lucas: Operation Valkyrie itself was a clever plan. Valkyrie was actually an existing contingency plan — the official order for the Reserve Army to take over Berlin in case of a domestic uprising. The conspirators planned to modify it so that after Hitler's death, they could use it to seize control of the government, arrest the SS and Gestapo, and establish a new government. Stauffenberg, as chief of staff to the Reserve Army commander, was in a perfect position to trigger it. Luna: But it all hinged on actually killing Hitler. And they'd tried so many times before. Lucas: At least a dozen attempts had already failed. There was the bomb disguised as a bottle of Cointreau that never went off. A suicide bomber who got cold feet. A plot to shoot Hitler during a visit to a museum exhibit that was canceled. The most dramatic might have been in March 1943, when Henning von Tresckow smuggled a bomb onto Hitler's plane disguised as a parcel of brandy — but the detonator failed because of the cold in the cargo hold. Lucas: By July 1944, the conspirators knew time was running out. The Gestapo had arrested some of their members, and they feared the net was closing. Stauffenberg decided to carry the bomb himself to Hitler's headquarters, the Wolfsschanze — the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. On July 20, he attended a briefing in a wooden hut with Hitler and about twenty officers. Luna: He put the briefcase with the bomb under the table, right? Near Hitler. Lucas: He placed it under the heavy oak table, close to Hitler. Then he excused himself to make a phone call. The bomb went off at 12:42 p.m. The explosion tore through the hut, killing three officers and severely wounding others. But Hitler survived. The heavy table leg had shielded him, and the hut's windows were open because it was a hot day, which dissipated the blast. Hitler's eardrums were ruptured, his right arm was bruised, but he was alive. Luna: So what happened next? Did Stauffenberg know it had failed? Lucas: He had left before the explosion and saw the building collapse from a distance. He assumed Hitler was dead. He flew back to Berlin and immediately began implementing Valkyrie. But when the news trickled in that Hitler was alive, the plot unraveled. The troops who were supposed to seize key buildings were hesitant. The conspiracy had always depended on speed and the certainty of Hitler's death. Without that, the plotters lacked the resolve. Lucas: By evening, the counter-coup was underway. Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators were arrested at the Bendlerblock — the War Ministry in Berlin. They were executed that same night by firing squad in the courtyard. Stauffenberg's last words were 'Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!' — Long live sacred Germany! Luna: That's a powerful ending. But what happened to the others? Lucas: A massive wave of arrests followed. Over 7,000 people were eventually arrested, and about 4,980 were executed. Many were shown in show trials, often recorded on film, and then hanged with piano wire — a slow, agonizing death. The Gestapo even went after family members, sending them to concentration camps. The resistance was effectively crushed, and the Nazi propaganda machine painted the conspirators as traitors and cowards. Lucas: But the story didn't end there. After the war, the perception of the July 20 plotters shifted. In the 1950s, polls showed that a majority of West Germans still considered them traitors. But gradually, they came to be seen as heroes who had tried to redeem Germany's honor. Today, July 20 is a day of remembrance in Germany, with ceremonies at the Bendlerblock and the Stauffenbergs' family name is honored. Luna: It's interesting that it took so long for them to be seen that way. I guess it shows how deep the loyalty to Hitler was, even after the war. Lucas: Exactly. And it raises uncomfortable questions. Why did so few resist? Why did it take until 1944, when the war was clearly lost? Part of the answer is the sheer terror of the Nazi state — the SS, the Gestapo, the concentration camps. But also, many officers had taken an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. Breaking that oath was a profound moral crisis. And of course, the Allied policy of unconditional surrender made it harder for Germans to imagine a negotiated end. Luna: So in the end, the resistance failed in its immediate goal, but it left a legacy of moral courage. Lucas: That's how many see it today. The German historian Joachim Fest once wrote that the resistance 'proved that in the midst of the greatest moral collapse in German history, a handful of people were prepared to risk everything to restore the nation's honor.' And that's a powerful thought to end on. Next time, we'll look at the final months of the war and the total destruction of Germany.