Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst
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Axel Ernst-August Clamor Franz Albrecht Erich Leo Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst (; 24 April 1919 – 26 January 1993) was a German officer during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and was a member of the
German Resistance German resistance can refer to: * Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government * German resistance to Nazism * Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...
. He planned to assassinate
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
in coordination with
Claus 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 ...
in November 1943 at the
Wolfsschanze The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...
. In 1942, von dem Bussche witnessed by chance an SS-organised gruesome massacre of more than 3,000 mostly Jewish civilians carried out by the SD at the old
Dubno Dubno ( uk, Ду́бно) is a city and municipality located on the Ikva River in Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Dubno Raion (district). The city is located on intersection of two major Eu ...
airport. This experience traumatized him his entire life and turned him decidedly against Hitler. He joined an ''
ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...
'' resistance group within
Army Group Centre Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army fo ...
later to be led by Count Claus von Stauffenberg. In 1943 he volunteered for a suicide assassination attempt on Hitler while modeling uniforms.


Early Life and Career

Axel von dem Bussche was born in 1919 and came from the old East Westphalian noble family von dem Bussche. He was the son of Georg Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst and his Danish wife Jenny Lassen.
Anders Lassen Anders Frederik Emil Victor Schau Lassen, VC, MC & Two Bars (22 September 1920 – 9 April 1945) was a highly decorated Danish soldier, who was the only non-Commonwealth recipient of the British Victoria Cross in the Second World War. He was p ...
, a Danish resistance hero who fought in the British Army against Germany during World War II, was his first cousin. He had two siblings; his older brother Cuno died in World War II. He attended elementary school in the town of Thale and passed his
Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
in Munich in 1937. After graduating from high school, he joined the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division in Potsdam (called “Count Nine Regiment” because of its high proportion of noble officers) as an officer candidate. As it turns out, a whole series of resistance fighters would emerge from this regiment. In 1938-1939 he attended the war school in Hanover. During World War II, he first took part in the Polish and French campaigns, and later in the war against the Soviet Union.


Resistance to Hitler

As early as 1940, during a stay in Breslau, he learned of pogroms against the civilian population. On October 5, 1942, at the age of 23, the highly decorated first lieutenant happened to witness the systematic mass execution of over three thousand mostly Jewish civilians -- men, women, and children -- at the Dubno airfield in the Ukraine. The killings were carried out over two days by SD (Sicherheitsdienst) officers were led by eight SS (Schutzstaffel) officers. Von dem Bussche described this crime: “SS people led the Jews to a pit. There they had to undress, then climb into the pit where a layer of convulsing bodies was already lying: obeying orders, they had to lie face down on the murdered victims and were then shot in the back of the head.” Until then, the career officer von dem Bussche had felt bound by the personal oath to the supreme warlord Adolf Hitler. After these events, he asked himself and a small circle of like-minded individuals in the regiment (to which
Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobilit ...
, later elected President of Germany, also belonged), why he should still be bound by this oath, which is based on respect and reciprocity, when the Führer had already broken it with the crimes he had ordered. Three months after his traumatic witnessing of the mass execution, Bussche's decision was clear: it could no longer be a question of sacrificing one's own life on the battlefield, but of using it for Germany against Hitler. This experience, from which he never recovered until his death many years later, motivated him to consciously join the resistance group around
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 ...
against the Hitler regime through the mediation of
Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg (5 September 1902 – 10 August 1944) was a German government official and a member of the German Resistance in the 20 July Plot against Adolf Hitler. Personal development Schulenburg was born in Londo ...
. In October 1943 he traveled to Lieutenant Colonel von Stauffenberg in Berlin. Von dem Bussche, who had been promoted to captain and now worked as a battalion commander in the 9th Grenadier Regiment, was deeply impressed by the encounter with Stauffenberg. He later spoke of "the bright glow of this man's assured composure". Bussche explained that in view of the crimes he witnessed involuntarily, there were only three ways for an officer to protect his honor “by joining the group of victims" — i.e. to die in battle, to desert, or to rebel against the government that had ordered this and all other massacres. Von dem Bussche was initiated into the conspiracy plans against Hitler by Stauffenberg. When Stauffenberg asked him, he agreed without hesitation to sacrifice his life in a suicide attack on Hitler. He later justified his intention to kill with the emergency aid paragraph of the German penal code (§ 32 StGB), which he had had to memorize as a recruit in Potsdam.


