List of members of the 20 July plot

Last updated November 17, 2024

On 20 July 1944, Adolf Hitler and his top military associates entered the briefing hut of the Wolf's Lair military headquarters, a series of concrete bunkers and shelters located deep in the forest of East Prussia, not far from the location of the World War I Battle of Tannenberg. Soon after, an explosion killed three officers and a stenographer, injuring everyone else in the room. This assassination attempt was the work of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an aristocrat who had been severely wounded while serving in the North African theater of war, losing his right hand, left eye, and two fingers of his left hand.^[1]

Immediately after the arrest and execution of the plot leaders in Berlin by Friedrich Fromm, the Gestapo (the secret police force of Nazi Germany) began arresting people involved or suspected of being involved. This opportunity was also used to eliminate other, unrelated critics of the Nazi regime.^[2] In total, an estimated 7,000 people were arrested of which approximately 4,980 were executed, some slowly strangled with piano wire on Hitler's insistence. A month after the failed attempt on Hitler's life, the Gestapo initiated Aktion Gitter.^[3]

Some of those involved include:

Name	Position	Fate	Year of death
Otto Armster	Colonel	Survived	1957
Ludwig Beck	General and Chief of the General Staff of the German Army High Command	Executed (Shot)	1944
Robert Bernardis	Lieutenant Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff	Diplomat	Executed (Firing squad)	1945
Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen	Member of the Reichstag	Survived	1949
Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hasso von Boehmer	Lieutenant Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Georg von Boeselager	Colonel	Killed in action	1944
Philipp von Boeselager	Lieutenant Colonel	Survived	2008
Eugen Bolz	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Guillotine)	1945
Dietrich Bonhoeffer	Theologian	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Klaus Bonhoeffer	Lawyer	Executed (Shot)	1945
Eduard Brücklmeier	Diplomat	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Axel von dem Bussche	Major	Survived	1993
Wilhelm Canaris	Admiral and Head of the Abwehr	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Walter Cramer	Businessman	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Gustav Dahrendorf	Member of the Reichstag	Survived	1954
Alfred Delp	Priest	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Heinrich zu Dohna-Schlobitten	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hans von Dohnanyi	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Fritz Elsas [ de ]	Deputy Mayor of Berlin	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Joseph Ersing [ de ]	Member of the Reichstag	Survived	1956
Alexander von Falkenhausen	General	Survived	1966
Erich Fellgiebel	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Eberhard Finckh	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Reinhold Frank	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Joseph-Ernst Graf Fugger von Glött	Member of the Reichstag	Survived	1981
Ludwig Gehre	Captain	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Otto Gerig [ de ]	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Concentration camp)	1944
Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff	General	Survived	1980
Eugen Gerstenmaier	Theologian	Survived	1986
Otto Gessler	Minister of Defence	Survived	1955
Hans Bernd Gisevius	Diplomat	Survived	1974
Eric Gloeden	Architect	Executed (Guillotine)	1944
Elizabeth Gloeden	Teacher	Executed (Guillotine)	1944
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler	Mayor of Leipzig	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Fritz Goerdeler	Mayor of Kwidzyn	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Gereon Goldmann	Priest	Survived	2003
Nikolaus Gross	Journalist	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg	Colonel and journalist	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Hans Bernd von Haeften	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Werner von Haeften	Lieutenant	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Albrecht von Hagen	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Nikolaus von Halem	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Eduard Hamm	Minister of the Economy	Suicide	1944
Georg Hansen	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Carl-Hans von Hardenberg	Major	Survived	1958
Ernst von Harnack	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Paul von Hase	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Ulrich von Hassell	Ambassador of Germany to Italy	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Theodor Haubach	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Albrecht Haushofer	Diplomat	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Egbert Hayessen	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff	Member of the Reichstag and Chief of the Berlin Police	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Otto Herfurth	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Andreas Hermes	Minister of Finance	Survived	1964
Erich Hoepner	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Caesar von Hofacker	Lieutenant Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Roland von Hößlin	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Friedrich Gustav Jaeger	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hans John	Lawyer	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Otto John	Lawyer	Survived	1997
Jakob Kaiser	Lawyer	Survived	1961
Otto Kiep	Diplomat	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hans Georg Klamroth	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Friedrich Klausing	Captain	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin	Diplomat	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin	Lieutenant	Survived	2013
