| Original caption: “Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg standing between police officers at the trial of the Hitler assassins of July 20, 1944 before the ‘People’s Court.’” Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (March 15, 1905 – August 10, 1944) appeared before the Volksgerichtshof (“People’s Court”) and Reichsjustizminister und Präsident Roland Freisler (October 30, 1893 – February 3, 1945) on August 10, 1944. 1 cannot imagine what Berthold von Stauffenberg was thinking and feeling as his younger brother Claus (November 15, 1907 – July 21, 1944) was led out of the Bendlerblock – Headquarters of the Heer (“Nazi German Army”) – and shot. It was the beginning for Berthold of a 21 day martyrdom about which almost nothing is known except his verdict on National Socialism and some information he gave on the plans for the uprising. After that, he was himself put to death with unbelievable cruelty. Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) had all the military men accused of having taken part in the uprising declared criminals unworthy to bear arms before they were even put on trial. His instrument was the Ehrenhof (“Court of Honor”) presided over by the most senior officer of the Heer, Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt (December 12, 1875 – February 24, 1953). The Ehrenhof expelled the accused from the Wehrmacht so that they were not subject to military justice, although many of their cases were already before the Superior Court Martial, and were turned over to the Volksgerichtshof. This court had been formed in 1934 to deal with political crimes which had formerly come under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Reich. Nevertheless, the trials of military conspirators in the Volksgerichtshof violated the established procedures of the National Socialist state, for the Reich Court Martial had jurisdiction in cases involving former members of the Armed Forces if they were accused of acts committed while they were in the Armed Forces. Hitler arbitrarily altered the jurisdiction in favor of the Volksgerichtshof. On August 7-8, 1944, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin von Witzleben (December 4, 1881 – August 8, 1944), 1st Lieutenant Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (November 13, 1904 – August 8, 1944), Colonel General Erich Hoepner (September 14, 1886 – August 8, 1944), Lieutenant General Paul von Hase (July 24, 1885 – August 8, 1944), Major General Hellmuth Stieff (June 6, 1901 – August 8, 1944), Captain Friedrich Karl Klausing (May 24, 1920 – August 8, 1944), Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bernardis (August 7, 1908 – August 8, 1944), and 1st Lieutenant Albrecht von Hagen (March 11, 1904 – August 8, 1944) were tried by Friesler and sentenced to death by piano wire hanging. The records of Berthold von Stauffenberg’s trial on August 10, 1944, are lost. Berthold, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg (September 5, 1902 – August 10, 1944), and Commander Alfred Kranzfelder were tried together in the Volksgerichtshof on August 10, 1944, sentenced to death and hanged in the most cruel manner on the same afternoon. General der Nachrichtentruppe Erich Fellgiebel (October 4, 1886 – September 4, 1944) and Oberst Georg Hansen (July 5, 1904 – September 8, 1944) were tried the same day and executed later. During the show trial, Freisler, who had been addressing Schulenburg throughout the trial as “Scoundrel Schulenburg” or “Criminal Schulenburg,” inadvertently called him by his hereditary title of “Count Schulenburg” — whereupon Schulenburg interrupted him by humorously saying, “Scoundrel Schulenburg, please!” Luftwaffe Oberstleutnant Casar von Hofacker (March 2, 1896 – December 20, 1944) stood trial in the Volksgerichtshof on August 30. When presiding judge Freisler, who had represented the Ministry of Justice at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, interrupted him, Hofacker said: “Be silent, Herr Freisler, for today it is my head that is at stake. In a year it will be yours!” He concluded his speech: “I uncommonly regret that I could not take the place of my cousin Stauffenberg, who was prevented by his disabilities sustained in combat from completing the deed.” Hofacker was sentenced to death, but for several months longer the Secret State Police continued to interrogate him, unsuccessfully, about the role of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) and his Chief of the General Staff, Major General Hans Speidel (October 28, 1897 – November 28, 1984). Hofacker finally was also hanged. Claus and Bethold’s brother, Alexander von Stauffenberg (March 15, 1905 – January 27, 1964), was brought back to Berlin from Athens by train on July 26. The journey lasted 4 days and nights. Although it was soon clear that he was not involved in the plot, he remained in Sippenhaft (“kith-and-kin liability”) custody. In a speech to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP – National Socialist German Workers’ Party) district leaders on August 3, Himmler declared, “The Stauffenberg family will be exterminated down to its last member.” In fact, Himmler refused to issue uniform directives for the practice of Sippenhaft detention and applied it arbitrarily. Alexander managed to telephone his wife Melitta Schiller Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (January 3, 1903 – April 8, 1945) on the day before he left Athens. Only a few hours later she was arrested and remained in Sippenhaft detention until September 