Attempted assassination of Hitler

In November 1943 von dem Bussche volunteered to carry out a
suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
to kill
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
. The principal difficulty for any would-be Hitler assassin was getting near Hitler with a weapon or explosives.
Henning von Tresckow Henning Hermann Karl Robert von Tresckow (; 10 January 1901 – 21 July 1944) was a German military officer with the rank of major general in the Nazi Germany, German Army who helped organize German resistance to Nazism, German resistance again ...
, who came from the same regiment as von dem Bussche and was the head of the conspiracy alongside von Stauffenberg, suggested using a planned demonstration of the Army’s new winter uniforms at the
Wolfsschanze The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...
headquarters near Rastenburg because fellow Nazis and SS officers Göring and
Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
would also be present. Von dem Bussche volunteered and was chosen to explain the advantages of these new uniforms to those present. His appearance, standing over two meters tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed, exemplified Hitler's "Nordic" racial ideal, and he was therefore considered an ideal model. The plan was to arm and detonate a modified landmine hidden in his uniform. He used a hand grenade detonator to rig the device. He rejected a chemical detonator proposed by Stauffenberg because he felt that the ten-minute period from arming to detonation was too long. This assessment was based on the experience previously made by
Rudolf von Gersdorff Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff (27 March 1905 – 27 January 1980) was an officer in the German Army. He attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing on 21 March 1943; the plan failed when Hitler left early, but Gersdorff w ...
. Hand grenade fuses, on the other hand, explode after just four to five seconds. Von dem Bussche planned to cover up the inevitable hissing of the detonator by clearing his own throat while embracing Hitler, thus killing himself with Hitler. In November 1943, von dem Bussche stood by for three days and two nights in the guest barracks at the East Prussian headquarters at Wolfsschanze. On his arrival he handed co-conspirators Major i. G. Joachim Kuhn and Colonel Helmuth Stieff the documents given to him by von Stauffenberg for the implementation of the coup d'etat. The night before the demonstration, however, the railway car containing the new uniforms was destroyed in an
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
air raid on
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. The assassination plot was never exposed, and von dem Bussche returned to his unit on the Eastern Front. After the failure of the assassination plan, Major Kuhn buried the documents together with the explosives on the premises of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH).. These were later found by Soviet officers on February 17, 1945 based on Kuhn's description of the hiding place, and in 1997 a copy was handed to German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
by Russian President
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
. Von dem Bussche volunteered to attempt the assassination again in February 1944 when new uniforms would be available, and von Stauffenberg obtained marching orders for von dem Bussche from the Eastern Front to Berlin. On January 30, 1944 however, von dem Bussche was seriously wounded by Soviet shrapnel and his right leg was amputated. Another officer, Captain Ewald von Kleist, volunteered to carry out the mission at a viewing on 11 February 1944. However, Hitler repeatedly postponed and finally cancelled the event. As a result of his injuries, von dem Bussche spent several months in the
Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
hospital Hohenlychenin in
Lychen Lychen (), also known as ''Flößerstadt'' (raftsman city), is a town in the Uckermark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated southeast of Neustrelitz, and east of Fürstenberg/Havel. This is the town where the thumbtack was created. ...
(a privilege allotted to him as recipient of the gold
German Cross The War Order of the German Cross (german: Der Kriegsorden Deutsches Kreuz), normally abbreviated to the German Cross or ''Deutsches Kreuz'', was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 28 September 1941. It was awarded in two divisions: in gold for repe ...
). This hospitalization helped von dem Bussche escape discovery during the wave of persecution that followed the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt and he was never betrayed by any of the officers who knew of his involvement. He thereby became one of the few men in the Resistance to survive the war. Other survivors included
Fabian von Schlabrendorff Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff (; 1 July 1907 – 3 September 1980) was a German jurist, soldier, and member of the German resistance against Adolf Hitler. From 1967 to 1975 he was a judge of the German Fede ...
,
Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager (6 September 1917 – 1 May 2008) was the second-last surviving member of the 20 July Plot, a conspiracy of Wehrmacht officers to assassinate the German dictator Adolf Hitler in 1944. Early life Born at Burg Hei ...
,
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin Ewald-Heinrich Hermann Konrad Oskar Ulrich Wolf Alfred von Kleist-Schmenzin (10 July 1922 – 8 March 2013) was a German publisher and convenor of the Munich Conference on Security Policy until 1998. A member of the von Kleist family and an off ...
,
Joachim Kuhn Joachim (; ''Yəhōyāqīm'', "he whom Yahweh has set up"; ; ) was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Biblical apocryphal ...
and Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff.


