Count von stauffenberg biography

After the attempt on Hitler’s life, Himmler announced the introduction of the “absolute detention of kinship”. The Stauffenberg family was to be “extinguished down to the last member”. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was one of the key figures in the conspiracy: on 20 July 1944, he placed the explosive charge intended to kill Hitler. The coup failed, and the regime struck back mercilessly. Co-conspirators were jailed, tortured, condemned in show trials and executed. The Nazi leadership took action against entire families, especially the Stauffenbergs. Their property was confiscated, family members interned, the children put in a home. From February 1945 onward, they were transferred to an isolation barrack in Buchenwald along with other kinship inmates. In early April 1945, the SS ordered the evacuation. It was not until 4 May 1945 that they were liberated by U.S. troops in South Tyrol.

German historian (1905–1964)

Count Alexander von Stauffenberg (German: Alexander Franz Clemens Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg; 15 March 1905 – 27 January 1964) was a German aristocrat and historian.^[1] His twin brother Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and younger brother Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg were among the leaders of the 20 July Plot against Hitler in 1944.

Early life

The brothers were born into the old and distinguished aristocratic South German Catholic Stauffenberg family. Their parents were the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and Caroline née Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband. Among Alexander's ancestors were several famous Prussians, including August von Gneisenau. His name points to the imperial Hohenstaufen mountain and castle.

Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg went to school in Stuttgart and studied ancient history at the University of Heidelberg, University of Jena, University of Munich and University of Halle. He and his brothers were introduced by Albrecht von Blumenthal to the circle of the mystic symbolist poet Stefan George, many of whose followers later worked for the German Resistance to National Socialism.

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