ano sunny Thursday, theM July 20th, at seven in the morning Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg takes off from Rangsdorf airfield near Berlin to the Führer’s headquarters “Wolfsschanze” near Rastenburg in East Prussia. Included: Sa Adjutant, First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften. Actually, they should both do that the more and more difficult expectant Situation on the Eastern Front with Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his loyal followers discuss – but they have other plans. In luggage: e.gtwo packages of explosives. The target: Eliminate Hitler and end the unjust Nazi regime.
The decision to do this was clear long ago. “The assassination must take place, whatever the cost. If it does not succeed, the coup must be attempted. Because it is no longer a question of the practical aim, but of the fact that the German resistance movement has dared to make the decisive throw for the world and for history.” These were the words used to appeal Major General Henning von Tresckow in June 1944 to Stauffenberg, the military resistance’s plans for overthrow to put into action. A month later it happened far – and Operation Valkyrie could begin. JUNGLE FREEDOM documents the process minute by minute as a ticker.
July 21, 1944
1 Clock: In the “Schanze” is awaited by the transmitter van from Königsberg, 90 kilometers away Greater Germans broadcast. Hitler addressed the audience: “A very small clique of ambitious, unscrupulous and at the same time unreasonable, criminally stupid officers has hatched a plot to eliminate me and together with me to practically exterminate the staff of the German Wehrmacht leadership.”
12:10 pm: The young officers carry out Fromm’s punishment. A special commando executes Olbricht, Haeften, Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock. Stauffenberg dies with the cry: “Long live Holy Germany!”
July 20, 1944
23:55 hrs: Shortly before midnight, Colonel General Beck dies. He had tried to shoot himself; when this fails, he is given “mercy upon mercy”.
10:30 pm: The coup fails. An armed counterattack begins in the Bendler block. The officers involved ask Olbricht: “General, are you for or against the Führer?” The meanwhile released Colonel-General Fromm condemns Stauffenberg, Haeften, Olbricht and Mertz von Quirnheim Death penalty for treason.
22 hours: In Paris, the police and SS units are disarmed without resistance. After the coup fails, it is presented as an “exercise”. Stülpnagel is sent to Berlin.
9:15 pm: The Großdeutscher Rundfunk announces that Hitler will soon give a speech. For the time being, this will remain in the “Schanze”.
8:20 pm: The order comes from the “Wolf’s Lair” to all military district commanders: SS chief Himmler is the new commander of the Reserve Army, only his orders are to be followed.
7:13 PM: The commander of Prague, Panzer General Ferdinand Schaal, speaks to Stauffenberg. He explains: “The leader is dead, I was there myself. Previous and further communiqués of the broadcaster are wrong. Ordered measures against the security service must be implemented quickly!”
19 hours: Remer contacts Goebbels, who connects the officer to Hitler by telephone. This Hitler Gets Personal adopted and receives the orderto defeat the coup.
6:28 PM: Now the Grossdeutscher Rundfunk is speaking out. After an assassination attempt, Hitler “immediately resumed his work,” the Reich-wide broadcasting network reports.
6:00 p.m.: The first telex about “Walküre” is received in Vienna. Order to arrest prominent Nazi party officials and high SS leaders.
4:30 p.m.: There is now real chaos in the Bendlerblock. Stauffenberg now goes there with General Olbricht to Colonel-General Fromm. To Fromm’s objection that Keitel had reported that the Führer was not really dead, Stauffenberg replied: “Field Marshal Keitel is lying, as always, I saw it myself., how Hitler was executed.” Olbricht informs Fromm that he and Stauffenberg have given the order for internal unrest to the deputy general commands. Fromm is beside himself with rage. After he withdraws his support for the conspirators, they take the colonel general into protective custody and lock him in his office.
16 Clock: Just a few hours after the assassination attempt, Hitler met with Mussolini at the “Schanze”.
3:50 p.m.: The hitherto hesitant General Olbricht activates the alarm measures according to the “Walküre” plan with the keyword “Germany”. The city commander of Berlin, Lieutenant General Paul von Hase, who is part of the resistance, gives the commander of the guard battalion, Major Otto Ernst Remer, the order to cordon off the government district and to arrest Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In the meantime, Fromm calls Keitel at the Führer’s headquarters to check the rumors about Hitler’s death. And gets the answer: “What’s going on? Everything is fine. The Führer is only slightly injured!” In fact, Hitler only suffered minor injuries to his leg.
