The Stauffenberg Plot: The 20 July 1944 Attempt to Kill Hitler (Operation Valkyrie)
The Stauffenberg Plot was the attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime from within the German military. It is also known as Operation Valkyrie, the 20 July plot, or simply the July Plot. It was led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who carried a bomb into Hitler's field headquarters — Hitler survived, and the coup in Berlin collapsed within hours.
I'm Jeremy, and this is one of those Berlin stories that only really lands when you're standing where it happened. The courtyard where it ended is still there, in Berlin-Tiergarten near the government quarter — quiet enough that most people pass close by without realizing what happened on the night of 20 July 1944. Let me tell you the whole story — and then where you can stand in it yourself.
What was the July Plot of 1944 also known as?
The July Plot of 1944 is best known as Operation Valkyrie (in German, Unternehmen Walküre). You'll also see it called the 20 July plot, the Stauffenberg plot, or "the plot to kill Hitler." Strictly speaking, "Valkyrie" was the codename of the military operation the conspirators hijacked to seize power — but over time the name came to stand for the whole conspiracy, helped along by the 2008 Tom Cruise film of the same name.
Who was Claus von Stauffenberg?
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a colonel in the German Army and the man who planted the bomb. He came from an old aristocratic family and was, at first, no opponent of the regime. What turned him against it was not a single moment but the course of the war — the brutality he witnessed, the regime's crimes, and a growing certainty that Hitler was driving Germany to catastrophe. Like many conservative army officers, he opposed Hitler for a mixture of military, moral, and political reasons rather than for a single cause. Historians still debate the exact balance of his motives.
Severely wounded in North Africa in 1943, he lost his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers of his left hand. Posted afterward to the General Army Office in Berlin, he found himself among senior officers who had quietly concluded the same thing he had: Hitler had to go.
What was Operation Valkyrie?
Here's the detail most people miss. "Valkyrie" was originally a legitimate emergency plan. It authorized the Reserve Army to take control of Germany if there was ever a breakdown of order at home — say, an uprising by the millions of forced laborers inside the Reich.
The conspirators rewrote it. Their version would be triggered the moment Hitler was dead, using the army's own contingency machinery to arrest the SS and Nazi leadership and install a new government. The plan's genius was that it could be set in motion with official-looking orders. Its fatal flaw was that it depended entirely on one thing: Hitler actually being dead.
What happened on 20 July 1944?
On the morning of 20 July, Stauffenberg flew to the Wolf's Lair (Wolfsschanze), Hitler's Eastern Front headquarters in East Prussia — today in Poland, not in Berlin. He carried a time bomb in his briefcase, arming it with the three fingers he had left.
He placed the briefcase under the heavy oak map table, close to Hitler, and stepped out on a pretext. Two things then saved Hitler's life. The meeting had been moved from a sealed concrete bunker to a wooden barrack with the windows open, which let the blast dissipate. And someone — by most accounts an officer reaching across the table — nudged the briefcase to the far side of a thick table support, putting solid oak between the bomb and Hitler.
The bomb detonated. Four men in the room were killed. Hitler walked out, shaken and burned but alive.
Stauffenberg, watching from a distance, was certain no one could have survived. He flew back to Berlin and to the Bendlerblock, the army headquarters, to launch the coup.
Why did the plot fail?
It failed because Hitler lived — and because the conspirators hesitated at the decisive hours. Valkyrie was triggered late, and as the afternoon wore on, confirmation arrived that Hitler had survived. That single fact dissolved the conspirators' authority. Officers who had been wavering swung back to the regime. By night, loyalist soldiers had retaken the Bendlerblock.
What happened to Stauffenberg and the conspirators?
That same night, Stauffenberg and three fellow officers were marched into the courtyard of the Bendlerblock and shot by firing squad. According to several eyewitnesses, as the firing squad prepared to shoot, Stauffenberg cried, "Long live our sacred Germany!" ("Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!") although historians continue to debate the exact wording. General Ludwig Beck, the conspiracy's intended head of state, was forced to take his own life.
The reprisals that followed were savage and far-reaching. In the months after, the Gestapo arrested around 7,000 people, and nearly 5,000 were executed in connection with the plot — many after humiliating show trials before Roland Freisler's People's Court, and many hanged at Plötzensee Prison here in Berlin. The regime's revenge reached well beyond the men who had actually planned anything.
Why does the Stauffenberg Plot still matter?
The plot failed in every practical sense — Hitler lived, the war ground on for ten more months, and most of the plotters died for it. But it stands as the most serious attempt by Germans, from inside Hitler's own military, to end the dictatorship by force. In a country where resistance was rare and lethal, these men gambled everything. That's why postwar Germany chose to honor them not as traitors but as some of the few who acted.
Can you visit the Stauffenberg sites in Berlin today?
Yes. The Bendlerblock — the building where the coup was run and where Stauffenberg was executed — is now the German Resistance Memorial Center (Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand), on a street since renamed Stauffenbergstraße in the Tiergarten district. The courtyard holds a memorial on the spot of the executions, and the museum tells the wider story of resistance to National Socialism.
The memorial museum is one of Berlin's finest and most overlooked museums, telling the wider story of military, religious, political, and civilian resistance to National Socialism. It's free to enter. A short distance away, the Plötzensee Memorial marks where many later conspirators were killed. If you want the practical side — opening hours, how to get there, and whether you can see both in one day — I've put it all in a companion guide to the July Plot and German resistance sites in Berlin.
I cover the Bendlerblock, Plötzensee, and the wider story of German resistance on my private Third Reich and WWII tours of Berlin — where the point isn't to recite dates but to stand where it happened and understand why people inside Hitler's own army chose to risk everything against him.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the July Plot of 1944 also known as?
It is best known as Operation Valkyrie (Unternehmen Walküre), and also called the 20 July plot, the Stauffenberg plot, or the plot to kill Hitler.
Did Stauffenberg survive the plot?
No. Claus von Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock in Berlin on the night of 20 July 1944, only hours after the failed assassination attempt.
Where did the Stauffenberg assassination attempt take place?
The bombing took place at the Wolf's Lair (Wolfsschanze), Hitler's military headquarters in East Prussia — today in Poland. The attempted coup and the executions that followed happened in Berlin, at the Bendlerblock.
Why did Operation Valkyrie fail?
It failed because Hitler survived the bomb blast. The plan depended on his death; once it was confirmed he was alive, the conspirators lost their authority and loyalist forces crushed the coup within hours.
Can you visit the Stauffenberg execution site in Berlin?
Yes. The Bendlerblock courtyard is now part of the German Resistance Memorial Center on Stauffenbergstraße in Berlin. Entry is free, and the site includes a memorial on the spot where Stauffenberg was shot.
Was the movie Valkyrie based on a true story?
Yes. The 2008 film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, dramatizes the real 20 July 1944 plot, and parts of it were filmed at the actual Bendlerblock site in Berlin.
Related Berlin guides
July Plot & German resistance sites in Berlin
Visiting Sachsenhausen from Berlin
Visiting the Reichstag dome — free entry, registration & hours
