Germany honours Hitler coup plotters
Four German army officers who tried but failed to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 were honoured posthumously today, 65 years after they were executed.
The July 20 plotters – as they became known by the date of their 1944 execution - were viewed as traitors immediately after the Second World War, but have since been celebrated annually for their attempt to use a briefcase bomb to kill Hitler.
Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg placed the bomb in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with his aides and military advisers, but Hitler escaped the blast because someone moved the briefcase next to a table leg, deflecting much of the explosive force.
Today German leaders commemorated the four plotters at a ceremony at the Berlin Ploetzensee Memorial Centre for the victims of the Nazis, and during the swearing-in of 400 army recruits at an annual ceremony in front of the Reichstag attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Germany holds the swearing-in ceremonies each year to highlight the resistance to Hitler from within the military and the inspiration for Germany’s post-war army – with missions mandated by parliament, and not by the head of state.
For years the swearing-in ceremonies were held at the Bendlerblock building, now the Defence Ministry, where the plotters were executed. They were moved last year to the Reichstag, the seat of Germany’s parliament.