3:15 p.m.: Stauffenberg and Haeften land in Rangsdorf near Berlin. Haeften telephones the message “Hitler is dead” to the conspirators on Bendlerstrasse. “A ruthless clique of party leaders from outside the front tried to take advantage of this situation to stab the struggling front in the back and seize power for selfish purposes. In this hour of greatest danger, the Reich government declared a state of military emergency to maintain public order and at the same time gave me executive power, together with the High Command of the Wehrmacht,” it says.
3:00 PM: The first rumors that the assassination attempt had failed caused general unrest in the Bendler bloc. General Friedrich Olbricht wanted to carry out the coup, but was stopped by Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm. The news of the assassination of Hitler and the formation of a government under the resistance fighters Ludwig Beck and Carl Goerdeler arrived in Paris. Commander-in-Chief General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel took matters into his own hands: at 23:00 the leadership of the SS and the security service in Paris was arrested.
14 hours: On his own initiative, Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim warned the “Walküre” troops in Krampnitz (tank troop school) and Döberitz (infantry school). At the same time, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler learned of the attack. From the “Schanze” he summoned the head of the Reich Criminal Police, Arthur Nebe, to investigate. He then ordered Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller to have Stauffenberg arrested immediately.
1:15 pm: After the alarm went off, Stauffenberg was held by the outside guard of the restricted area in the “Schanze”. Only after a phone call to the commandant’s office was he allowed to pass. The plane then took off for Berlin with Stauffenberg and Haeften on board.
13:05 hrs: Reich propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels learns of the assassination attempt. It is still uncertain whether Hitler actually died.
12.45 pm: A few minutes later, Lieutenant Erich Kretz Stauffenberg and his adjutant drive up to the gatekeeper of Barrier Circle I. From the moving car, Stauffenberg has the impression: “As if a 15 cm shell had hit! There can hardly be anyone alive.” The fact that he had earlier seen a seriously wounded person being covered with Hitler’s cloak strengthened his hopes.
12:42 pm: The bomb explodes. The stenographer Heinrich Berger was killed instantly, while the other 23 people in the barracks were injured. Three of them, Lieutenant General Rudolf Schmundt, Colonel Heinz Brandt and General Günther Korten, succumbed to their injuries in the following days or months.
12.35 pm: The briefing begins. While General Adolf Heusinger the Red Army offensive explains, Stauffenberg places the suitcase under the oak table. However, he cannot place it directly next to Hitler because there is a large audience in the room. He then leaves the room with the excuse that he has to make a phone call.
12.30 pm: The co-conspirators – Captain Ulrich-Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld, Colonel-General Erich Hoepner and the Vice-President of Silesia Fritz-Dietlof Graf von derschulenburg, senior government councillor Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, Eugen Gerstenmaier and Naval Chief Justice Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – meet in the Bendlerblock, the seat of the Commander of the Reserve Army in the Army High Command.
July 20, 1944 – #Memory & #Warning#Memorial #German #Resistance – in Bendlerblock, Stauffenbergstr., Berlin pic.twitter.com/bEGE1Ue4x7
— LuisenstadtFoto_Berlin (@BerlinImBild) July 20, 2024
12.15 pm: Shortly before the briefing, Stauffenberg asks for a separate room to change for the meeting with Hitler. He grabs Haeften and uses the time to arm one of the bombs and hide it in his briefcase. Soon an officer calls out to them both: “Herr Führer wait!” Haeften is thus left behind with the second explosive.
11.30 am: Stauffenberg reports to the head of the Wehrmacht High Command, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. Here he learns that the briefing will not start at 13:00, but at 12:30 because of the expected visit of the leader of the Italian Social Republic, Benito Mussolini. Moreover, it takes place in the so-called tea house, not in the usual bunker.
10.15 am: Landing after a long flight Stauffenberg and Haeften at Rastenburg-Wilhelmsdorf Airport. From there they drive six kilometers further “Wolf’s Lair“.
07:00: Colonel Claus Schenk Grave of Stauffenberg and his adjutant, First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, board a Heinkel He 111 fighter plane to fly to East Prussia, where Hitler is currently staying at his headquarters, “Wolfsschanze”.