1921 Beer Hall Putsch
We could argue that the very first attempt on Hitler’s life
was at the Beer Hall Putsch. This happened in November 1921 and he was arrested
and imprisoned. He was relatively unknown then. But when he made a speech, several opponents
drew pistols and fired.
1932 Ludwig Assner
Assner sent Hitler a poisoned letter but an acquaintance of
Assner’s tipped Hitler off. Earlier in the year there seems to have been an attempt
to poison Hitler and his crew. However,
Hitler didn’t even become ill as he stayed with his vegetarian diet.
1934 Beppo Römer
Römer vowed to assassinate Hitler but never got round to it.
1934 Helmut Mylius
Mylius was a right wing radical who conspired against Hitler
but the plans of the conspiracy were exposed.
1935 Marwitz group
Officials of the German Foreign Office thought Hitler should
be stopped and distributed letters saying that now was the time to act.
1936 Helmut Hersch
Hercsh planted two suitcases full of explosive in the Nazi
headquarter but they were discovered before they went off.
1937 unknown SS man
This man tried to kill Hitler at a rally.
1938 Hans Oster and Helmut Groscurth
Hoster and Groscurth with the help of a few others planned to
overthrow Hitler but gave up when the Munich Agreement was signed, avoiding the
immediate threat of war.
1938 Maurice Bavaud
Bavaud bought a gun and started stalking Hitler. He was actually
protected by people surrounding Hitler making the Nazi salute. Bavaud was
finally executes in 1941.
1938 Käthe Edler
Edler could have killed Hitler but it never occurred to her.
1939 Georg Elser
Elser created a bomb that indeed went off as planned. Eight people
were killed and several injured but Hitler escaped.
1939 Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski
He attempted to detonate explosives during Hitler’s victory parade
in Warsaw.
1939 Erich Kordt
Kordt hatched an assassination plot but had to abandon it.
1939-1943 Noel Mason-Macfarlane
Mason-Macfarlane thought of killing Hitler with a sniper but
never got round to it.
1943 Henning von Tresckow
This was another attempt at a bomb. Henning was a disillusioned
military officer. He handed a member of Hitler’s staff a parcel containing two
bottles of Cointreau. The bomb did not go off on as planned. Tresckow manage to
retrieve the parcel and found that the bomb had had a defective fuse.
1943 Rudolff von Gertsdorf
Gertsdorf was willing to become the bomb himself this time. Security
was however too tight and he manged to extract himself form the bomb before it
went off.
1943 Hubert Lanz, Hans Speidel, Hyazinth Graf
Strachwitz
The planned to arrest Hitler during a visit to the Ukraine.
1944 – Stauffenberg
Several German officers, disgruntled after the D-Day landings, decided to attempt another bomb and
then get the Reserve Army to dismantle the line of command.
However, someone moved the bomb and although it went off and
killed four men, it only left Hitler with non-life-threatening injuries.
1944 Eberhard von Breitenbuch
Breitenbuch planned to shoot Hitler in the head at a
conference. However, he was no allowed into the conference.
One source mentions forty-four attempts.
Why didn’t they succeed?
Were they badly planned?
Was Hitler’s security too efficient?
Were they plotter found out too soon?
And was Käthe Edler really the only woman who was even in
any position to do anything?
