Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort
Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort | |
---|---|
Born | Heinrich Ahasverus Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort 22 June 1909 Hanover, Germany |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Plötzensee Prison, Berlin |
Nationality | German |
Occupation | Army Officer |
Spouse(s) | Gottliebe Gräfin von Kalnein |
Heinrich Ahasverus Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort (22 June 1909 – 4 September 1944) was an East Prussian junker and aristocrat who became a member of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Biography
Heinrich von Lehndorff was born in Hanover, Germany and studied economics and business administration in Frankfurt am Main.[1] In 1936 he took over the management of the family estate Steinort in East Prussia. After the Second World War broke out, he was first deployed in Poland, and later, as a reserve lieutenant, posted to General Fedor von Bock's staff, who later became supreme commander of Army Group Centre (Heeresgruppe Mitte). During Operation Barbarossa (the German attack on the Soviet Union), Lehndorff became an eyewitness to a massacre of the Jewish population near Barysaŭ in Belarus by Einsatzgruppen. Thereupon, Henning von Tresckow won him over to the cause of military resistance (Widerstand) against Hitler.
As a first lieutenant in the reserves, Lehndorff was deployed as liaison officer to Defence District I (East Prussia) in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia). One day after the failed attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair on 20 July 1944, Lehndorff was arrested. Along with Kurt Hahn, Gerhard Knaak, Hans Otto Erdmann and Max Ulrich von Drechsel he was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof under Günther Nebelung on 4 September 1944.[2] He was hanged the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. His wife Gottliebe née Gräfin von Kalnein (1913–1993)[3] and their four daughters (Marie Eleanore [who married Wieland Wagner's son, Wolf Siegfried],[4] Vera, Gabriele, and Katharina) spent the remainder of the war confined to concentration camps.
His daughter Vera von Lehndorff (1939– ) became a well-known photographic model and actress under the professional name Veruschka.
Notes
Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.
See also
References
- ↑ Biography at German Resistance Memorial Center.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Erben von Hitler-Attentäter fordern Kunstwerke zurück". Die Presse. 21 July 2009.
- ↑ Wagner, Nike (2000). The Wagners: The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. London. p. 290.
External links
- Articles with short description
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- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing German-language text
- 1909 births
- 1944 deaths
- Executed members of the 20 July plot
- People from Lower Saxony executed at Plötzensee Prison
- German Army officers of World War II
- People condemned by Nazi courts
- Nobility from Hanover
- People from the Province of Hanover
- Goethe University Frankfurt alumni
- People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison