Editing 20 July plot (section)

== Background ==
[[File:1944-07-15GerWW2BattlefrontAtlas.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Battle fronts in Europe as of 15 July 1944]]
Since 1938, there had been groups plotting an overthrow of some kind within the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]] and in the German [[Abwehr|Military Intelligence Organization]].<ref name="Enzensberger 2008">[[Hans Magnus Enzensberger]]: ''Hammerstein oder Der Eigensinn. Eine deutsche Geschichte.'' Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-518-41960-1}}</ref> Early leaders of these plots included Major General [[Hans Oster]], the deputy head of the Military Intelligence Office; Colonel General [[Ludwig Beck]], a former Chief of Staff of the [[Oberkommando des Heeres|German Army High Command]] (OKH); and Field Marshal [[Erwin von Witzleben]], a former commander of the [[1st Army (Wehrmacht)|German 1st Army]] and the former [[Commander-in-Chief]] of the [[OB West|German Army Command in the West]]. They soon established contacts with several prominent civilians, including [[Carl Goerdeler]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Goerdeler |title=Carl Goerdeler |website=Britannica |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125203216/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Goerdeler |url-status=live }}</ref> the former mayor of [[Leipzig]], and [[Helmuth James von Moltke]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/helmuth-james-graf-von-moltke/?no_cache=1 |title=Helmuth James Graf von Moltke |website=Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=2 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702194838/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/helmuth-james-graf-von-moltke/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> the great-grandnephew of [[Moltke the Elder]], hero of the [[Franco-Prussian War]].

Groups of military plotters exchanged ideas with civilian, political, and intellectual resistance groups in the [[Kreisau Circle|Kreisauer Kreis]] (which met at the [[Krzyzowa, Swidnica County|von Moltke estate in Kreisau]]) and in other secret circles. Moltke was against killing Hitler; instead, he wanted him placed on trial. Moltke said, "we are all amateurs and would only bungle it". Moltke also believed killing Hitler would be hypocritical: Hitler and National Socialism had turned wrongdoing into a system, something which the resistance should avoid.{{sfn|Kurtz|1946|p=224}}

Plans to stage an overthrow and prevent Hitler from launching a new world war were developed in 1938 and 1939, but were aborted because of the indecision of Army General [[Franz Halder]] and Field Marshal [[Walther von Brauchitsch]], and the failure of the Western powers to oppose Hitler's aggression until 1939.<ref>Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 471</ref>

In 1942, a new conspiratorial group formed, led by Colonel [[Henning von Tresckow]], a member of Field Marshal [[Fedor von Bock]]'s staff, who commanded Army Group Centre in [[Operation Barbarossa]]. Tresckow systematically recruited oppositionists into the Group's staff, making it the nerve centre of the army resistance. Little could be done against Hitler as he was heavily guarded, and none of the plotters could get near enough to him.{{sfn|Kurtz|1946|p=226}}

During 1942, Oster and Tresckow nevertheless succeeded in rebuilding an effective resistance network. Their most important recruit was General [[Friedrich Olbricht]], head of the General Army Office headquarters at the [[Bendlerblock]] in central Berlin, who controlled an independent system of communications to reserve units throughout Germany. Linking this asset to Tresckow's resistance group in Army Group Centre created a viable coup apparatus.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=188}}

In late 1942, Tresckow and Olbricht formulated a plan to assassinate Hitler and stage an overthrow during Hitler's visit to the headquarters of Army Group Centre at [[Smolensk]] in March 1943, by placing a bomb on his plane ([[Operation Spark (1941)|Operation Spark]]). The bomb failed to detonate, and a second attempt a week later with Hitler at an exhibition of captured Soviet weaponry in Berlin also failed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/another-plot-to-kill-hitler-foiled |title=Another Plot to Kill Hitler Foiled |website=History.com |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=21 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321100124/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/another-plot-to-kill-hitler-foiled |url-status=live }}</ref> These failures demoralised the conspirators. During 1943 Tresckow tried without success to recruit senior army field commanders such as Field Marshal [[Erich von Manstein]] and Field Marshal [[Gerd von Rundstedt]], to support a seizure of power. Tresckow, in particular, worked on his Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Centre, Field Marshal [[Günther von Kluge]], to persuade him to move against Hitler and at times succeeded in gaining his consent, only to find him indecisive at the last minute.<ref>von Schlabrendorff, Fabian, ''They Almost Killed Hitler'', p. 39.</ref> However, despite their refusals, none of the Field Marshals reported their treasonous activities to the [[Gestapo]] or Hitler.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

