Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Germany's Forgotten War Against the Nazis
Transcript
- Lucas: We’ve spent the last few episodes walking through the physical and political wreckage of Berlin, but there’s another kind of destruction happening deep inside the German state apparatus itself. While the world focuses on the bombing raids or the Soviet advance, a quiet war is being waged within the halls of power by men who swore oaths to defend Germany, not the Führer. Lucas: It’s easy to think of resistance as something that only happens when the bomb goes off at the Wolfsschanze, but for years before that, there was a shadow network operating right under Hitler’s nose. They weren’t just complaining; they were actively trying to dismantle the regime from the inside out using the very tools the Nazis built. Luna: So these weren't random dissenters, but people actually working within the government? Lucas: Exactly. The most significant of these groups was the Abwehr, the military intelligence service. For a long time, it served the Reich faithfully, but under the leadership of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, it began to shift. Canaris was a veteran of World War I, a man who saw the catastrophe coming long before most others did. Lucas: He didn’t leave the service; he turned it into a tool for sabotage. He used his position to leak sensitive information to the British and French, hoping to convince them that Hitler was too reckless to be taken seriously. It was a high-stakes gamble because if he had been discovered, he would have been executed immediately. Luna: That sounds incredibly dangerous, especially since they were spying on their own allies. Lucas: It gets even more complicated because the Abwehr was eventually placed under the control of the SS, specifically by Reinhard Heydrich. You have this bizarre situation where the people trying to stop the genocide and the war are now formally subordinate to one of its primary architects. Canaris had to walk a razor-thin line, pretending loyalty while undermining orders. Lucas: One of the key figures in this inner circle was Colonel Hans Oster, who worked directly alongside Canaris. Oster was the one who established contact with the British, arranging secret meetings in neutral countries like Switzerland. He believed that only a coup could save Germany from total annihilation, so he started building a network of disaffected officers across the army. Luna: Did they have any real support from the public, or was this purely an elite conspiracy? Lucas: That’s the tragedy of it. Their base was almost entirely the traditional Prussian officer class—men like General Ludwig Beck. Beck was the former Chief of the General Staff who had resigned in protest over Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy in 1938. He became the moral compass of the resistance, believing that duty to the state meant opposing the dictator. Lucas: But this was a very narrow circle. They assumed that once Hitler was removed, the German people would rally behind a legitimate government. They completely underestimated how deeply the Nazi ideology had penetrated society and how many people were complicit or afraid to speak up. They were fighting a civil war within the military without a popular mandate. Luna: So they were waiting for the perfect moment to strike? Lucas: They were waiting for a moment where they could present themselves as saviors rather than traitors. This hesitation cost them dearly. Every time Hitler survived an assassination attempt—whether it was in 1939 with the plane bomb or later plots—the net tightened around them. The paranoia in Berlin became suffocating, and Heydrich’s Gestapo was closing in on every suspected leak. Lucas: The tension reached a breaking point after the failed attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944. That’s when Claus von Stauffenberg stepped forward, frustrated by the slow, cautious approach of men like Beck and Oster. Stauffenberg wanted immediate action, leading to the famous July 20 plot that we’ve discussed before, but it was rooted in all this earlier groundwork. Luna: It’s amazing to think how much was happening behind closed doors during those years. Lucas: Before we dive deeper into the mechanics of that final failure, I want to take a brief moment to talk about how this show stays alive. We’re an independent network dedicated to digging into these complex histories without corporate interference. If you’ve found value in our conversations, a small monthly contribution really helps us keep producing ad-free content. Luna: Yeah, it’s nice to know your support keeps these stories accessible. Lucas: You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Any amount helps cover the research and production costs, allowing us to keep exploring the nuances of history like this. Thank you for being part of this community. Luna: Thanks for keeping the archives open for everyone. Lucas: Let’s go back to the Abwehr. After the July 20 plot failed, the crackdown was absolute. Heydrich, though dead by then, had left a machine of repression that was now unleashed on the military intelligentsia. Thousands of arrests were made, and the Abwehr was effectively dissolved, its functions absorbed by the RSHA, the main office of the Reich Security Main Office. Lucas: What’s fascinating is how long some of these resistance networks had been active before anyone knew they existed. In fact, the British had been receiving intelligence from the Abwehr throughout the war, which helped shape their strategic decisions. They knew about troop movements and supply lines because Canaris’s men were feeding them accurate data to prolong the war and hopefully trigger a collapse from within. Luna: Did the British ever try to intervene more directly to help them? Lucas: Not really. Churchill and his advisors were skeptical of the conspirators. They viewed them as potential future dictators who might just restart the war once Hitler was gone. There was no trust between London and Berlin’s underground. The British preferred to fight the war militarily rather than risk a negotiated peace with elements they couldn’t fully verify. Lucas: This isolation left the German resisters alone. Men like Hans Oster were arrested shortly after the July plot. He was imprisoned in Tegel, where he continued to write and reflect on his mistakes. He realized too late that they had focused so much on the military aspect that they ignored the moral rot spreading through the entire population. Luna: How did they end up facing execution? Lucas: Oster was eventually transferred to the concentration camp at Flossenbürg, where he was hanged in April 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated. It’s a haunting end for a man who had tried to prevent the very horrors that occurred there. His legacy, however, remained hidden for decades, buried under the narrative of unconditional surrender. Lucas: For a long time after the war, West Germany was hesitant to celebrate these resistors. They were seen as complicating the image of a clean, defeated enemy. It wasn’t until the later Cold War period that historians began to piece together the true scope of the Abwehr’s dual role. We needed to understand that opposition wasn't always loud or heroic; sometimes it was silent, bureaucratic, and deadly. Luna: It changes how you view the concept of patriotism in that era. Lucas: Absolutely. It forces us to ask difficult questions about what it means to serve your country when the government betrays its core values. The men of the Abwehr were patriots in the traditional sense, loyal to the idea of Germany rather than the person of Hitler. Their failure was also a failure of imagination—they couldn’t envision a post-Nazi Germany that didn’t rely on old elites. Lucas: Today, we remember them not just for their tragic end, but for the courage it took to operate in the dark. They remind us that history isn’t just driven by great leaders and armies, but also by the quiet choices of individuals standing in the corridors of power. The silence they kept was broken only by their actions, however small those actions seemed at the time. Luna: A powerful reminder that resistance takes many forms. Lucas: It does. And as we continue to explore the rebuilding of Europe, understanding these internal fractures is crucial. The scars left by this betrayal run deep, influencing how modern Germany approaches authority, intelligence, and civic duty today. Luna: I’ll definitely be thinking about that the next time I hear about geopolitical tensions. Lucas: Good. Keep listening, and we’ll see you in the next episode.