Thomas Jander | 19 July 2019<\/span><\/p>\n 20 July 1944 is a date of great significance in the history of resistance to the Nazi regime. Under the code name \u2018Operation Valkyrie\u2019, a number of high-ranking German military officers organized an attempt on Hitler\u2019s life, aiming to overthrow the Nazi regime. The task of setting off a bomb close to Hitler fell to Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. This assassination attempt failed, but it nonetheless served a signal to launch active resistance, writes Thomas Jander, <\/strong>head of the DHM Documents Collection<\/strong><\/a>, in the DHM Blog.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the aftermath of Germany\u2019s victory over France in 1940, there may have been a plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler while he inspected troops at a military parade in Paris. A lieutenant of the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg (1902\u20131944), later one of the officers involved in the July plot of 1944, wanted to shoot Hitler during the march past of troops. Today, we cannot know if this earlier plan even existed. However, in June 1940, Hitler was at the very height of his popularity: had the attempt been successful then, it would probably have strengthened the Nazi regime, rather than undermining it.<\/p>\n Four years later, support for the National Socialist government and for Hitler himself was much weaker. The Wehrmacht (German army) was retreating on all fronts, and the nonstop bombardment of German cities had transformed the population\u2019s initial euphoria into weary obedience. By the summer of 1944, it seemed there was a greater chance to overthrow Hitler, end the war, and stop the Holocaust and other genocides. This at least was the thinking of a small number of officers and civilians hostile to the regime, many of whom saw the assassination of the F\u00fchrer as the only way to achieve these goals. But unless it could oust the entire regime, a (successful) attack on Hitler would be quite useless. Plans for a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat had been present among senior military circles as early as 1938\u201339, in groups centring on Hans Oster (1887\u20131945) and Wilhelm Canaris (1887\u20131945) in military intelligence and counter-espionage, and Ludwig Beck (1880\u20131944) and Franz Halder (1884\u20131972) in the general staff of the Army. However, this \u2018first generation\u2019 of military opposition lacked the means to implement their plans.<\/p>\n In 1940, the situation changed with the appointment of Friedrich Olbricht (1888\u20131944), an opponent of the regime, as head of the General Army Office (AHA) of the Reserve Army Command (BdE) in Berlin. With Olbricht in charge, those opposed to the regime now had possible access to military forces stationed within Germany. In the brutal winter of 1941\u201342, the losses of the Wehrmacht mounted so quickly that plans for a rapid mobilization of reinforcements, codenamed \u2018Valkyrie\u2019, were worked out within the AHA. Beginning in 1942, Olbricht expanded this \u2018Valkyrie\u2019 planning: as well as replenishing the reserve army, the plans now also included its possible deployment against unrest on the home front, for example rebellions by prisoners of war. However, the documents would require substantial revision to turn them into a blueprint for a military coup. Moreover, any such coup would need senior figures willing to take the extreme risks this course of action involved.<\/p>\nThe turn to rebellion<\/h3>\n