Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin

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This article is about the German resistance member. For his father, see Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin. For the field marshal, see Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist.
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin
Publisher
SpouseGundula von Kleist (1960–2013; his death)[1]
ParentEwald von Kleist-Schmenzin

Ewald-Heinrich Hermann Konrad Oskar Ulrich Wolf Alfred von Kleist-Schmenzin (10 July 1922 – 8 March 2013

assassinate
Hitler.

Early life

Von Kleist was born on the family's manor Gut Schmenzin at

Second World War
broke out. The young Ewald grew up in that milieu.

Like his father, who had criticised Nazi ideology in print as early as 1929, Ewald-Heinrich loathed Hitler and

National Socialism from the beginning. The Nazi murders of 30 June 1934, the "Night of the Long Knives
", further intensified young von Kleist's hatred of the Nazi régime.

World War II

In 1940, at 18, he joined the

Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst
in another suicide assassination attempt on Hitler.

Von Kleist, the company leader, and his men were scheduled to show Hitler new uniforms, which had been tested at the front. Von Kleist planned to set off explosives hidden in his briefcase. He believed that he might have been able to escape alive, even if the briefcase exploded in his hands. However, like earlier attempts, the plan was not carried out, as Hitler kept putting off the scheduled uniform demonstration.[3][4][5]

20 July 1944

Von Kleist, at 22, was the youngest of the many supporters and helpers at the

Volksgerichtshof, which would almost certainly have ended with a death sentence, as it did for many of his fellow plotters, including his own father. However, he was imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp
and then was sent to the front, where he remained until the war ended.

Postwar

After the war he was left homeless when most of Pomerania was transferred to Poland and all of its Germans were expelled. Von Kleist went into the publishing business in West Germany and founded his own publishing house, the Ewald-von-Kleist-Verlag, which became a leading German publishing house. He joined the Protestant Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) to which his executed father had belonged, and he was admitted as a Knight of Honour in 1957 and promoted to Knight of Justice in 1975.[6]

Von Kleist (left) with German Federal Minister of Defence Franz Josef Jung in 2009.

In 1962, Von Kleist founded the

Munich Conference on Security Policy. He was the convenor of the conference until he retired in 1998. The forum was an important event during the Cold War
and is now a forum for diplomats, politicians and defence personnel from around the world to debate international security issues.

In recognition of his services to strengthening transatlantic ties, Von Kleist was awarded the US Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1991. When he retired from his role at the Munich conference in 1998, eight NATO Defence ministers attended the event to salute him.

Von Kleist remained active in German public life after the war and expressed his views openly on a variety of subjects, including the

unilateral nuclear disarmament
.

Death

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist died at his home in Munich on 8 March 2013, at 90.

In media

  • Von Kleist-Schmenzin is an interviewee in the 1973 British documentary series The World at War.
  • In the 2004 German production, Stauffenberg, von Kleist-Schmenzin is portrayed by actor Sebastian Rüger.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Last survivor of plot to kill Hitler dies at 90". Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  2. ^ "Letzter verbliebene Teilnehmer des Hitler-Attentats vom 20. Juli gestorben". Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  3. ^ Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg (27 February 2011). "SPIEGEL-GESPRÄCH: "Angst halte ich für sehr vernünftig" – DER SPIEGEL 9/2011". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 13 July 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ISBN 0-7864-1045-0
    .
  5. ISBN 0-7864-2393-5
    .
  6. ^ Robert M. Clark, Jr., The Evangelical Knights of Saint John; Dallas, Texas: 2003; p. 46.

External links

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