Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal
Encyclopedia
Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal (February 23, 1907 – October 13, 1944) was a German
aristocrat
and Army
officer
in World War II
who was executed
by the Nazi régime
for his role in the July 20 Plot
to assassinate Adolf Hitler
.
, to Graf Hans (XII) von Blumenthal
, and christened Hans-Jürgen Adam Ludwig Oscar Leopold Bernard Arthur. His father was a colonel, who was wounded in the First World War and served as military governor of the Belgian
district of Neufchâteau.
Educated at the Potsdam Gymnasium
until 1928, by which time (in 1926) his family, who had lost everything in the hyperinflation
and had moved to Neustrelitz
, Blumenthal attended the Realgymnasium there. He studied Law and Economics for two years at the Universities of Königsberg
and Munich. He was an active member of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
(Steel Helmet Association), a conservative and fundamentally monarchist organisation originally for First World War veteran
s, later extended to military men generally. He edited Stahlhelm’s journal until the Nazis took the Association over in 1935. He was an instructor in the "covert" army.
In 1930 he went on a three-month debating trip in the USA. At about this time he began to take an interest in the question of how to establish international peace and the possible unification of Europe
. He was at first an enthusiastic Nazi – he was Sturmbannführer
(equivalent to a Major) in the SA
. But he distanced himself from the Nazis more and more as he began to accept the view, common among the nobility, that war was contrary to Germany’s interests.
After finishing his studies, in 1935 he went back to Neustrelitz where he joined the 48th Infantry Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. In December 1936 he became a lieutenant.
In Summer 1938 he became a company commander and had a position for two months at the War School at Munich, and in that same year he wrote a contribution for the illustrated book for boys Wir Soldaten ("We Soldiers"). It is impossible to tell which piece was written by him. As he was writing his contribution to it, he was already conspiring against Hitler.
It was still well before the Sudeten Crisis and the invasion of Czechoslovakia
that he became involved in the German Resistance
. A group of officers led by General Beck
was opposed to war, and it was not difficult to foresee Hitler’s intentions. Beck and his followers, Hans Oster
and Erwin von Witzleben
, therefore planned a coup. The idea was for a storm-party of officers including Hans-Jürgen to march into the Reich Chancery, overcome the resistance of any SS guards they found there, and arrest the Führer
. However, the policy of appeasement
towards Hitler espoused by the British Prime Minister Chamberlain
led the conspirators to conclude that the planned coup no longer had any future.
In August 1939 be became a captain. He kept contact with the resistance, based in the Abwehr
under Admiral Canaris
. War broke out, and on September 9 he married Cornelia von Kries, née von Schnitzler, a 34-year-old divorcée. Her first husband, Otto von Kries, by whom she had a daughter, would die at Leningrad in 1941. Her mother was a Borsig, a family of industrialists whose locomotive works in Berlin were among the largest enterprises in the country. From September 1939 to May 1940 during the so-called Phoney War, he was based at Saarbrücken
in command of a machine-gun company.
When this blissful calm ended, he took part in the offensive in Alsace
, but in July the regiment was transferred to Tomaszew
in Poland
close to Warsaw
, nearer to the Soviet frontier, where in spite of his junior rank he took command of a battalion
. He was allowed home on leave during this period. When Operation Barbarossa
began, his wife was pregnant. Their only son, Hubertus, was born in May 1942.
Hans-Jürgen led his battalion to the gates of Kiev
, where he was badly wounded, his right arm rendered useless. He was in the army hospital in Leipzig
until December 1942. By this time he was once again actively collaborating with the German Resistance.
After his recovery he joined the Führer Reserve in Berlin and worked at the General War Office. There he got to know other opponents of the regime and won the confidence of Count Stauffenberg
, who was an intimate friend of Hans Jürgen’s cousin Albrecht von Blumenthal
. The latter had introduced Stauffenberg to the mystical poet Stefan George
, from whose circle many of the other conspirators were drawn. Furthermore, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
had held his illegal seminary in the late 1930s at Albrecht's estate at Schlönwitz.
In April 1943 he was promoted to Major.
He was the liaison officer between the Berlin Group and the Stettin High Command, Army District II, and was thus closely involved in the planning of the July 20 Plot
of 1944). In his book Geist der Freiheit (1956, page 135), Eberhard Zeller wrote:
Elsewhere Zeller mentions that he worked in the department of Colonel Siegfried Wagner
and was therefore in contact with Goerdeler.
