July 20, 1944: Stauffenberg assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler

At 12:42 p.m., a bomb exploded in the conference barracks at the Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia. It was intended to kill Adolf Hitler . It was planted by Wehrmacht officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The initially ardent National Socialist now saw no other option than to murder the dictator. "There's nothing left to do but kill him," he had told his closest confidants a few days earlier.

Stauffenberg is not only an assassin, but also the key organizer of a large-scale coup attempt by conservative circles, including high-ranking military officers, diplomats, and administrative officials. The colonel left the barracks on July 20, 1944, shortly before the time-delayed bomb exploded, believing the "Führer" to be dead as he flew to Berlin in a military plane. There, "Operation Valkyrie" was launched, originally a Wehrmacht plan to suppress a possible uprising. The conspirators, spread throughout key positions within the Nazi state apparatus, wanted to repurpose "Valkyrie" for their coup.

Rommel refuses

But Hitler escaped with only minor injuries. The heavy oak tabletop and the barracks' windows, wide open due to the summer heat, diverted the pressure of the explosion. Nevertheless, a coup initially didn't seem hopeless, if only everyone involved had steadfastly carried out "Operation Valkyrie." But there were delays, mishaps, and inadequate planning. Moreover, under the enormous pressure of being discovered, some of those in the know ultimately remained passive or even switched sides.

By evening, the coup attempt had failed. Hitler addressed the people over the radio and spoke of "providence" that had saved him. Stauffenberg and several co-conspirators were arrested and summarily executed that night. Others were discovered later. In total, around 200 resistance fighters were killed. Historian Wolfgang Benz sees the main reason for the failure in the fact that "none of the famous military leaders" of the time, such as General Erwin Rommel, participated: "At least one of them would have had to take the lead, so that the people would say: 'Aha, Rommel also sees it that way, that Hitler is a criminal.'"

A strong symbol

Nevertheless, the resistance against Hitler gained a powerful symbol on July 20, 1944. A few days earlier, Stauffenberg's co-conspirator Henning von Tresckow had concluded that success was no longer important, "but rather that the German resistance movement had risked its life to make the decisive move before the world and before history."

There had been other actions, such as the narrowly failed attempt by cabinetmaker Georg Elser to kill Hitler with a homemade bomb in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller in 1939, or the leaflet campaign by the White Rose circle of friends. These were later unjustly overshadowed by "the late, not to say belated, resistance of the conservative elites," as Wolfgang Benz described July 20.

"The Holocaust was of no interest"

The commemoration of the assassination attempt has a unique history. Long after the end of the war, the perpetrators were still considered traitors. Stauffenberg's widow was initially denied an officer's widow's pension. Later, the conspirators were granted official hero status. Streets, schools, and barracks have long since been named after them. Public buildings are decorated with flags on July 20. On the anniversary, swearing-in ceremonies for Bundeswehr recruits take place: the military of democratic Germany cites the resistance fighters around the former Wehrmacht officer Stauffenberg as its ancestor.

But there were always critical voices, too. Stauffenberg biographer Thomas Karlauf points out that the group only acted in the summer of 1944, shortly after the Allied landings in Normandy. In 1940, after the rapid military victories over Poland and France, Stauffenberg still raved: "What a change in what time!" Benz says that he and other members of the military resistance had undergone a "very, very long path of purification," adding: "The Holocaust didn't interest them at all." Because military defeat was looming, they wanted to attempt a coup d'état to "save what could be saved" for Germany.

Resistance - even beyond July 20

His colleague Johannes Hürter argues that Stauffenberg was not a democrat; he had an authoritarian form of government in mind for Germany if the assassination attempt had succeeded. Wolfgang Benz is somewhat less harsh in his assessment: "Under any circumstances, Germany would have become a constitutional state again. But a democracy based on our model, as subsequently established in the Basic Law, was not the idea of the conspirators of July 20th."

Many Germans today think first and foremost of July 20, 1944, when it comes to the resistance against National Socialism. Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg became the face of the resistance. But there were many other heroes and heroines who rebelled against the terror of the Nazi regime – Jews, communists, church members, artists, partisans. And certainly also people who resisted in silence and whose deeds, unlike the assassination attempt of July 20, have been forgotten today.

This article was first published on July 20, 2019, and last updated on July 16, 2025.