Günther von Kluge	Field Marshal	Suicide	1944
Hans Koch	Lawyer	Extrajudicially shot	1945
Alfred Kranzfelder	Lieutenant Commander	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Carl Langbehn	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Julius Leber	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort	Landowner	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Paul Lejeune-Jung	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Ludwig Freiherr von Leonrod	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Bernhard Letterhaus	Trade Unionist	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Franz Leuninger	Trade Unionist	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Wilhelm Leuschner	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Fritz Lindemann	General	died of injuries in custody	1944
Hans Otfried von Linstow	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Paul Löbe	Member of the Reichstag	Survived	1967
Ewald Löser	Lawyer	Survived	1970
Ferdinand von Lüninck	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hermann Maaß	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Rudolf von Marogna-Redwitz	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Michael von Matuschka	Member of the Landtag of Prussia	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Joachim Meichßner	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim	Colonel	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Joseph Müller	Priest	Executed (Guillotine)	1944
Arthur Nebe	General and Chief of Kriminalpolizei	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen	Major	Suicide	1944
Friedrich Olbricht	General	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Hans Oster	General	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Margarethe von Oven	Secretary	Survived	1991
Rolf Friedemann Pauls	major/ambassador	Survived	2002
Erwin Planck	Diplomat	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Kurt von Plettenberg	Landowner	Suicide	1945
Johannes Popitz	Minister of Finance of Prussia	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Erwin Rommel	Field Marshal	Suicide (Forced)	1944
Friedrich von Rabenau	General	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Adolf Reichwein	Economist	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Alexis von Roenne	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Karl Sack	General	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Joachim Sadrozinski	Lieutenant Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Anton Saefkow	Lawyer	Executed (Guillotine)	1944
Fabian von Schlabrendorff	General	Survived	1980
Rüdiger Schleicher	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Ernst Schneppenhorst	Ministers of War of Bavaria	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Werner Schrader	Lieutenant Colonel	Suicide	1944
Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg	Ambassador of Germany to the Soviet Union	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg	Oberpräsident of the Province of Silesia	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Ludwig Schwamb	Member of the Reichstag	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Günther Smend	Lieutenant Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Hans Speidel	General	Survived	1984
Franz Sperr	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg	Judge	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Claus von Stauffenberg	Leader of the plot and Colonel	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Hellmuth Stieff	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Theodor Strünck	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Carl Szokoll	Major	Survived	2004
Fritz Thiele	General	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Busso Thoma	Major	Executed (Hanging)	1945
Georg Thomas	General	Survived	1946
Karl Freiherr von Thüngen	General	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Henning von Tresckow	General	Suicide	1944
Adam von Trott zu Solz	Diplomat	Executed (Firing squad)	1944
Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband	Colonel	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Eduard Wagner	General	Suicide	1944
Hermann Josef Wehrle	Priest	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Carl Wentzel	Landowner	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Joachim von Willisen	Diplomat	Survived	1983
Josef Wirmer	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Erwin von Witzleben	Field Marshal	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Peter Yorck von Wartenburg	Lawyer	Executed (Hanging)	1944
Gustav Heistermann von Ziehlberg	General	Executed (Firing squad)	1945

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References

1 2 How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked 2015.
↑ The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler 2015.
↑ Shirer 1960, p. 1393.

Sources

Printed

Shirer, William (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-62420-0.
Hoffmann, Peter (1996). History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 9780773566408.

Online

How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked. World Media Rights. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler. British Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 14 April 2015.

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[FOOTNOTE''How_Hitler's_Bodyguard_Worked''2015-1] 1 2 How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked 2015.

[FOOTNOTE''The_Fatal_Attraction_of_Adolf_Hitler''2015-2] The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler 2015.

[FOOTNOTEShirer19601393-3] Shirer 1960, p. 1393.

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