He spent the weekend with his family at Kümmernitz in the West Prignitz, but on July 23, 1944 he was arrested by three members of the Gestapo
, who appeared in a car and took him away without him being able to say goodbye to his wife, who was thereafter unable to communicate with him. It all took place inside half an hour. What took place between then and his condemnation by the German "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof) and immediate execution by hanging
at Plötzensee Prison
on October 13, 1944 is almost unknown, apart from the slender details mentioned in his last letter to his wife, because the records of the People’s Court were destroyed.
However, Zeller goes on:
In Fabian von Schlabrendorff
’s book Offiziere gegen Hitler he is mentioned only in the death-roll.
In his last letter, Hans-Jürgen wrote:
Why he signed himself Peter is a mystery. It was possibly an agreed sign to his wife that the letter was either genuine or not genuine. It was, however, one of his son's Christian names. The children he refers to in his letter are his son, Hubertus Peter, then 3 years old, and his stepdaughter.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
and Army
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
who was executed
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
by the Nazi régime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
for his role in the July 20 Plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
to assassinate Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
Biography
Blumenthal was born in PotsdamPotsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, to Graf Hans (XII) von Blumenthal
Von Blumenthal
The von Blumenthal family are German nobility from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other, unrelated, families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families called "Blumenthal" without "von" are to be found worldwide.The family was already noble from earliest times ,...
, and christened Hans-Jürgen Adam Ludwig Oscar Leopold Bernard Arthur. His father was a colonel, who was wounded in the First World War and served as military governor of the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
district of Neufchâteau.
Educated at the Potsdam Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
until 1928, by which time (in 1926) his family, who had lost everything in the hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
and had moved to Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...
, Blumenthal attended the Realgymnasium there. He studied Law and Economics for two years at the Universities of Königsberg
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
and Munich. He was an active member of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten also known in short form as Der Stahlhelm was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic...
(Steel Helmet Association), a conservative and fundamentally monarchist organisation originally for First World War veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
s, later extended to military men generally. He edited Stahlhelm’s journal until the Nazis took the Association over in 1935. He was an instructor in the "covert" army.
In 1930 he went on a three-month debating trip in the USA. At about this time he began to take an interest in the question of how to establish international peace and the possible unification of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He was at first an enthusiastic Nazi – he was Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
(equivalent to a Major) in the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. But he distanced himself from the Nazis more and more as he began to accept the view, common among the nobility, that war was contrary to Germany’s interests.
After finishing his studies, in 1935 he went back to Neustrelitz where he joined the 48th Infantry Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. In December 1936 he became a lieutenant.
In Summer 1938 he became a company commander and had a position for two months at the War School at Munich, and in that same year he wrote a contribution for the illustrated book for boys Wir Soldaten ("We Soldiers"). It is impossible to tell which piece was written by him. As he was writing his contribution to it, he was already conspiring against Hitler.
It was still well before the Sudeten Crisis and the invasion of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
that he became involved in the German Resistance
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
. A group of officers led by General Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
was opposed to war, and it was not difficult to foresee Hitler’s intentions. Beck and his followers, Hans Oster
Hans Oster
Hans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
and Erwin von Witzleben
Erwin von Witzleben
Job-Wilhelm Georg Erdmann Erwin von Witzleben was a German army officer and in the Second World War an Army commander and a conspirator in the July 20 Plot.-Early years:...
, therefore planned a coup. The idea was for a storm-party of officers including Hans-Jürgen to march into the Reich Chancery, overcome the resistance of any SS guards they found there, and arrest the Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
. However, the policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
towards Hitler espoused by the British Prime Minister Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
led the conspirators to conclude that the planned coup no longer had any future.
In August 1939 be became a captain. He kept contact with the resistance, based in the Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
under Admiral Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
. War broke out, and on September 9 he married Cornelia von Kries, née von Schnitzler, a 34-year-old divorcée. Her first husband, Otto von Kries, by whom she had a daughter, would die at Leningrad in 1941. Her mother was a Borsig, a family of industrialists whose locomotive works in Berlin were among the largest enterprises in the country. From September 1939 to May 1940 during the so-called Phoney War, he was based at Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
in command of a machine-gun company.
When this blissful calm ended, he took part in the offensive in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, but in July the regiment was transferred to Tomaszew
Tomaszew
Tomaszew may refer to the following places:*Tomaszew, Koło County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Tomaszew, Konin County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Tomaszew, Masovian Voivodeship...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
close to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, nearer to the Soviet frontier, where in spite of his junior rank he took command of a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
. He was allowed home on leave during this period. When Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
began, his wife was pregnant. Their only son, Hubertus, was born in May 1942.
