| Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) purportedly at the bedside of casualties from the bombing of Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze (“Führer Headquarters Wolf’s Lair”) just after the July 20, 1944, Plot bomb explosion. This is a still frame from Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nummer 726 from August 3, 1944. It’s highly likely that this specific still frame comes from film of Hitler’s visit to Evangelisches Krankenhaus Paul Gerhardt Stift in June 1935. That month, an accident occured at the Sprengstoffwerk WASAG-Werk bei Reinsdork, an ammunition factory. A 100 people were killed, and 300 were injured. Hitler and his entourage visited the survivors in the hospital and also attended the funerals. His presence was said to bring peace to the grieving relatives of the dead. The specific names above the patients do not match known casualties from the July 20 bombing; later in the episode of Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nummer 726, Hitler is seen exiting the hospital to adoring crowds, when the Karlshof visit was a private audience. Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (“Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda”) Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was known to mix older footage into late war newsreels to fool the German public into believing that Hitler was still making public appearances. In Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nummer 726, Hitler appears holding his peaked officer’s cap in the 1935 footage, and without any cap in the 1944 footage. There is also a distinct difference in the quality of the film stock. The 1944 bombing victims are significantly more wounded than the 1935 victims of the industrial accident. Hitler made 2 visits to Karlshof Krankenhaus (“Hospital”) after the bombing; 1 on August 1, 1944, and another on August 13, 1944. On August 1, he saw General der Infanterie Rudolf Schmundt (August 13, 1896 – October 1, 1944) in Karlshof. Schmundt was head of the Heerespersonalamt (“German Army Personnel Office”) and initially made a good recovery, but died in October from complications arising from injuries suffered in the explosion. He paid a visit to General Walther Buhle (October 26, 1894 – December 28, 1959). On August 13, Hitler returned and saw Kapitän zur See Heinz Assmann (August 15, 1904 – October 15, 1954), who was injured in the blast. In the next bed was Konteradmiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer (March 24, 1900 – March 4, 1981), who was Hitler’s naval liaison officer. He made a full recovery, and at the end of the war was sent to the Berghof to destroy Hitler’s papers. He also revisited Buhle. When the bomb went off in the conference room, the damage was considerable. The wall and ceiling panelling of white plasterboard hung down in strips; window frames were distorted, curtains torn; fibre glass was strewn everywhere; papers lay around; chairs were smashed, and the great table collapsed with its top more than half shattered. There was a hole 18 inches (45 centimeters) in diameter in the floor where the briefcase had stood. The pressure wave had clearly made its way into the cavity between the floorboards and the clinker brick foundation and had done considerable damage to the rooms at the end of the building; the absence of windows and the resilience of the walls had produced a greater blasting effect there. Those still near the windows after the explosion 1st tried to get out into the open. In so far as their injuries allowed, they then ran round the room and tried to help others. Major Ernst John von Freyend (March 25, 1909 – March 24, 1980), for instance, helped to rescue Oberst Heinz Brandt (March 11, 1907 – July 21, 1944), who was severely wounded, and cut General der Infanterie Schmundt, also severely injured, out of his boots. Immediately the cry rang out: “Where is the Führer?!?” It came from Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel (September 22, 1882 – October 16, 1946), Chef des Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; almost immediately he had found Hitler in the smoke-filled wreckage of the room and supported him as he left the scene of destruction. SS-Gruppenführer Julius Schaub (August 20, 1898 – December 27, 1967), Hitler’s personal aide, had meanwhile hurried along from his room in the briefing hut and Hitler’s valet, SS-Haupsturmführer Heinz Linge (March 23, 1913 – March 9, 1980), also arrived; they accompanied the somewhat shaken Führer to his bunker where he immediately undressed and was examined by his doctors. Linge 1st fetched Professor Hans Karl von Hasselbach (November 2, 1903 – December 21, 1981) from his office near that of the Signals Building, and he put on the 1st emergency dressings; then Professor Theodor Morell (July 22, 1886 – May 26, 1948) took over further treatment while Hasselbach drove to Karlshof Hospital near Rastenburg to deal with the severely wounded. Meanwhile, more medical personnel and cars arrived and the Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD – “Reich Security Service”) began to cordon off the area round the briefing hut. The experts were later unanimous that in a true enclosed bunker the amount of explosive brought into the conference room by Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg (November 15, 1907 – July 21, 1944) would have killed everybody and secondly, that double the amount — in other words all that Stauffenberg and Haeften had brought with them into the Führer’s headquarters — would have had the same effect. Under the conditions prevailing in the conference room, however, the blast effect was mitigated by the open windows and doors for the summer heat, and therefore the injuries