80 years ago today

Commemoration of Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt on Hitler

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (bright uniform) and the head of the "Chancellery of the Führer", Martin Bormann (left), inspect the destruction in the room of the map barracks in the Führer's headquarters in Rastenburg, where Colonel Stauffenberg detonated an explosive charge on July 20, 1944, with the intention of killing Hitler.(Bild: APA/dpa/Heinrich Hoffmann/UPI)

On Saturday, the German government will commemorate the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, exactly 80 years ago. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a speech and paid tribute to the resistance.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to lay wreaths in memory of those involved in the July 20, 1944 attempt to overthrow the National Socialist dictator. Scholz also gave a speech afterwards and paid tribute to the German resistance against Hitler.

"Overthrow failed, unifying goals did not"
"The attempted coup on July 20, 1944 failed. The unifying goals of the resistance did not," said the SPD politician at a commemoration ceremony of the Federal Government in Berlin. There is the alternative to the Nazi dictatorship and the other, better Germany. "It is the Germany of our Basic Law."

Scholz during his speech on July 20(Bild: AFP)

"It depends on me"
What remains of the resistance is not to give up in the face of history. The conviction that must also unite us today is: "It depends on me", Scholz made clear.

Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg in the 1930s, location: unknown(Bild: APA/dpa)

Swearing-in ceremony after ceremonial speeches
In the afternoon, almost 400 Bundeswehr recruits took their oath at a roll call in Berlin.

The assassination attempt on Hitler
On July 20, 1944, Wehrmacht officers led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg tried in vain to kill Hitler with a bomb, overthrow National Socialist rule and end the Second World War. Stauffenberg and three others involved were shot that same evening in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock in Berlin. The memorial is now located there.