Editing Claus von Stauffenberg (section)

===In the resistance, 1943–44===
For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg was sent to his home, Schloss [[Lautlingen]] (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. The Torfels near [[Meßstetten]] Bueloch had been visited many times.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zak.de/Nachrichten/ZAK-Wandersommer-Auftakt-auf-Stauffenbergs-Spuren-28171.html|title=ZAK-Wandersommer: Auftakt auf Stauffenbergs Spuren|website=zak.de}}</ref> Initially, he felt frustrated not to be in a position to stage a coup himself. But by the beginning of September 1943, after a somewhat slow recovery from his wounds, he was propositioned by the conspirators and was introduced to [[Henning von Tresckow]] as a staff officer to the headquarters of the {{lang|de|Ersatzheer}} ("Replacement Army" – charged with training soldiers to reinforce first line divisions at the front), located on the {{lang|de|[[Bendlerstrasse]]}} (later {{lang|de|Stauffenbergstrasse}}) in [[Berlin]].<ref name=bbc>{{cite web|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28330605|title = The German officer who tried to kill Hitler|publisher = BBC|date = 20 July 2014|access-date = 23 June 2018}}</ref>

There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was [[General]] [[Friedrich Olbricht]], a committed member of the resistance movement. The {{lang|de|Ersatzheer}} had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have [[Operation Valkyrie]] in place. This was a contingency measure to let it assume control of the {{lang|de|Reich}} in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. The ''Valkyrie'' plan had been agreed to by Hitler but was secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power in the event of his death. In 1943, Henning von Tresckow was deployed on the Eastern Front, giving Stauffenberg control of the resistance. (Tresckow never returned to Germany, as he committed suicide at [[Królowy Most]], Poland, in 1944, after learning of the plot's failure.)<ref>Fest 1997, pp. 289–290</ref>
 
A detailed military plan was developed not only to occupy Berlin, but also to take the different headquarters of the German army and of Hitler in [[East Prussia]] by military force after the suicide assassination attempt by [[Axel von dem Bussche]] in late November 1943. Stauffenberg had von dem Bussche transmit these written orders personally to Major Kuhn once he had arrived at ''[[Wolfsschanze]]'' (Wolf's Lair) near [[Kętrzyn|Rastenburg]], East Prussia. However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was cancelled, and the attempt could not be made.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-axel-von-dem-bussche-1474093.html|title = Obituary: Axel von dem Bussche|date = 20 February 1993|newspaper = The Independent|access-date = 23 June 2018}}</ref>

Kuhn became a [[prisoner of war]] of the Soviets after the 20 July plot. He led the Soviets to the hiding place of the documents in February 1945. In 1989, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] presented these documents to German chancellor Dr. [[Helmut Kohl]]. The conspirators' motivations have been a matter of discussion for years in Germany since the war. Many thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end the war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility.<ref>{{cite journal|author = Peter Hoffmann |title=Oberst i. G. Henning von Tresckow und die Staatsstreichpläne im Jahr 1943 |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=331–364 |date = 1 April 2007|doi = 10.1524/VfZg.2007.55.2.331|s2cid = 143574023|doi-access=free }}</ref>

On [[Normandy landings|D-Day]], 6 June 1944, the Allies had landed in France. Stauffenberg, like most other German professional military officers, had absolutely no doubt that the war was lost. Only an immediate armistice could avoid more unnecessary bloodshed and further damage to Germany, its people, and other European nations. However, in late 1943, he had written out demands with which he felt the Allies had to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace. These demands included Germany retaining its 1914 eastern borders, including the Polish territories of [[Wielkopolska]] and [[Poznań]].<ref>"Review of 'Claus Graf Stauffenberg. 15. November 1907–20. Juli 1944. Das Leben eines Offiziers. by Joachim Kramarz, Bonn 1967' by : F. L. Carsten ''International Affairs'', Vol. 43, No. 2 (April 1967). "It is more surprising that, as late as May 1944, Stauffenberg still demanded for Germany the frontiers of 1914 in the east, i.e., a new partition of Poland."</ref> 

Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as [[Austria]] and the Sudetenland within the Reich, giving autonomy to [[Alsace-Lorraine]] and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol as far as [[Bozen]] and [[Meran]]. Non-territorial demands included such points as refusal of any occupation of Germany by the Allies, as well as refusal to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of "nations to deal with its own criminals." These proposals were directed to only the Western Allies – Stauffenberg wanted Germany to retreat from only the western, southern, and northern positions, while demanding the right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east.<ref name="Martyn2">Martyn Housden,"Resistance and Conformity in the Third Reich";Routledge 1997;page 109–110</ref>