suffered by those present were comparatively minor. Hitler had suffered a contusion of the right elbow, but the joint still functioned normally; he had superficial abrasions on the back of his left hand. The long black trousers and long white pants beneath them were in shreds; he had burns on both thighs and the hair on his legs was singed. His hearing was not noticeably affected, although both eardrums had been pierced and there was a great deal of blood in the right ear. The Führer was in a great state of agitation but at the same time relieved. He kept saying that he had always known that there were traitors around him and now there was a possibility of rooting out the whole conspiracy. He was sorry to lose his new trousers. The severely wounded were Heinrich Civil stenographer Heinrich Berger (January 20, 1905 – July 20, 1944); Brandt, Luftwaffe General der Flieger Günther Korten (July 26, 1898 – July 22, 1944); and Schmundt. Berger had lost both legs – he was exactly facing the bomb – and died that afternoon. Brandt and Korten died of their wounds in hospital on July 22; Brandt had lost a leg and Korten had a large splinter of wood in the abdomen. Schmundt was severely wounded in the thigh and died in Karlshof hospital on October 1. Luftwaffe General der Flieger Karl Bodenschatz (December 10, 1890 – August 25, 1979), Oberstleutnant Heinrich Borgmann (August 15, 1912 – April 5, 1945), Generalmajor Walter Scherff (November 1, 1898 – May 24, 1945), Generalleutnant Adolf Heusinger (August 4, 1897 – November 30, 1982), Assmann, Puttkamer, Buhle, Oberstleutnant Heinz Waizenegger (October 22, 1913 – 1986) and Colonel General Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 – October 16, 1946) suffered moderate, though considerable injuries. Most of them had to spend some time in hospital. All the remainder, except Keitel and Hitler, were suffering from concussion and everybody, except Keitel, had their eardrums pierced. The nature of the injuries and damage done indicates that the short-range effect of the bomb was considerable, despite the small resistance encountered by the pressure wave all round. It shattered the table and of those standing in the immediate vicinity only Bodenschatz and Assmann remained alive; 1 had been some distance from the table and the other on the opposite side. Heusinger was a little further away and, like Hitler, was protected by the massive table legs. The would-be assassin Stauffenberg could not be sure that at the moment of explosion the briefcase would be near Hitler. Accordingly, the explosive should have been so calculated as to kill everybody present. Clearly the bomb was not adequate to do this. Later the driver who had driven Stauffenberg and his adjutant Werner von Haeften (October 9, 1908 – July 21, 1944) to the airfield was questioned, and as a result it was discovered that during the drive through the woods, Haeften had thrown a parcel out of the car. A pioneer unit was ordered to search for it, and they found, wrapped in brown paper, a lump of 975 grams (2 pounds) of plastic explosive, 2 detonators (tetryl initiation charges) and a British time pencil with a 30-minute delay. Various suggestions were made as to the reason why this 2nd parcel of explosive had been brought; it may have been intended to blow up the telephone exchange in Area I or to kill Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945).” Either General der Nachrichtentruppe (“General of the Communications Troops”) Erich Fellgiebel (October 4, 1886 – September 4, 1944) or Generalmajor Hellmuth Stieff (June 6, 1901 – August 8, 1944) were supposed to be going to blow up the exchange; this would have been useless and was not intended. How anyone could have approached Himmler with a bomb set with a 30-minute time delay, after an explosion intended to kill Hitler, has not been adequately explained; in any case this presupposes that he was in Wolfschanze but not at the conference. The only explanation is that Stauffenberg was disturbed by the entry of Sergeant Werner Vogel (???? – ????) into the lounge where while the 2 conspirators were packing the bomb. Stauffenberg repacking and preparing the bomb and Haeftenstuffing papers into another briefcase has never been completely determined. But it is presumed that he consequently felt prevented from doing all that he intended. Under the circumstances he probably hoped that half the intended amount would be enough to produce the desired effect. 1 must try to visualize Stauffenberg’s situation at this moment: he was proposing to kill a group of men who constituted a considerable proportion of the top-level leadership in a war of colossal size; while packing and fusing his bomb, he was disturbed by someone about 10 minutes before the explosion was due to take place and this followed at least 2 abortive attempts in the last 2 weeks; can anyone doubt that his nerves were quivering? Had Sergeant Vogel gone away at once, and if Stauffenberg could have felt certain that some 30 seconds additional delay would not have made him too conspicuous, Stauffenberg would have been wrong to leave the other package out. And on this the entire conspiracy turned. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0677.jpg |
| Image Size | 258.09 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2325 x 1699 |
| Photographer | Heinrich Hoffmann |
| Photographer Title | Heinrich Hoffmann Presse |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 3, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Rastenburg |
| State or Province | East Prussia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Imperial War Museum |
| Record Number | GWY 228 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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