Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

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Stauffenberg in 1958

Count Alexander von Stauffenberg (German: Alexander Franz Clemens Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg; 15 March 1905 – 27 January 1964) was a German aristocrat and

20 July Plot
against Hitler in 1944.

Early life

The brothers were born into the old and distinguished aristocratic South German Catholic

August von Gneisenau. His name points to the imperial Hohenstaufen
mountain and castle.

Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg went to school in Stuttgart and studied

von Blumenthal to the circle of the mystic symbolist poet Stefan George, many of whose followers later worked for the German Resistance
to National Socialism.

Career

Alexander von Stauffenberg earned a Ph.D. in 1928 in Halle and

Reichsuniversität Straßburg in December 1942, but had to serve in the army again, first at the Eastern Front, where he was wounded again in late 1943. He used the time to finish a book about Stefan George, called Tod des Meisters. In July 1944, Alexander was in Athens
as a lieutenant at the artillery command of the 68th Army Corps.

20 July Hitler Assassination Plot

Alexander's background

Because of Alexander's tendency to be outspoken, and because his wife was of

DVL institute
in 1936, probably due to her criticism of the regime and her lack of full Aryan status. Although she had been reinstated and was very active developing and testing war planes, she might nevertheless have been under surveillance.

Post-plot

In 1944, after the

20 July Plot failed, Alexander von Stauffenberg did not take the opportunity to escape to Egypt but returned to Berlin to defend himself. He was arrested, as his wife and all others bearing the family name had been. After his arrest, Stauffenberg told the Gestapo that he: “took the view that the Jewish question should have been dealt with in a "less extreme manner" because then it would have produced less disturbance among the population” [2]

Alexander von Stauffenberg's brothers were executed. He and the rest of the adult family members were held in concentration camps. However, Alexander's wife, Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg, was released on 2 September 1944, because of her importance in the development of aircraft. She was now called "Gräfin Schenk", since Hitler wanted to erase the name Stauffenberg. She still maintained contact and support for the imprisoned members of the family. In the final weeks of the war, Melitta was looking for her husband in the concentration camps, and got a Gestapo authorisation to visit the commandant at Schönberg where he had been taken. During the visit, her aircraft was shot down by an American fighter; she died hours later of injuries from the attack and crash-landing.

In late April 1945, Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was

Fifth U.S. Army on 5 May 1945.[3]

Postwar

In 1948, Alexander Graf Stauffenberg became a professor of ancient history at the

University of Munich, where he remained until his death. In 1951, he became the founder and first president of the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, which became a part of the German Archaeological Institute. His field of research focused on late antiquity, ancient Sicily, and Magna Graecia
.

Personal life

On 11 August 1937 at

aviator and aeronautical engineer Melitta Schiller (3 January 1903 – 8 April 1945[4]) who served as a test pilot in the Luftwaffe before and during World War II
.

He remarried on 23 July 1949 to Marlene Hoffmann, born at Gross Roppershausen (now

Großropperhausen) on 10 July 1913.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.
  2. ^ Noakes, Jeremy Nazism, Volume 4, Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998 page 633
  3. ^ georg-elser-arbeitskreis.de (German) Archived 2008-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ISBN 0-313-29197-7
    .
  5. ISBN 9783110456882
    . Retrieved 24 September 2020.

Bibliography

External links
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