2024-07-24 01:07:05
Commemoration of resistance
80 years of Hitler assassination attempt – appeals to protect democracy
Updated on 20.07.2024Reading time: 3 min.
80 years ago, an assassination attempt on Hitler failed to stop the Nazi dictatorship and the world war that had started in Germany. What remains as a legacy – also for the Bundeswehr?
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) have called for the defense of democracy on the 80th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. “The attempted coup on July 20, 1944 failed. The common goals of the resistance did not,” said Scholz at a ceremony in Berlin.
Democracy depends on citizens getting involved and opposing misanthropy and extremism. Steinmeier said: “Let’s protect our democracy.” That is the best form of remembrance.
Steinmeier, Scholz and the leaders of the Bundestag and Bundesrat laid wreaths in the inner courtyard of the Bendlerblock, where the Ministry of Defense is now located. It was there that the Wehrmacht officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and three other participants of the July 20, 1944 attack were shot that same evening.
The group had tried in vain to kill the dictator Hitler with a bomb, to overthrow the National Socialist regime and to end the Second World War. In total, around 200 participants were executed or driven to suicide.
Scholz said that 80 years later, one can testify that the women and men of the resistance were not mistaken. There is an alternative to the Nazi dictatorship – today’s Germany of the Basic Law.
The Chancellor made it clear that the resistance is not about resigning to history. “It’s up to me – it’s this conviction that must unite us today.” Ordinary citizens don’t need to carry out heroic deeds that risk their lives. Nevertheless, it is clear: “Our democracy depends on our tireless efforts, on the efforts of each and every individual.”
After visiting the memorial’s exhibition, Steinmeier said: “The resistance against National Socialism was necessary because the Weimar democracy did not have the support it needed.” Today, in a liberal democracy, commitment to this is still the order of the day. “Not hatred and incitement and certainly not violence.”
The Federal President paid tribute to the entire German resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) described the men and women of July 20, 1944 as role models.
Descendants against “abuse” of the resistance
The chairman of the July 20, 1944 Foundation, Robert von Steinau-Steinrück, emphasized that the anniversary could be celebrated once again with many relatives as contemporary witnesses. He recalled that many in the early Federal Republic were taken into collective custody and initially viewed as “children of traitors.” There is also a fight against narratives that were still shaped by the National Socialists – such as the myth that only a “very small clique” was involved in the attempted coup.
The foundation opposed the “abuse of the resistance by right-wing and left-wing extremists and populists”. The National Socialists had the resistance fighters murdered, said Steinau-Steinrück, stressing with reference to statements by the Thuringian AfD chairman Björn Höcke: “Anyone who speaks their language or lets them speak it can never invoke the resistance or even honor it.”
At a solemn oath for almost 400 new recruits to the Bundeswehr, Scholz highlighted the legacy of the military resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. Serving in the Bundeswehr today means remaining a citizen, he said on the parade ground at the Bendlerblock. “Serving in the Bundeswehr today requires that you think for yourself and not just blindly obey.”
These principles made it clear where the Bundeswehr stands and where the profession of soldier has always belonged: “At the heart of our democratic society.”
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) said that July 20, 1944 remains of central importance for the Bundeswehr to this day. The soldiers’ oath to defend the rights and freedom of the German people is a relatively short sentence, but it is significant. “It is about our free, democratic constitutional state. They pledge their loyalty to it. And not to any party or leader.” This responsibility has become even more real with the threat to security in Germany and Europe posed by Russia.