Editing Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

{{Short description|German aristocrat and lawyer (1905–1944)}}
{{For|this person's namesake nephew and [[Claus von Stauffenberg]]'s son|Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
| image              = Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2008-0184, Berlin, Berthold Schenk Graf v. Stauffenberg.jpg
| caption            = Stauffenberg at the ''Volksgerichtshof''
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1905|3|15|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Stuttgart]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1944|8|10|1905|3|15|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Plötzensee Prison]], [[Berlin]], [[Nazi Germany]]
| death_cause        = [[Execution by hanging]]
| nationality        = 
| known_for          = [[20 July plot]] coordinator
| spouse             = Maria (Mika) Classen
| parents            = [[Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]]<br />Caroline Schenk Gräfin<br />([[Stauffenberg|von Stauffenberg]] family)
| relations          = [[Claus von Stauffenberg|Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]] [[Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg ]]
| signature          = 
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
}}

'''Berthold Alfred Maria Schenk Graf{{#tag:ref|Regarding personal names, ''[[Graf]]'' is a German title, translated as [[Count]], not a first or middle name. The feminine form is ''[[Gräfin]]''.|group="A"}} von Stauffenberg''' (15 March 1905 – 10 August 1944) was a German aristocrat and lawyer who was a key conspirator in the [[20 July plot|plot to assassinate]] [[Adolf Hitler]] on 20 July 1944, alongside his younger brother, Colonel [[Claus von Stauffenberg|Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]]. After the plot failed, Berthold was tried and executed by the Nazi regime.

==Early life==
Berthold was the oldest of three brothers (the second being Berthold's twin [[Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]]) born into an old and distinguished aristocratic South German Catholic family. His parents were the last ''Oberhofmarschall'' of the Kingdom of [[Württemberg]], Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and Caroline née von Üxküll-Gyllenband. Among his ancestors were several famous [[Prussia]]ns, including most notably [[August von Gneisenau]].

In his youth, he and his brothers were members of the ''Neupfadfinder'', a [[Scouting in Germany|German Scout association]] and part of the [[German Youth movement]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Löttel|first=Holger|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|date=2007-07-22|language=German|url=http://www.forschungsgemeinschaft-20-juli.de/downloads/vortraege/Loettel%20zu%20Stauffenberg.pdf|access-date=2008-02-07|archive-date=2011-07-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719021423/http://www.forschungsgemeinschaft-20-juli.de/downloads/vortraege/Loettel%20zu%20Stauffenberg.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Kiesewetter|first=Renate|title=Im Porträt: Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg|language=German|url=http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/geschichte/stauffenberg/manuskript/stauffenberg_manuskript.pdf|access-date=2008-02-07|archive-date=2011-06-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605055232/http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/geschichte/stauffenberg/manuskript/stauffenberg_manuskript.pdf|url-status=dead}}</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=German}}</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=German}}</ref>

After having studied law at [[Tübingen]], he became assistant professor of international law at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Foreign and International Law]] in 1927. He and his brother Claus were introduced by [[Albrecht von Blumenthal]] to the circle of the mystic [[Symbolism (movement)|symbolist]] poet [[Stefan George]], many of whose followers became members of the [[German resistance to Nazism|German Resistance]] to National Socialism. He worked at [[The Hague]] from 1930 to 1932 and in 1936 married Maria (Mika) Classen (1900–1977). They had two children: Alfred Claus Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1937–1987) and Elisabeth Caroline Margarete Maria Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (b. 13 June 1939). He lived with his family in Berlin-[[Wannsee]].

==Career and coup attempt==
In 1939, he joined the [[Kriegsmarine|German Navy]], working in the High Command as a staff judge and advisor for international law.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2008-0185, Berlin, Berthold Schenk Graf v. Stauffenberg.jpg|thumb|right| 250px |Stauffenberg at the ''Volksgerichtshof'']]

Berthold's apartment at Tristanstraße in Berlin, where his brother Claus also lived for some time, was a meeting place for the 20 July conspirators, including their cousin [[Peter Yorck von Wartenburg]]. As Claus had access to the inner circle around Hitler, he was assigned to plant a bomb at the ''Führer''{{'}}s briefing hut at the military high command in [[Rastenburg]], [[East Prussia]], on 20 July 1944. Claus then flew to [[Rangsdorf]] airfield south of [[Berlin]] where he met with Berthold. They went together to ''Bendlerstraße'', which the coup leaders intended to use as the centre of their operations in Berlin.

Hitler survived the bomb blast and the coup failed. Berthold and his brother were arrested at Bendlerstraße the same night. Claus was executed by firing squad shortly afterwards.

After his arrest, Stauffenberg was questioned by the ''Gestapo'' about his views about the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Stauffenberg told the Gestapo that “he and his brother had basically approved of the racial principle of National Socialism, but considered it to be 'exaggerated' and 'excessive'.”<ref name="Noakes, Jeremy page 633">Noakes, Jeremy ''Nazism'', Volume 4, University of Exeter Press, 1998 page 633</ref> Stauffenberg went on to state,
<blockquote>The racial idea has been grossly betrayed in this war in that the best German blood is being irrevocably sacrificed, while simultaneously Germany is populated by millions of foreign workers, who certainly cannot be described as of high racial quality.<ref name="Noakes, Jeremy page 633"/></blockquote>

Berthold was tried in the ''[[Volksgerichtshof]]'' ("People's Court") by [[Roland Freisler]] on 10 August and was one of eight conspirators executed by strangulation, hanged in [[Plötzensee]] [[Prison]], Berlin, later that day.  Before he was killed Berthold was strangled and then revived multiple times.<ref name= "Hoffmann p. 127">{{harvnb|Hoffmann|1994|p=127}}</ref> The entire execution and multiple resuscitations were filmed for Hitler to view at his leisure.<ref name= "Hoffmann p. 127"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://time.com/5629999/operation-valkyrie-july-plot/ | title=A Group of German Leaders Tried to Kill Hitler in 1944. Here's Why They Failed | date=19 July 2019 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="A"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last=Hoffmann|first=Peter| authorlink = Peter Hoffmann (historian)| title = The second world war, German society and internal resistance to Hitler, In "Contending with Hitler: Varieties of German Resistance in the Third Reich"|edition=1994|year=1994| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]| isbn= 978-0-521-46668-4 }} <small>- Total pages: 208 </small>

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stauffenberg, Berthold Schenk Graf Von}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Filmed executions]]
[[Category:Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law people]]
[[Category:Counts in Germany]]
[[Category:Kriegsmarine personnel]]
[[Category:Stauffenberg family|Berthold]]
[[Category:People from Bavaria executed by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:People from Bavaria executed at Plötzensee Prison]]
[[Category:People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison]]
[[Category:Roman Catholics in the German Resistance]]
[[Category:Executed members of the 20 July plot]]
[[Category:People from Günzburg (district)]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria]]
[[Category:German twins]]