Hans-Jürgen led his battalion to the gates of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, where he was badly wounded, his right arm rendered useless. He was in the army hospital in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
until December 1942. By this time he was once again actively collaborating with the German Resistance.
After his recovery he joined the Führer Reserve in Berlin and worked at the General War Office. There he got to know other opponents of the regime and won the confidence of Count Stauffenberg
Stauffenberg
The Schenken von Stauffenberg are an aristocratic Roman Catholic family from Swabia in Germany, whose best-known member was Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – the key figure in the 1944 "20 July plot" to assassinate Adolf Hitler....
, who was an intimate friend of Hans Jürgen’s cousin Albrecht von Blumenthal
Von Blumenthal
The von Blumenthal family are German nobility from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other, unrelated, families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families called "Blumenthal" without "von" are to be found worldwide.The family was already noble from earliest times ,...
. The latter had introduced Stauffenberg to the mystical poet Stefan George
Stefan George
Stefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
, from whose circle many of the other conspirators were drawn. Furthermore, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
had held his illegal seminary in the late 1930s at Albrecht's estate at Schlönwitz.
In April 1943 he was promoted to Major.
He was the liaison officer between the Berlin Group and the Stettin High Command, Army District II, and was thus closely involved in the planning of the July 20 Plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
of 1944). In his book Geist der Freiheit (1956, page 135), Eberhard Zeller wrote:
It is known that in the weeks before July 20th, Major Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal was very frequently driven to Stauffenberg in the evening. His driver waited for him – he went in fatigues [Trainingsanzug] – to an appointed place close to the Barracks at Düppel, which was close to where his department (General WeidemannWeidemannWeidemann is a German family name and may be deduced from the Middle High German terms for hunter or woad farmer.The German word Weide also means willow, as well as pasture. The name could thus translate into willowman and hence suggests alternative meanings such a the occupational name for a...
) was supposed to have been off the Bendlerstrasse.
Elsewhere Zeller mentions that he worked in the department of Colonel Siegfried Wagner
Siegfried Wagner
Siegfried Wagner was a German composer and conductor, the son of Richard Wagner. He was an opera composer and the artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1908 to 1930.-Life:...
and was therefore in contact with Goerdeler.
He spent the weekend with his family at Kümmernitz in the West Prignitz, but on July 23, 1944 he was arrested by three members of the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, who appeared in a car and took him away without him being able to say goodbye to his wife, who was thereafter unable to communicate with him. It all took place inside half an hour. What took place between then and his condemnation by the German "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof) and immediate execution by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
at Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
on October 13, 1944 is almost unknown, apart from the slender details mentioned in his last letter to his wife, because the records of the People’s Court were destroyed.
However, Zeller goes on:
von Blumenthal came from the Potsdam Tradition, his father had been a tutor to the Hohenzollerns, but in the opinion of F. W. Heinz, the former editor of the Stahlhelm, he had from the beginning viewed the German nation’s pact with Hitler as a misfortune, an opinion which grew ever stronger and made him increasingly restless as the years passed. He was close to Dohnanyi and Oster, and a childhood friend of Albrecht Mertz von QuirnheimAlbrecht Mertz von QuirnheimAlbrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim was a German officer and a resistance fighter in Nazi Germany involved in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler.-Biography:...
. We know from eyewitnesses to his interrogation that he did not reveal the names of his accomplices.
In Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff , was a German jurist, soldier and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler....
’s book Offiziere gegen Hitler he is mentioned only in the death-roll.
In his last letter, Hans-Jürgen wrote:
My Most Tender Love!
When these lines reach your good, lovely hands, I will no longer be in this world. I have been sentenced to death and am smoking a final cigarette. Shortly I will pass into eternity, where we will once again find each other and never again be separated. I take with me a deep gratitude for everything that you have been to me and given to me in these past years... Yesterday I dreamt that Papa was standing in the doorway with his coat and hat and he said, "Come, my boy, it is time!"
Give my love to the children. It is also a difficult fate for them and they will only begin to understand it much later.
In my thoughts I take you once more in my arms. Soon that undying part of me will be with you and the children, until you all enter into eternity and you are once again united with
Your sincerest loving
Peter
Why he signed himself Peter is a mystery. It was possibly an agreed sign to his wife that the letter was either genuine or not genuine. It was, however, one of his son's Christian names. The children he refers to in his letter are his son, Hubertus Peter, then 3 years old, and his stepdaughter.