Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944)
Chief of Staff for the Reserve Army (1943-44)
Career officer. Born into the Bavarian Catholic nobility but of Prussian ancestry also.

In his youth belongs to Stephan George's circle. Remains a disciple of the great poet for the rest of his life and quotes George's The Anti-Christ when recruiting friends and trusted colleagues into the conspiracy.

1938: Staff officer to co -conspirator General Erich Hoepner.

Served in all of Hitler's major campaigns from the Sudetenland, to Poland, to France, to Russia, to North Africa.

1940: Posted to OKH Organizational Branch after the campaign against France.

Early 1943: Serves with the 10th Panzer Division in Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps.

April 7, 1943: Seriously wounded along the Kasserine Pass in the North African desert when Allied fighters straff his convoy and vehicle. Loses his left eye, right hand, and last two fingers of his left hand after surgery.

Fall 1943-Summer 1944: Becomes the last leader of the conspiracy and organizes all assassination attempts in that period.

June 1944: Promoted to Colonel and appointed Chief of Staff to Home Army Commander General Friedrich Fromm. Now has direct access to Hitler's briefing sessions.

July 11: Brings time-bomb concealed briefcase with him to Fuehrer briefing at Hitler's Berghof residence. Plans to assassinate Hitler that day, but circumstances beyond his control prevent him from doing so.

July 15: Flies to Fuehrer's Wolf's Lair headquarters with aide and co -conspirator Captain Klausing. Ordered by senior conspirators in Berlin to abort attempt after telephoning to report absence of Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler and Luftwaffe Air Marshal Hermann Goering from briefing session. Secretly agrees with close friend and Berlin co -conspirator Colonel von Mertz to perpetrate attempt anyway. Returns to briefing room to find session has ended after only five minutes.

July 20: Flies to Wolf's Lair with aide and co -conspirator Lt. Werner von Haeften. Succeeds in arming time-bomb and escaping from Wolf's Lair while explosion is triggered. Flies back to Berlin with Haeften and arrives at Army High Command Headquarters at 4:30PM to launch coup. But Hitler's survival, co -conspirator General Friedrich Olbricht's failure to set coup in motion during first two hours after attempt, and conspirators' failure to seize any radio stations or retain authority over reserve army troops in Berlin, causes coup attempt to collapse.

July 21, 12:30 A.M.: Stauffenberg executed by firing squad along with co -conspirators Olbricht, Mertz, and Haeften.

Had coup succeeded, Stauffenberg would have been appointed State Secretary in War Ministry of post-coup government.