What we can learn today from the Stauffenberg assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944

Berlin. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Michael Müller paid tribute to the resistance movement of July 20, 1944 against the Nazi regime. On Tuesday, on the 77th anniversary of the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, the SPD politician pointed out that the uprising by Wehrmacht officers had failed at the time. “Nevertheless, the attempt of assassination and insurrection is a process of the greatest moral weight and an important step on the way back to freedom and self-respect.”

Müller pointed out that it was only the military defeat brought about by the Allies that led to the smashing of the Nazi regime. “The Germans did not manage to do this on their own.” In his opinion, Germany can still learn lessons from this today. “Vigilance and the ability to defend themselves are necessary in order to secure freedom and democracy for all of us,” said Müller. Authoritarian tendencies hostile to freedom, racism and anti-Semitism are an existential threat to our community.

The attempted assassination attempt by Stauffenberg and co-conspirators

On July 20, 1944, Wehrmacht officers around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg tried in vain to kill Hitler with a bomb and end the war. Stauffenberg and three co-conspirators were shot in the courtyard of the Bendler block on the evening of the attack. In the weeks and months that followed, the Nazis executed around 90 other participants and supporters.

In memory of the attempted assassination, a memorial event with a wreath-laying ceremony was planned at the Berlin-Plötzensee memorial. In the afternoon, Bundeswehr recruits were supposed to make their solemn pledge on Paradeplatz on the Bendlerblock, the Berlin headquarters of the Defense Ministry.

–