Dressed To Kill – Plotting To Kill Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair (Northern Poland & Berlin #41d)

It is not that hard to understand how Adolf Hitler came to believe he was a man of destiny. His sense of invulnerability was acute. This was the product of life experiences. More to the point, it was the product near misses. Hitler emerged unscathed from numerous attempts to end his life. He was the master of close calls, surviving despite the efforts of those adamantly opposed to his rule. While a cat may have nine lives, Hitler had five times that many. By one count there were 42 separate plots to kill Hitler, and these are just the ones historians have been able to document. Many more were likely stillborn before they started due to circumstances. This did not stop some Germans from continuing to plot. Hitler was a wanted man. The amazing thing is not that there were so many plots to kill Hitler, but that he managed to survive every one of them. Ironically, those who seemed to want Hitler dead the most were his fellow Germans. The overwhelming majority of the plots to kill him came from Germans. Though none of these succeeded, many came incredibly close.

Self-Preservation - The Spector of Total Defeat

The most famous attempt to assassinate Hitler occurred on July 20, 1944 (also known as 20 July Plot) at the Wolf’s Lair. Count Claus Von Stauffenberg planted a bomb only a few feet away from Hitler during a military briefing. The detonation killed four people. None of them was Hitler. This has become by far the most famous attempt on Hitler’s life. It has been enshrined in books and Hollywood movies. Some have seen it as the Germans finally looking to salvage their honor by attempting to rid themselves and the world of a man they had once deified. The truth is much messier. This was a case where some Germans were trying to save their country and themselves from the avenging armies of the Allies. Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt was an attempt to stave off total defeat. Germans from all strata of society were right to be worried about what would happen to them if they were left to the less than tender mercies of their enemies.

The July 20 assassination attempt looms large for anyone visiting the Wolf’s Lair. I can speak from experience. Right after arrival, I focused on finding the spot where Hitler was nearly assassinated. Like anything left in ruins, envisioning what happened that day takes a high degree of imagination. Fortunately, those who manage the site have also done a great deal to help visitors understand Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt. One building housed an entire exhibit that allowed visitors to get a sense of how the failed attempt unfolded. I learned more fascinating details from this exhibit. Then when I got back home and started reading more about attempts on Hitler’s life, I discovered that the July 20 attempt was not the first time someone plotted to assassinate him at the Wolf’s Lair.

Internal Wars - No Easy Way Out

The Wolf’s Lair was a massive complex that had an estimated 4,200 people working there. Keeping track of the comings and goings of everyone was an extremely difficult task. Even an organization as officious and militarized as the SS had trouble providing a secure environment for Hitler. The difficulties worsened as the war went on. When German forces began to falter on the Eastern Front many Germans realized that disaster loomed. One that had the potential to end in an apocalypse for the entire nation. The Nazis and Wehrmacht had shown no remorse towards the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. They could expect no quarter when the Red Army inevitably set foot on German soil. This was worrisome in the extreme. How to keep it from happening was many on German minds.

Those with even the loosest connection to Hitler knew he would never negotiate an end to the war. His hubris and megalomania did not allow for anything less than a complete victory. A negotiated peace was out of the question. Compromise was anathema to Hitler and the Nazis. It was all or nothing from their perspective. Furthermore, Nazi crimes were so vast that it is doubtful the Allies would have been advantageous to any peace proposals.

After the German Sixth Army was surrounded and destroyed at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the defeat sent shock waves through Germany. There was no way to spin Stalingrad as anything other than a catastrophe. The tide of war had turned against Nazi Germany. Those who had walked in lockstep with Hitler, including many in the Wehrmacht, began to search for a way out of the war. The one surefire solution to the problem was to kill Hitler. He was indispensable to the Nazis ruling over Germany. No other Nazi leader came close to having such a hold on the German people. Get rid of Hitler and a negotiated peace might be possible.

Dress Rehearsal – A Fashion Statement

Anyone who wanted to assassinate Hitler would likely have to do so at the Wolf’s Lair. Hitler first set foot on the property just two days after Operation Barbarossa commenced in June 1941. This was where he would spend most of his time for the next two and a half years. Whoever was going to attempt an assassination needed access to Hitler. Military personnel were the best bet. The military also had a love/hate relationship with Hitler. They had never really trusted him. He was an outsider with little experience in command, which certainly showed when war on the Eastern Front went bad for German forces.

Military men knew better than most what the consequences of continuing the war would be. Two assassination plots at the Wolf’s Lair prior to von Stauffenberg’s attempt both involved military men. These centered around uniform inspections. In November 1943 and again in February 1944, the would-be assassins were supposed to detonate a landmine while modeling uniforms for Hitler. Both inspections were cancelled. This put an effective end to both plots. Killing the Fuhrer at what amounted to a pseudo-fashion show would have been a sensationally sublime way of ending his tyrannical rule. These attempts turned out to be nothing more than a dress rehearsal for von Stauffenberg’s attempt.