Countess Nina von Stauffenberg (German: ''Elisabeth Magdalena Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg''; 27 August 1913 – 2 April 2006) was the wife of Colonel

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944. Following the plot's failure, she was arrested and imprisoned, during which time she delivered her youngest child.

Biography

Born Elisabeth Magdalena von Lerchenfeld in

Kowno Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

(now Kaunas,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

), she was known by her nickname "Nina". She was the only child of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n nobleman and politician

General Consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one Sovereign state, state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship be ...

Gustav

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

von Lerchenfeld (1871–1944) and his wife, Anna Elfriede Louise

Freiin (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

von

Stackelberg __NOTOC__ Stackelberg is a surname, mainly known as the surname of a noble family of Baltic German descent (see Stackelberg family). Notable people with the surname include: A * Adolphe Stackelberg (1822–1871), Swedish count and Christian reviv ...

(1879–1945). Her mother was a Baltic German noblewoman, great-granddaughter of

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Johan Mauritz von Haucke, which made Nina a third cousin of

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

. Nina von Lerchenfeld and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg were married on 26 September 1933 in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...

, making Nina the Countess ('' Gräfin'') von Stauffenberg. Although Nina's and Claus von Stauffenberg's mothers were both

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

s, the couple's children were raised as

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, in accordance with the wishes of Stauffenberg's father. The marriage produced five children: *

Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born 3 July 1934) is a German retired Bundeswehr general. Early in his career, he commanded Germany's largest military base. At the time of his retirement in 1994 he was Germany's longest serving sold ...

(born 1934). * Heimeran Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born 9 July 1936 in

, Bavaria – died 20 October 2020 in Zurich), unmarried and without issue. *

Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg Count Franz-Ludwig Schenk von Stauffenberg (german: Franz-Ludwig Gustav Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg; born 4 May 1938) is a German lawyer and politician from the CSU. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1976 to 1987 and of the European Parliament ...

(born 1938). * Valerie Ida Huberta Karoline Anna Maria Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (born 15 November 1940 in Bamberg; died 4 June 1966 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Bavaria of leukemia), married Heino von

L'Estocq The L'Estocq family is a German noble family of French-Huguenot origin. Members of the family held significant military positions in the Kingdom of Prussia and Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental count ...

(born 6 April 1935 in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

) on 4 April 1964. * Konstanze Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (born 27 January 1945 in

Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...

, Brandenburg), married Dietrich von Schultheiss-Rechberg (born 13 October 1937 in Zurich,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

) on 8 April 1967. After her husband's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler (he was summarily executed the following evening), the Countess von Stauffenberg was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and taken into custody under the ancient ''

Sippenhaft ''Sippenhaft'' or ''Sippenhaftung'' (, ''kin liability'') is a German term for the idea that a family or clan shares the responsibility for a crime or act committed by one of its members, justifying collective punishment. As a legal principle, it ...

'' law reinstated by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

government. Her five children were placed in an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

Bad Sachsa Bad Sachsa is a town in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town was one of the few municipalities in West Germany that imported electric power from former East Germany. This was done via Neuhof Substation. Geography Bad ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, under the surname of Meister. At the time of her husband's death, Stauffenberg was pregnant and gave birth while imprisoned in a Nazi maternity center in

. That same year, her own mother, Anna, died in a Soviet detention camp. NinaStaufgrave

By the end of the Second World War, Stauffenberg had been moved to the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

province of

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

. There she was held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property. After the war, she was reunited with her family at the Stauffenberg family seat in Lautlingen,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. She died in

Kirchlauter Kirchlauter is a municipality in the Bavarian Administrative Region of Lower Franconia in the district of Haßberge in Germany. It is a part of the Verwaltungsgemeinde of Ebelsbach. Geography Kirchlauter lies in the Main-Rhön Region (Bavarian P ...

, near Bamberg, Bavaria, on 2 April 2006 at the age of 92. The biography ''Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg – Ein Porträt'' by Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg, Stauffenberg's youngest daughter, was published in 2008 (Munich: Pendo Verlag, ).

Notes

# #

References

Sources

* Zeller, Eberhard (1994). ''Oberst Claus Graf Stauffenberg. Ein Lebensbild.'' Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. . * Steffahn, Harald (2002). ''Stauffenberg''. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Reinbek. . * Ueberschär, Gerd R. (2004). ''Stauffenberg. Der 20. Juli 1944.'' Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. . * Hassel, Fey von, "Niemals sich beugen". dtv. * Meding, Dorothee von (1997). ''Mit dem Mut des Herzens – Die Frauen des 20. Juli''. btb Verlag. .

External links

*
Nina von Stauffenberg
''The Times'', 2006-04-11 (retrieved 2009-07-18). *

''Netzzeitung'', 4. April 2006. *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stauffenberg, Ninaschenkgrafinvon 1913 births 2006 deaths German Lutherans German countesses Baltic-German people German people of World War II Protestants in the German Resistance Nazi concentration camp survivors People condemned by Nazi courts People from Bamberg People from Kaunas

Nina Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq * Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, ...

Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany