Editing 20 July plot (section)

== Planning a coup ==
{{see also|List of members of the 20 July plot}}

=== Von Stauffenberg joins ===
[[File:VStauffenberg_vQuirnheim.jpg|thumb|Stauffenberg with [[Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim]] in June 1944]]
By mid-1943, the tide of war was turning decisively against Germany. The army plotters and their civilian allies became convinced that Hitler should be assassinated, so that a government acceptable to the western Allies could be formed, and a separate peace negotiated in time to prevent a Soviet invasion of Germany. In August 1943, Tresckow met, for the first time, a young staff officer named Lieutenant Colonel [[Claus von Stauffenberg]]. Severely wounded in North Africa, Claus von Stauffenberg was a political conservative and zealous German nationalist.<ref name="Valkyrie" />

From early 1942, he had come to share two basic convictions with many military officers: that Germany was being led to disaster and that Hitler's removal from power was necessary. After the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in December 1942, despite his religious scruples, he concluded that the Führer's assassination was a lesser moral evil than Hitler's remaining in power.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kaminski|first1=Joseph|title=The Plots to Kill Hitler|url=http://josephkaminski.net/2015/02/16/the-plots-to-kill-hitler/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407163855/http://josephkaminski.net/2015/02/16/the-plots-to-kill-hitler/|archive-date=7 April 2015}}</ref> Stauffenberg brought a new tone of decisiveness to the ranks of the resistance movement. When Tresckow was assigned to the Eastern Front, Stauffenberg took charge of planning and executing the assassination attempt.

=== New plan ===
{{main|Operation Valkyrie}}

Olbricht now put forward a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The [[Replacement Army]] (''Ersatzheer'') had an operational plan called Operation Valkyrie, which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities would cause a breakdown in law and order, or an uprising by the millions of [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labourers from occupied countries]] now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilise the Reserve Army for the purpose of the coup.<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite web |url=https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/operation-valkyrie |title=Operation Valkyrie 1944 |website=University of Cambridge |date=27 April 2015 |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203103140/https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/operation-valkyrie |url-status=live }}</ref>

In August and September 1943, Tresckow drafted the "revised" Valkyrie plan and new supplementary orders. A secret declaration began with these words: "The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead! A treacherous group of party leaders has attempted to exploit the situation by attacking our embattled soldiers from the rear in order to seize power for themselves."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Nigel |year=2009 |title=Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N8SIDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |isbn=978-1783461455 |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411174733/https://books.google.com/books?id=N8SIDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Detailed instructions were written for occupation of government ministries in Berlin, [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s headquarters in East Prussia, radio stations and telephone offices, and other Nazi apparatus through military districts, and concentration camps.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=219}}

Previously, it was believed that Stauffenberg was mainly responsible for the Valkyrie plan, but documents recovered by the Soviet Union after the war and released in 2007 suggest that the plan was developed by Tresckow by autumn of 1943.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1524/VfZg.2007.55.2.331|title=Oberst i.G. Henning von Tresckow und die Staatsstreichspläne im Jahr 1943|year=2007|last1=Hoffmann|first1=Peter|journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte|volume=55|issue=2|pages=331–364|s2cid=143574023|doi-access=free}}</ref> All written information was handled by Tresckow's wife, Erika, and by [[Margarethe von Oven]], his secretary. Both women wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=220}} On at least two other occasions Tresckow had tried to assassinate the Führer. The first plan was to shoot him during dinner at the army base camp, but this plan was aborted because it was widely believed that Hitler wore a bullet-proof vest. The conspirators also considered poisoning him, but this was not possible because his food was specially prepared and tasted. They concluded that a time bomb was the only option.{{sfn|Moorhouse|2007|p=241}}

Operation Valkyrie could only be put into effect by Hitler himself, or by General [[Friedrich Fromm]], commander of the Reserve Army, so the latter had to be either won over to the conspiracy or in some way neutralised if the plan was to succeed.<ref name="Cambridge" />

=== Previous failed attempts ===
{{Main|Operation Spark (1941)|List of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler}}
During 1943 and early 1944 von Tresckow and von Stauffenberg organised at least five attempts to get one of the military conspirators near enough to Hitler, for long enough to kill him with hand grenades, bombs, or a revolver:
* 13 March 1943 by [[Henning von Tresckow#Plots against Hitler|von Tresckow]]<ref name="Attempts">{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/6-assassination-attempts-on-adolf-hitler |title=6 Assassination Attempts on Adolf Hitler |last=Andrews |first=Evan |date=April 29, 2015 |website=History.com |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=7 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307140552/https://www.history.com/news/6-assassination-attempts-on-adolf-hitler |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Many Attempts">{{cite web |url=https://www.history.co.uk/article/killing-hitler-the-many-assassination-attempts-on-adolf-hitler |title=Killing Hitler: The Many Assassination Attempts on Adolf Hitler |website=History.uk |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226121743/https://www.history.co.uk/article/killing-hitler-the-many-assassination-attempts-on-adolf-hitler |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 21 March 1943 by [[Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff]]<ref name="Attempts" /><ref name="Many Attempts" />
* late November 1943 by [[Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst]]<ref name="Many Attempts" />
* February 1944 by [[Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin]]
* 11 March 1944 by [[Eberhard von Breitenbuch|Eberhard Freiherr von Breitenbuch]]

As the war situation deteriorated, Hitler no longer appeared in public and rarely visited Berlin. He spent most of his time at his headquarters at the {{lang|de|[[Wolfsschanze]]}} near [[Rastenburg]] in [[East Prussia]], with occasional breaks at his [[Bavaria]]n mountain retreat [[Obersalzberg]] near [[Berchtesgaden]]. In both places, he was heavily guarded and rarely saw people he did not know or trust. [[Himmler]] and the Gestapo were increasingly suspicious of plots against Hitler and rightly suspected the officers of the General Staff, which was indeed the source of many conspiracies against him.

=== Preparations ===
By the summer of 1944, the Gestapo was closing in on the conspirators. When Stauffenberg sent Tresckow a message through Lieutenant [[Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort]] asking whether there was any reason for trying to assassinate Hitler given that no political purpose would be served, Tresckow's response was: "The assassination must be attempted, ''coûte que coûte'' [whatever the cost]. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin ⁠,⁠ ⁠for the practical purpose no longer matters; what matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters."{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=236}}

Himmler had at least one conversation with a known oppositionist when, in August 1943, the [[Prussia]]n Finance Minister [[Johannes Popitz]], who was involved in Goerdeler's network, came to see him and offered him the support of the opposition if he would make a move to displace Hitler and secure a negotiated end to the war.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=228}} Nothing came of this meeting, but Popitz was not immediately arrested (although he was later executed towards the end of the war), and Himmler apparently did nothing to track down the resistance network which he knew was operating within the state bureaucracy.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} It is possible{{speculation inline|date=April 2024}} that Himmler, who by late 1943 knew that the war was unwinnable, allowed the plot to go ahead in the belief that if it succeeded he would be Hitler's successor, and could then bring about a peace settlement.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} Himmler himself would later in April of 1945 try to attempt to form a separate peace with the allies in order to remain in some sort of power, it was rejected as the allies continued to demand unconditional surrender, which would have been a block on any negotiated settlement. 

Popitz was not alone in seeing Himmler as a potential ally. General von Bock advised Tresckow to seek his support, but there is no evidence that he did so. Goerdeler was apparently also in indirect contact with Himmler via a mutual acquaintance, [[Carl Langbehn]]. [[Wilhelm Canaris]] biographer [[Heinz Höhne]] suggests that Canaris and Himmler were working together to bring about a change of regime, but this remains speculation.<ref>Himmler's contacts with the opposition and his possible motives are discussed by Padfield, ''Himmler'', pp. 419–424.</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px" caption="Stauffenberg's co-conspirators in the plot">
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1980-033-04, Ludwig Beck.jpg|{{lang|de|[[Generaloberst]]}} [[Ludwig Beck]]
File:Erich_Fellgiebel.jpg|[[General der Nachrichtentruppe]] [[Erich Fellgiebel]]
File:Carl Goerdeler.jpg|[[Carl Friedrich Goerdeler]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146III-347, Werner Karl v. Haeften.jpg|[[Oberleutnant]] [[Werner von Haeften]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1981-072-61, Friedrich Olbricht.jpg|[[General der Infanterie]] [[Friedrich Olbricht]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2004-0007, Hans Oster.jpg|[[Generalmajor]] [[Hans Oster]]
File:Albert_Mertz_von_Quirnheim.jpg|[[Oberst]] [[Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-130-53, Henning v. Tresckow.jpg|[[Generalmajor]] [[Henning von Tresckow]]
File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1981-041-16A,_Eduard_Wagner.jpg|[[General der Artillerie]] [[Eduard Wagner]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1978-043-13, Erwin v. Witzleben.jpg|[[Generalfeldmarschall]] [[Erwin von Witzleben]]
</gallery>