2; for a short time she was in the same prison as Claus widow Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (August 27, 1913 – April 2, 2006) at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin. After her release she resumed her research in aeronautics, which was of great importance to the war. Alexander Stauffenberg was held in various concentration camps and prisons, such as Stutthof in East Prussia, Buchenwald in Saxony, and Schónberg in Bavaria. Under police interrogation, Alexander condemned the crimes of the National Socialists just as Berthold had done. A Secret State Police Commissar, Schutzstaffel SS-Sturmbannführer Paul Opitz (September 17, 1897 – 1967), helped Alexander and Melitta with small favors — partly out of sympathy, partly in exchange for an assurance that they would attest to the humane treatment he had given them. Almost to the end of the war, Melitta von Stauffenberg was able to look after her husband and some others who were held in Sippenhaft detention. She exploited her “war-essential” status to insist that she must see her relatives and bring them food. She visited Alexander at least once every month. Her work was “naturally only a pretext for helping us,” as Alexander wrote to Robert Boehringer (July 30, 1884 – August 9, 1974) on May 8, 1945. She performed test dives with Junkers Ju-88 and night flights with Arado Ar-96, Focke-Wulf Fw-190 and turbo-jet fighter Messerschmitt Me-262; worked on night-landing instruments, and secured permission for flights at her own discretion. The bombers were not suitable for going to visit Alexander because there were generally no airfields near the camps and prisons where he was held. Only the slow Fieseler Fi-156 Storch could land in any small field, but it was constantly in danger of being shot down by the Americans who dominated the airspace over Germany: Twice at least Melitta flew to Buchenwald. Although she possessed the necessary permissions, she always stood “with one foot before a court martial.” She discovered the place where the children of the dead brothers and of Cäsar von Hofacker were held; the SS had taken them to Bad Sachsa in the Harz Mountains. At Christmas time she visited the children and brought them presents. In a long letter to Nina, who was still in prison, Melitta described her visit and the cheerful well being of the children under the leadership of Claus Stauffenberg’s eldest son Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg ((born July 3, 1934). After Nina had given birth to Stauffenberg’s daughter Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg (born January 27, 1945), she and the child were transferred to Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Potsdam. Melitta visited her there a few days later, arriving by bicycle and wearing the ribbon of the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Pilot Badge in Gold with Diamonds on her uniform jacket. The senior doctor, who had been with the Air Force, recognized her and thereafter saw to it that Nina Stauffenberg and her child had the best of care. On April 8, 1945, Melitta, on her way to see Alexander at Schönberg near Passau, flying a slow and unarmed Bücker Bü-181 trainer, was shot down from behind near Strasskirchen by an American fighter. She landed her plane, but died 2 hours later of the bullet wounds she had received. Alexander took the death of his courageous wife very hard. He was also distressed because his brothers had not taken him into the conspiracy. He would have preferred to die with them for their cause. Almost all the Stauffenbergs’ close relatives were imprisoned for several months or longer. The head of the family, Uncle Berthold, who was 85, died in solitary confinement in Würzburg in November 1944. Cousin Clemens developed heart disease and was given leave from Oranienburg concentration camp; through Melitta’s intervention he was placed in Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Potsdam. After his recovery Melitta flew him to Hof, whence he travelled to Guttenberg; his wife Elisabeth, who had been permitted to join him in hospital had to return to Buchenwald concentration camp, where she was imprisoned along with Alexander, Berthold’s widow Mika, Elisabeth Stauffenberg and others. Twice they saw Melitta fly over the camp. The property of the conspirators and their relatives was confiscated, in Lautlingen, Jettingen, Wilflingen, Amerdingen, Greifenstein, although Hitler had requested that “the bereaved be generously cared for.” After the war they had to struggle with the German bureaucracy for restitution, and to get widows’ and orphans’ pensions. Caroline von Üxküll-Gyllenband von Stauffenberg (April 7, 1875 – June 3, 1956), the mother of the Stauffenberg brothers, was in Lautlingen on July 20, 1944, with her brother Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband (February 14, 1877 – September 14, 1944), “Uncle Nux,” Berthold’s wife Mika, and Claus’s wife Nina with their children. On July 21 she learned that Claus had been shot during the night as the leader of the uprising. Her brother Nux told her: “Never forget that he did this in supreme fulfillment of his duty.” Secret State Police officers came in the night of July 22-23, arrested Count Üxkül and Nina Stauffenberg, and imprisoned them in Rottweil. On the evening of July 23, they came again and took away Alexandrine Gabrielle von Üxküll-Gyllenband (June 30, 1873 – May 23, 1963), “Lasli,” the erstwhile director of the Red Cross, and Caroline von Stauffenberg, and put them in solitary confinement