Germany remembers Hitler plotters

A defence ministry building in Berlin is the site of a memorial to the plotters

Germany has marked the 65th anniversary of the failed attempt by a group of officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and drive the Nazis from power.

The 20 July Plot saw Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg plant a bomb under a table inside the "Wolf's Lair", Hitler's command post in East Prussia.

But through a series of lucky circumstances Hitler was only slightly hurt, and the conspiracy was exposed.

The assassination attempt is one of the proudest traditions of the German army.

During a ceremony in Berlin on Monday, hundreds of young recruits to the force took their ceremonial oath to a democratic Germany.

Memorial

For many Germans, Von Stauffenberg is a hero - one of the few officers who chose to follow his conscience rather than orders, says the BBC's Oliver Berlau.

Click to see where the bomb was planted and who was hurt

The plot in which he participated was the closest Hitler's opponents within the German armed forces ever got to killing him.

The attempted coup, which would have seen the establishment of a conservative military regime in Germany which was willing to negotiate an honourable peace, was led by senior military leaders like Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben and Gen Ludwig Beck.

Col Von Stauffenberg was convinced Hitler had to be removed from power

As had been planned, Von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase containing explosives under the table next to Hitler inside the Wolf's Lair. After he left the building, he heard the bomb explode and assumed the German dictator was dead.

But an officer had moved the briefcase behind a sturdy leg of the table, and Hitler suffered only minor burns and concussion.

Unaware, Von Stauffenberg flew to Berlin to join Von Witzleben and Beck and to take over using the German Home Army. However, they had hesitated and failed to take over the communications network.

Once it became known that Hitler was still alive, the plot crumbled.

Von Stauffenberg and several of his co-conspirators were shot the same night in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, a building in Berlin which is still part of the defence ministry and the site of a memorial.

Dozens of others were later humiliated in a show trial and executed, hanged with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their deaths were filmed and shown to senior members of the Nazi Party and the armed forces.

THE 20 JULY PLOT

Stauffenberg placed a briefcase bomb under the oak table and left

One of the table's two heavy supports shielded Hitler from the blast

Large windows and wooden walls allowed pressure to escape

All present would have died if they had met in a bunker as usual

1. Adolf Hitler 2. Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel 3. Gen Alfred von Jodl 4. Gen Walter Warlimont 5. Franz von Sonnleithner 6. Maj Herbert Buchs 7. Stenographer Heinz Buchholz 8. Lt Gen Hermann Fegelein 9.Col Nikolaus von Below 10. Rear Adm Hans-Erich Voss 11. Otto Gunsche, Hitler's adjutant 12. Gen Walter Scherff (injured) 13. Gen Ernst John von Freyend 14. Capt Heinz Assman (injured)

15. Stenographer Heinrich Berger (killed) 16. Rear Adm Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer (injured) 17. Gen Walther Buhle 18. Lt Col Heinrich Borgmann (injured) 19. Gen Rudolf Schmundt (killed) 20. Lt Col Heinz Waizenegger 21. Gen Karl Bodenschatz (injured) 22. Col Heinz Brandt (killed) 23. Gen Gunther Korten (killed) 24. Col Claus von Stauffenberg 25. Gen Adolf Heusinger (injured)

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