After the war

The von dem Bussche owned manors in
Thale Thale () is a town in the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany. Located at the steep northeastern rim of the Harz mountain range, it is known for the scenic Bode Gorge stretching above the town centre. Geography The town is situated ...
, in the form of the former Wendhusen monastery, and Stecklenberg, however immediately after the Second World War, these properties were seized by the Soviet occupiers of what was to become communist
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. von dem Bussche went on to study law at the University of Göttingen and he became the first post-war chairman of the General Student Committee (
Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss The General Students' Committee (German: Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss) or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the (constituted) student body at universities A university () is an institution of hi ...
) of the University of Göttingen. After completing his studies, he worked as a program assistant in the German department of BBC London. In 1948 he started work as an editor and consultant for advertising at Suhrkamp-Verlag. In 1953 when he took over the management of the press office in the "Blank Office," which was the predecessor of the Federal Ministry of Defense of the
Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
, which dealt with the preparation of new German armed forces. He then moved to the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government as an employee in the Commonwealth and USA department. From 1954 to 1958 he served as Legation Counselor at the German Embassy in Washington. From 1959 to 1962 he was head of the Salem Castle boarding school founded by Kurt Hahn, Karl Reinhardt and the Margrave of Baden. After the founding of German equivalent of the Peace Corps ( Deutsche Entwicklungsdienst), he was appointed one of its two managing directors at the beginning of 1964; in this function he played a key role in building up the German development aid organization until 1966. Alongside and after that, from 1964 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the German Evangelical Church Congress, a member of the World Council of Churches, a consultant to the World Bank, a pioneer of the Stockholm UN Environment Conference in 1972 and a one-year fellow at the College of Science in Berlin. Here he was involved in the preparation of the first UN environment conference. In 1950 he married Englishwoman Lady Camilla Mildred Nicola Acheson (daughter of Archibald Acheson, 5th Earl of Gosford and Mildred Carter), divorced Schenk Freifrau von Stauffenberg. With her he had two daughters: Nicola Dietzsch-Doertenbach, née Freiin von dem Bussche-Streithorst, and Jane (Johanna) Freiin von dem Bussche-Streithorst. From Lady Camilla's first marriage to Hans Christoph Schenk Freiherr von Stauffenberg he has three step-sons: Sebastian, Patrick and Damian Schenk Freiherr von Stauffenberg.


1991 Attempt to recover expropriated property

In 1991 he was one of many unsuccessful plaintiffs who sued the federal government for return of the properties that had been expropriated in 1946 by the Soviet occupation forces. Von dem Bussche argued that the expropriation (de jure by the Soviet occupying powers, de facto by German communists) was unjust and, in his case, not even justified by Soviet standards, because according to Soviet provisions only “fascists” should be affected by expropriations. He argued that the government of the Federal Republic, which after 1990 became the owner of his former property in Thale, should make up for the injustice by returning the property to him as the rightful owner. The Federal Constitutional Court argued that the expropriation and expulsion occurred before the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949. Accordingly, the Federal Government was not to be held responsible for the consequences of the war that occurred before it was founded. Von dem Bussche found the court's reasoning scandalous, stating, "wrong cannot become right." As a result of this legal matter, von dem Bussche had at times fallen out with his former resistance regiment colleague and Federal President, Richard von Weizsäcker, with whom he had been a close friends for decades. After von dem Bussche's death on January 26, 1993 in Bad Godesberg (burial in the family crypt of the Dietzsch-Doertenbach family in Lehrensteinsfeld), his eldest daughter Nicola Dietzsch-Doertenbach bought back larger parts of the former family property from the Federal Republic of Germany.