=== Motivation and goals ===
==== Opposition to Hitler and to Nazi policies ====
While the primary goal of the plotters was to remove Hitler from power, they did so for various reasons. The majority of the group behind the 20 July plot were conservative nationalists—idealists, but not necessarily of a democratic stripe.<ref>Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture, "The heroes of West German accounts at this time were the men involved in the largely conservative, nationalist resistance of the July Plot of 1944. It was not until much later that a new generation of left-liberal historians pointed out how little many involved in the July Plot actually sympathized with or understood democratic ideas. John Sandford. 2013.</ref><ref>''Faith and Democracy: Political Transformations at the German Protestant Kirchentag'', 1949–1969 Benjamin Carl Pearson 2007 
Similarly, one could argue that the conservative, nationalist resistance circles that grew up during the war years, whose activity culminated in the July 1944 Officers Plot</ref> Martin Borschat portrays their motivations as a matter of aristocratic resentment, writing that the plot was mainly carried out by conservative elites who were initially integrated by the Nazi government but during the war lost their influence and were concerned about regaining it.{{sfn|Evans|2015|p=198}} However, at least in Stauffenberg's case, the conviction that Nazi Germany's atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war were a dishonour to the nation and its military was likely a major motivating factor.{{sfn|Evans|2009b}} Historian Judith Michel assesses the circle around the 20 July Group as a diverse and heterogeneous group that included liberal democrats, conservatives, social democrats, authoritarian aristocrats, and even communists.  The common goal was to overthrow Hitler's regime and bring the war to a swift end.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kas.de/de/web/geschichte-der-cdu/kalender/kalender-detail/-/content/attentat-auf-adolf-hitler|title=Der 20. Juli 1944 – Attentat auf Adolf Hitler|date=26 June 2014|access-date=22 July 2021|archive-date=20 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720095613/https://www.kas.de/de/web/geschichte-der-cdu/kalender/kalender-detail/-/content/attentat-auf-adolf-hitler|url-status=live}}</ref> There is evidence of the plot encompassing a broad spectrum of plotters which included Communists that April, before the attempted coup, Stauffenberg agreed to cooperate with the Operational Leadership of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) remaining in Germany. Contacts were established through the Social Democrats Adolf Reichwein and Julius Leber.<ref>Hans Coppi Jr.; 'Der vergessene Widerstand der Arbeiter: Gewerkschafter, Kommunisten, Sozialdemokraten, Trotzkisten, Anarchisten und Zwangsarbeiter'; pp. 154–157</ref>

==== Territorial demands ====
Among demands initially countenanced by the plotters for issue towards the Allies were such points as re-establishment of Germany's 1914 boundaries with [[Belgium]], [[France]] and [[Poland]] and no reparations. Like most of the rest of German resistance, the 20 July plotters believed in the idea of [[Greater Germany]] and as a condition for peace demanded that the western allies recognize as a minimum the incorporation of [[Austria]], [[Alsace-Lorraine]], [[Sudetenland]], and the annexation of Polish-inhabited territories that Germany ceded to Poland after 1918, with the restoration of some of the overseas colonies. They believed that Europe should be controlled under German hegemony.{{sfn|Evans|2015|pp=198–199}}

The overall goals towards Poland were mixed within the plotters. Most of the plotters found it desirable to restore the old German borders of 1914, while others pointed out that the demands were unrealistic, and amendments had to be made.<ref>''German Foreign Policy''.  Klaus Hilderbrand. pp. 185–188</ref> Some like [[Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg]] even wanted all of Poland annexed to Germany.<ref>''Alternatives to Hitler: German Resistance Under the Third Reich''. Hans Mommsen. p. 161</ref>

To Poland, which was fighting against Nazi Germany with both its army and government in exile, the territorial demands and traditional nationalistic visions of resistance were not much different from the racist policies of Hitler.<ref>German Foreign Policy Klaus Hilderbrand, page 188</ref> Stauffenberg, as one of the leaders of the plot, stated five years before the coup in 1939 during the [[invasion of Poland|Poland campaign]]: "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur."<ref>Peter Hoffman Stauffenberg: ''A Family History, 1905–1944''; p. 116; 2003 McGill-Queen's Press</ref><ref>War of extermination p. 137.</ref>

==== Political vision of post-Hitler Germany ====
Many members of the plot had helped the Nazis gain power and shared revisionist foreign policy goals pursued by Hitler, and even at the time of the plot were anti-democratic, hoping to replace Hitler with a conservative-authoritarian government involving aristocratic rule. They opposed popular legitimation or mass participation in governance of the state.<ref>''A Concise History of Germany''. p. 200. Mary Fulbrook</ref>

==== Political program ====
The political program of the [[#planned government|planned government]] was outlined in a draft for a [[government policy statement]], consisting of twelve points:

# Restoration of the [[rule of law]], [[Separation of powers|independence of the courts]], protection of personal and property security, dissolution of [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], prevention of [[lynch law]],
# Combating corruption, restitution of [[Art theft and looting during World War II|looted works of art]], ending the [[The Holocaust|persecution of Jews]], punishment of [[war crime]]s,
# Dissolution of the [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]] and an end to propaganda reporting on the course of the war,
# [[Separation of church and state]], a [[Christianity|Christian]] mindset as the basis for policies, [[freedom of the press]],
# Restoration of Christian education by parents
# Reduction of [[bureaucracy]], examination and possible punishment, dismissal or transfer of all officials appointed and promoted from 1 January 1933, especially [[Nazi party]] members
# Transformation of the [[provinces of Prussia]] and [[States of the Weimar Republic|states]] into ''[[Reichsgau]]e'', [[local self-government]] for the ''Reichsgaue'', [[Districts of Germany|districts]] and [[Municipalities of Germany|municipalities]] under the supervision of ''[[Reichsstatthalter]]'',
# Restoration of full [[economic freedom]] after the war, protection of [[private property]], [[Planned economy|planned economic measures]] only under conditions of war-related shortages,
# Responsible and conscientious [[social policy]] in the hands of ''Reichsgaue'' and [[trade union]]s
# Ending national debt through tax increases and [[austerity]] policies, international agreement on debt repayment
# Continuation of the war for defence purposes only,
# Commencement of peace negotiations with the [[Western Allies]], punishment of those Germans responsible for the [[Second World War]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goerdeler |first=Carl |last2=Beck |first2=Ludwig |date=1944 |orig-date= |title=Draft for a government policy statement |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/fileadmin/bilder/publikationen/begleitmaterialien/Faksimiles_PDFs_deutsch/FS_10.1_DE_2.Aufl-RZ-web.pdf |website=[[German Resistance Memorial Center]] |language=de}}</ref>