How the Stauffenberg Plot Became an Alibi for German Crimes

“Long live sacred Germany!” Addressing the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) congress last month, parliamentarian Dirk Spaniel might have sounded like a typical nationalist sloganeer. But while this event was surrounded by protests, just weeks after the far-right party came second in the European elections, Spaniel’s words were no invention of the AfD. His remark repeated what are widely claimed to be the last words of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, hauled before a firing squad after his assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.

Spaniel’s nod to Stauffenberg shows how contested these events remain in German politics. The AfD has, indeed, repeatedly used Stauffenberg and the July 20 plot to justify its own political positions. On the 2018 anniversary of the assassination attempt, during the election campaign in the state of Hesse, it organized a conference on the topic of “Resistance Today? From Count Stauffenberg to Constitution Article 20 IV.” The constitutional article here cited acknowledges “the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order if no other remedy is available.” The meeting was attended by Beatrix von Storch, one of the deputy leaders of the AfD group in parliament.

The far-right party has surely been responsible for a particularly egregious politicization of the July 20 conspiracy against Hitler, retailored to its rebellion against the current establishment parties. From a historical perspective, though, it represents only the latest attempt at using Stauffenberg and his coconspirators for contemporary purposes, even as we reach the eightieth anniversary of the attack.

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