in the Balingen District Court Prison. On August 17, the children were taken away. Alexandrine Üxküll was released after 6 weeks; Caroline Stauffenberg returned to Lautlingen on November 2. Soon afterward 8 Secret State Police officers moved in with their families. Only in December did Caroline Stauffenberg learn of the deaths of her son Berthold and her brother Nikolaus. Although she had had no knowledge of Claus’s and Berthold’s plotting, she declared to 1 of her few visitors in December 1944: “I knew of my son’s deed and I approve of it.” In April 1945, French troops occupied Lautlingen. As the Moroccans plundered and raped, 600 villagers fled to the manor house and sought the protection of the old Countess. In June 1945, a former French Prisoner of War who had been held in Lautlingen became commander of the troops here. He provided Alexandrine, Countess Üxküll and another relative with a military motorcar so that they could search for the children. They found them still in Bad Sachsa. Claus’s sons made the journey back to Lautlingen in the car. Lasli procured a large bus in which the others travelled, only a few hours before the Red Army occupied the area. The Hofacker children were taken to Reichenbach; Berthold’s children and Claus’s daughter Valerie went to Lautlingen. Mika and Alexander were detained by the Americans after Germany had capitulated. When Mika was set free, she inquired in Lautlingen to find out whether her children were still alive before she went there. Alexander was subjected to seemingly interminable interrogations in the same villa in Frankfurt am Main in which Fieldmarshal von Rundstedt was held. He encountered considerable difficulty convincing his American interrogators that he could not sit at the same table with von Rundstedt, who had presided over the expulsion of his brothers Claus and Berthold from the Armed Forces. Not until September 15, 1945, did he arrive in Überlingen to join Claus and Berthold’s friend Rudolf Fahrner (December 39, 1903 – February 29, 1988); Gemma Wolters-Thiersch (1907 – 1994) and Marlene Hoffmann (October 7, 1913 – August 31, 2001) He spent 3 years there, writing poetry and history, before he felt able to face the world outside once more. In 1948, Alexander von Stauffenberg was appointed to the Chair of Ancient History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He translated Pindar and finished a major work on Sicily, Trmakria. In the 1950s, he was 1 of the 1st to agitate against the threat to the entire world of atomic power. He died of cancer in 1963. The impulses which made the Stauffenberg brothers mortal enemies of the National Socialists arose from their views on service and justice. In 1933, like so many of their contemporaries, they saw a promise of German renewal, the restoration of internal order and external honour. They did not grieve over the destruction of what had been a disorderly and latterly ineffective democracy. But, unlike not a few of their relatives and friends – Count Nikolaus Üxküll; Claus’s son Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born May 4, 1938); George-Kreis member Albrecht von Blumenthal (August 10, 1889 – March 28, 1945); Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg, Ulrich-Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld (December 21, 1902 – September 8, 1944) — none of the Stauffenberg brothers joined the NSDAP. This was remarkable: their “party” was the Secret Germany, their “Führer” was poet Stefan George (July 12, 1868 – December 4, 1933), their future was the “vision” to which their small band was summoned. But even as they were repelled by the law breaking, the outrages against Jews, the corruption and vulgarity of the new leaders, they approved of the policy of tearing up the hated and humiliating Treaty of Versailles, of the policy of “racial purity,” the strengthening of rural society. A friend commented that Claus Stauffenberg kept his distance from National Socialism, no more. In fact Claus’s “distance” went deeper; it meant also the rejection of political meddling in the nation’s sacred trust, the Heer. But the Stauffenberg brothers did not see, perhaps never saw, the inner link between Hitler’s “racial idea” and his policy of conquest. And although they learned the essential details of the abominable intrigues against Wehrmacht Minister Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (September 2, 1878 – March 13, 1946) and against the Commander in Chief of the Army, General Werner von Fritsch (August 4, 1880 – September 22, 1939), and although their education and professions must have given them a clear understanding of the hierarchy of responsibility, they tended at the time to blame not Hitler, but his henchmen. They condemned the wilful causing of war. But when after the German attack on Poland Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada declared war on Germany, they gave priority to defending their country: in Claus Stauffenberg’s sober judgement of 1939, this was a struggle for survival. The Stauffenberg brothers put the nation 1st and its reprehensible regime 2nd. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0678.jpg |
| Image Size | 241.16 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1271 x 1812 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 10, 1944 |
| Location | Potsdamer Platz |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Bundesarchiv |
| Record Number | 151-18-33A |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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