Awards and decorations

*
Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...
of 1939, 1st and 2nd class *
German Cross The War Order of the German Cross (german: Der Kriegsorden Deutsches Kreuz), normally abbreviated to the German Cross or ''Deutsches Kreuz'', was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 28 September 1941. It was awarded in two divisions: in gold for repe ...
in Gold on 15 December 1941 as ''
Oberleutnant () is the highest lieutenant officer rank in the German-speaking armed forces of Germany (Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the Swiss Armed Forces. Austria Germany In the German Army, it dates from the early 19th century. Trans ...
'' in the 11./Infanterie-Regiment 9 *
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight' ...
on 7 March 1944 as ''
Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian, and Swiss armies. While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has and originally had the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literally ...
'' and commander of the I./Grenadier-Regiment 9 *
Wound Badge The Wound Badge (german: Verwundetenabzeichen) was a German military decoration first promulgated by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on 3 March 1918, which was first awarded to soldiers of the German Army who were wounded during World War I. Between th ...
in Gold * Knight of Honour of the
Order of Saint John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
(Swiss Commandery)


Books, Film, Television, Video


Fragen an den 20. Juli heute
Gedenkansprache von Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche am 20. Juli 1977 im Ehrenhof der Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Stauffenbergstraße, Berlin * The Restless Conscience: Resistance to Hitler Within Germany 1933-1945 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102778/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk * Der Judenmord 9/36 Das große Blutbad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT1veKJeIfs * Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler 08 “Aftermath” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46ogt8UQuo * Monument to Claus von Stauffenberg, Wolf's Lair, Kętrzyn, Warmian-Masurian, Poland, Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4k-4QIfXDk


See also

*
Assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler This is an incomplete list of documented attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler.Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig (1991). ''The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', pp. 47–48. Macmillan, New York. All attempts occurred in the German Reich, ...
*
Hermann Friedrich Graebe Herman Friedrich Graebe or Gräbe (19 June 1900 – 17 April 1986) was a German manager and engineer in charge of a German building firm in Ukraine, who witnessed mass executions of the Jews of Dubno on 5 October 1942 by Nazis and in the ghet ...


References

;Bibliography * * Fest, Joachim (1996). ''Plotting Hitler's Death – The Story of the German Resistance'', Henry Holt and Company, New York. . * Fest, Joachim; "Hitler – Eine Biographie", Propilaeen, Berlin, 2.Aufl. 2004. . *
Roger Moorhouse Roger Moorhouse (born 1968) is a British historian and author. Education He was born in Stockport, Cheshire, England and attended Berkhamsted School and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University of London, graduating wit ...
; "Killing Hitler", Jonathan Cape, London, . * Marion Graefin Doenhoff in "Axel von dem Bussche", Gevinon von Medem; v. Hase und Koehler Verlag, Mainz/Muenchen,1994. * *
Josef Tal Josef Tal ( he, יוסף טל; September 18, 1910 – August 25, 2008) was an Israeli composer. He wrote three Hebrew operas; four German operas, dramatic scenes; six symphonies; 13 concerti; chamber music, including three string quartets; ...
: ''Ein Mensch-zu-Mensch-Erlebnis im Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin'' (1994) in ''Axel von dem Bussche'', Hase&Koehler Verlag, pp 125–131 *


Further reading

Intimate portrait of Axel von dem Bussche. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bussche-Streithorst, Axel Freiherr von dem 1919 births 1993 deaths Military personnel from Braunschweig German amputees Barons of Germany German Protestants Protestants in the German Resistance Members of the 20 July plot Recipients of the Gold German Cross Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross German people of Danish descent Royalty and nobility with disabilities German Army officers of World War II