Skinny — Between the wars he authored the seminal work on military tactics.
Props — In a rage of Prussian honor, he resigned in 1938 to protest Hitler’s aggressive maneuvering against Czechoslovakia. It was a parade of one.
Pros — Ringleader of the anti-Hitler cadre.
Cons — Looked like the mean old man down the street who always scared children.
Colonel Klaus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg — He descended from a long line of military leaders, meaning his ancestors invaded virtually every country in Europe, while also holding the title of Schenk (meaning “Cup-bearer,” and yes, this was an important title). The young colonel, who was the chief of staff of the Replacement Army, despised Hitler and was the one who actually set off the bomb on July 20.
Skinny — Tall and noble, he was one of the most famous soldiers in Germany.
Props — Heavily decorated war hero, Stauffenberg lost an eye, an arm, and two fingers in battle in North Africa under Rommel.
Pros — Motivated to kill Hitler on moral grounds.
Cons — Don’t bet on three-fingered assassins.
General Friedrich Fromm — The rotund general held the sleepy post of commander of the Replacement Army, which put him in control of the troops in and around Berlin that would take over the city once Hitler was killed.
Skinny — Supported the coup, then didn’t, ate more schnitzel, flip-flopped again, then couldn’t decide. Backbone was not his middle name.
Props — The corpulent commander believed he was a big deal because he was defending Germany from unsightly, undernourished foreign workers.
Pros — At least he carried a weapon to the office.
Cons — Cowardly executed the conspirators to save his own skin.
THE GENERAL SITUATION
Hitler and his generals had a tense relationship. On one hand, the army did his bidding and conquered most of Europe, expanding Hitler’s murderous empire. On the other, the army hated Hitler and tried to thwart his ambition at virtually every stage. Many of the generals saw Hitler as an upstart corporal, his rank during World War I. In turn, Hitler distrusted the army and was so afraid of an assassination attempt by them that he virtually refused to meet with any of its leaders.
To further cement dominance over the military establishment, Hitler built his own separate command structure, the OKW, with himself as the leader, which he erected over the army’s command, the OKH. Hitler now directly controlled the military.
Hitler and his generals lived like a warring couple forced to share the same house. Since at least the time of Frederick the Great, the army had been the backbone of the modern German state. It’s leaders came almost exclusively from nobility, Junker families with large estates where son followed father into the army.
After their humiliating defeat in World War I, the army, besides having to watch the French preen as victors, was reduced to the size of a police force. The old Prussians were determined to keep the army alive, and many supported Hitler’s mesmerizing vision of using the army to rebuild Germany to its former glory. Survival of the army was paramount. The army was the state, and whatever it took to ensure its survival, including striking a deal with the odious Nazi ideology, was acceptable. In 1934 Hitler required every member of the armed forces to declare undying loyalty to him personally by swearing to the Fahneneid, the blood oath of the Teutonic knights. The deal was struck. The army could not resist sacrificing their honor for the chance to ride Hitler’s coattails to world domination. Stymied by their oath, they were incapable of resisting Hitler’s Nazification of the army.
A few key generals, however, spoke out bravely against Hitler. The leaders of this group were General Baron Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, the commander in chief of the army and his chief of staff, Gen. Ludwig Beck. Hitler knew of their opposition and quickly moved to isolate them. But Hitler, being Hitler, overreached and succeeded. The moment took place in early 1938 when Hitler accused Fritsch of homosexuality. Fritsch resigned in a pique of honor, hewing to the old rules of his caste. Unfortunately for history, the other army leaders failed to take up arms in Fritsch’s defense at this critical time. Hitler gambled that if the army remained silent when he humiliated their leader, they would never have the balls to oppose him in anything else.
A few officers, however, joined forces in a secret society designed to overthrow Hitler, the Schwarze Kapelle — the “Black Orchestra.” Over the next few years, the Schwarze Kapelle was led by General Beck, who plotted from his armchair while suffering from cancer in his suburban Berlin home. Rear Admiral Wilhelm Franz Canaris, the crafty head of the army’s intelligence wing, the Abwehr, was his co-plotter. Twice the conspirators came mighty close to achieving their coup against Hitler. First, in 1938, as Germany made plans to attack Czechoslovakia, the plotters stationed troops to pounce on the SS and Gestapo, and seize power from Hitler. All they waited for was some sign that Great Britain would oppose Hitler’s takeover. As negotiations strung out, the plotters’ hopes rose and fell. At one point they were sure the British would reject any agreement and fight for the Czechs. Then British prime minister Neville Chamberlain caved in to Hitler’s demands at Munich and agreed to carve up Czechoslovakia, dashing their hopes as well as teeing up World War II very nicely for Adolf. The plans were burned.
In March 1943 the plotmates struck again. Two bombs, disguised as liquor, were placed on Hitler’s private airplane by giving them to one of Hitler’s unwitting aides, Col. Heinz Brandt. The fuses were set, and the plotters waited in Berlin for word of the führer’s death. But the bomb failed to detonate: the explosives had frozen at the plane’s high altitude. One of the plotters was then forced to retrieve the frozen bomb from Brandt’s office the next day where Brandt joshingly tossed the package in the air at the plotmate who nervously hustled it away. Hitler’s amazing luck had held again. The plotmates were stymied yet again and retreated to wait for their next chance.
But the Schwarze Kapelle did not give up. Plot after plot was either canceled or failed through some last-second change in plans by Hitler. In 1943 the group welcomed Col. Claus von Stauffenberg as a new leader. Despite his valiant efforts to kill Allied soldiers, he held deep personal opposition to the Nazis. He was disgusted at Nazi war crimes, which offended his dainty sense of Prussian honor and the deeply held belief that his country (and the world) should be ruled by Prussians like himself, not some poorly mustachioed watercolorist and ex-corporal from Austria.
WHAT HAPPENED: OPERATION “ARMY OF NONE”
Throughout the fall of 1943 and spring of 1944 the plotters met in their regular how-do-we-blow-up-Hitler-and-get-away-with-it meetings but failed to come up with any new juicy ideas. In the late spring of 1944, in a stroke of luck, Stauffenberg was given a job that provided him with rare direct access to Hitler.
The plotters had two problems, however. Like a rich man without any pocket change, it was oddly difficult for German army leaders to obtain explosives during the biggest war in history. But they quickly overcame this by fashioning the bomb from captured British explosives. The second issue was a lack of cheerful volunteers, other than Stauffenberg. No one else had the courage and the access to plant the actual bomb. That meant Stauffenberg would be absent from the plot’s center in Berlin during the crucial coup-making hours. Leadership would fall to his colleagues, who lacked the passion and determination to complete the mission that Stauffenberg held. But with no other viable options, the plot was set in motion.