Editing Claus von Stauffenberg (section)

==Early life==
Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria, where he and his brothers were members of the {{lang|de|Neupfadfinder}}, a [[Scouting in Germany|German Scout association]] and part of the [[German Youth movement]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Löttel |first=Holger |date=22 July 2007 |title=Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907–1944): Leben und Würdigung- Vortrag anläßlich der Gedenkveranstaltung zum 100.Geburtstag von Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, Ketrzyn/Rastenburg, 22.Juli 2007 |url=http://www.forschungsgemeinschaft-20-juli.de/downloads/vortraege/Loettel%20zu%20Stauffenberg.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719021423/http://www.forschungsgemeinschaft-20-juli.de/downloads/vortraege/Loettel%20zu%20Stauffenberg.pdf |archive-date=19 July 2011 |access-date=7 February 2008 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Kiesewetter |first=Renate |title=Im Porträt: Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg |url=http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/geschichte/stauffenberg/manuskript/stauffenberg_manuskript.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605055232/http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/geschichte/stauffenberg/manuskript/stauffenberg_manuskript.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2011 |access-date=7 February 2008 |language=de}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book |last=Bentzien |first=Hans |title=Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg-Der Täter und seine Zeit |publisher=Das Neue Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH |year=2004 |location=Berlin |pages=24–29 |language=de}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book |last=Zeller |first=Eberhard |title=Oberst Claus Graf Stauffenberg |publisher=Ferdinand Schöningh |year=2008 |location=Paderborn-Munich-Vienna-Zürich |pages=7–10 |language=de}}</ref> Though he and his brothers were carefully educated, and Stauffenberg was inclined towards literature, he eventually took up a military career, fitting with his family's traditional expectations. In 1926, he joined the family's traditional regiment, the Reiterregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in [[Bamberg]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wgj8EWapQYgC&pg=PA22 |title=Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler |date=2008 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=9781848325081 |page=22 |author-link=Nigel H. Jones}}</ref>

Around the beginning of his time in Bamberg, [[Albrecht von Blumenthal]] introduced the three brothers to the poet [[Stefan George]]'s influential circle, ''Georgekreis'', from which many notable members of the German resistance later emerged. George dedicated ''Das neue Reich'' ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the ''Geheimes Deutschland'' ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold.<ref>[http://www.iablis.de/iablis_t/2007/ammonrez07.html Herbert Ammon: Vom Geist Georges zur Tat Stauffenbergs – Manfred Riedels Rettung des Reiches, in: Iablis 2007] at http://www.iablis.de {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070726003754/http://www.iablis.de/|date=26 July 2007}}</ref>

By 1930, Stauffenberg had been commissioned as a  {{lang|de|leutnant}} ([[second lieutenant]]), studying modern weapons at the {{lang|de|[[Prussian Military Academy|Kriegsakademie]]}} in Berlin, but remaining focused on the use of horses – which continued to carry out a large part of transportation duties throughout [[World War II]]—in modern warfare. His regiment became part of the [[German 1st Light Division]] under General [[Erich Hoepner]], another later member of the covert [[German resistance to Nazism|German Resistance]], and the unit was among the Wehrmacht troops that moved into [[Sudetenland]] following its annexation to the Reich as per the Munich Agreement.<ref>Mitcham 2006, p. 76.</ref>

=== Early views on Nazism ===
Though Stauffenberg had supported the German colonization of Poland and had made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he refrained from joining the Nazi Party.<ref name="Martyn">{{Cite book |last=Housden |first=Martyn |title=Resistance and Conformity in the Third Reich |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=0-415-12134-5 |location=New York |page=100}} "He was endorsing both the tyrannical occupation of Poland and the use of its people as slave labourers"</ref><ref name="Hoffman">{{cite book |author=Peter Hoffman |title=Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |year=2003 |page=116}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Germans against Hitler. Who resisted the Third Reich and why did they do it? |url=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/germans.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712212402/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/germans.htm |archive-date=12 July 2015 |access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref> However, during the [[1932 German presidential election]], he voiced tentative support for Hitler:{{blockquote|The idea of the Führer principle [...] bound together with a [[Volksgemeinschaft]], the principle "The community good before the individual good," and the fight against corruption, the fight against the spirit of the large urban cities, the racial thought ({{lang|de|Rassengedanke}}), and the will towards a new German-formed legal order appears to us healthy and auspicious.<ref>Jürgen Schmädeke, Peter Steinbach, ''Der Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus. Die deutsche Gesellschaft und der Widerstand gegen Hitler''. Piper, München 1986, p. 550.</ref>}}

Stauffenberg's views of Hitler were conflicted during this period. He vacillated between a strong dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen, before becoming more disassociated with the party after [[The Night of the Long Knives]] and [[Kristallnacht]] which he saw as proof Hitler had no intentions to pursue justice.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jeffers |first=Bill |title=Claus von Stauffenberg: Hero or Traitor? |url=https://webpages.uncc.edu/~wtjeffer/claus_von_stauffenberg_web_narrative.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200624043905/https://webpages.uncc.edu/~wtjeffer/claus_von_stauffenberg_web_narrative.pdf |archive-date=24 June 2020 |access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref> As a practising Catholic, it was noted that the growing systematic ill-treatment of [[Jew]]s and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong sense of Catholic morality and justice.<ref name="Hoffman2">{{cite book |author=Peter Hoffman |title=Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |year=2003 |page=151}}</ref><ref name="gdw-berlin.de">"[http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe_mit-e.php?id=82 Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]," [[German Resistance Memorial Center]]. 2009. (Retrieved 28 December 2009.)</ref>

Even though Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within the [[Wehrmacht]], like many members of the [[Nazi Party]], he displayed a tentative opposition to parliamentary democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kohlmaier |first=Matthias |title="Stauffenberg wollte keine parlamentarische Demokratie" |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/hitler-attentat-am-20-juli-1944-stauffenberg-wollte-keine-parlamentarische-demokratie-1.1417403 |website=Süddeutsche.de|date=21 July 2012 }}</ref>