Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal ( Potsdam , 23 of February of 1907 - Berlin , 13 of October of 1944 ) was a German official and noble Wehrmacht executed for participating in the plot of July 20 of 1944 against Adolf Hitler . 1
Biography
Blumenthal was born in Potsdam , son of Count Hans (XII) von Blumenthal, and baptized Hans-Jürgen Adam Ludwig Oscar Leopold Bernard Arthur .
His father was a colonel wounded in the First World War . In 1926 his family had lost everything due to hyperinflation due to move to Neustrelitz . He studied law in Königsberg and Munich . Active member of the Stahlhelm, organization of veterans of the First monarchical and conservative War. It edited its gazette until 1935, when the Nazis appropriated of her.
In 1930 he attended a seminar in the United States on the possibility of uniting Europe. He was in principle an enthusiastic adherent to the Nazis until he realized that the imminent war was contrary to the interests of the German nobility. He was a friend of Hans von Dohnanyi , Oster and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim .
In 1935 he joined the infantry and in 1936 he acquired the rank of lieutenant. In 1938 he was already conspiring against Hitler, a fact that happened during the Sudeten crisis and the first invasions. He joined Ludwig Beck , Hans Oster and Erwin von Witzleben and the resistance based on the Abwehr under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris . He married in 1939 with Cornelia von Schnitzler, widow of the industrial Otto von Kries, with which had its son Hubertus in 1942.
He took part in the offensive in Alsace and then in Operation Barbarossa . Hans-Jürgen was injured at the gates of Kiev and interned at the Leipzig hospital until the end of 1942, where he was again part of the resistance. He was sent to Berlin where he made contact with Count von Stauffenberg , an intimate friend of his cousin Albrecht von Blumenthal, who in turn had introduced the count to the poet Stefan George , and the group of Dietrich Bonhoeffer , who had conducted his illegal seminars in his Castle in Schlönwitz .
Ascended to major in 1943, he took active part in the plot. He was arrested on July 23, 1944, tried by the Volksgerichtshof and hanged in Plötzensee prison on October 13, 1944.
References
- Eberhard Zeller Geist der Freiheit (1956)
- Fabian von Schlabrendorff Offiziere Gegen Hitler
- Back to top↑ Biography at German Resistance Memorial Center