Wessel Oskar Karl Johann Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven ( – 26 July 1944), was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

in the High Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW) and a member of the

German Resistance German resistance can refer to: * Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government * German resistance to Nazism * Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...

(''Widerstand'') against

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. Loringhoven was a friend of

Claus von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

, who was the leader of the

20 July Plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...

to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

Biography

Loringhoven came from an aristocratic

family in

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...

, the

Frydag The Frydag family, also spelled Vrydach, Freytag, Freydag and various other slightly different spellings, is a Germany, German noble family known since the beginning of the 14th century that originated in Uradel in Westphalia. The surname was ...

, that was descended from

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. He was born in the Groß Born Manor,

Courland Governorate The Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland, Governorate of Kurland (german: Kurländisches Gouvernement; russian: Курля́ндская губерния, translit=Kurljándskaja gubernija; lv, Kurzemes guberņa; lt, K ...

(in now Lielborne) but grew up in Adiamünde Manor (in now Skulte) in

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

. After his Final Exams (''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

''), Loringhoven joined the Baltic-German Army (''

Baltische Landeswehr The Baltic Landwehr or ("Baltic Territorial Army") was the name of the unified armed forces of Courland, Couronian and Governorate of Livonia, Livonian Baltic nobility, nobility from 7 December 1918 to 3 July 1919. Command structure The Lan ...

'') in 1918, and with the formation of independent

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

he became an officer of the 13th Infantry Regiment of Latvia and participated in liberation of

Latgale Latgale ( ltg, Latgola; ; ger, Lettgallen; be, Латгалія, Łathalija; pl, Łatgalia; la, Lettgallia), also known as Latgalia is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region and is north of the Daugava River. While m ...

. After Latvian agrarian reforms in 1920 and subsequent nationalisation of manor lands he decided to leave Latvia in 1922 in order to enter the Army of

Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

(''

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

''). Loringhoven initially sympathized with the

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

program for Germany. But, in 1934, he was disaffected by the

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Ad ...

. After more negative experiences with war crimes during the German invasion of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

), Loringhoven joined the resistance against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In 1943, with the help of

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Wilhelm Canaris Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral and the chief of the '' Abwehr'' (the German military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Canaris was initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi r ...

, Loringhoven was relocated to the High Command of the German Armed Forces ('' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'', or OKW) as a

20 July plot

Loringhoven provided the detonator charge and explosives for the assassination attempt against Hitler on 20 July 1944. He was able to obtain captured British explosives from German intelligence (''

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

'') sources. British explosives were used in order to make it harder to detect who had supplied them, and also to imply that the British were involved in the plot, thereby diverting attention from the actual conspirators. Nonetheless,

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich ...

, Chief of the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...

(''Reichssicherheitshauptamt''; RSHA), discovered the actions of Loringhoven. On 26 July 1944, immediately before he was to be arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and fully aware of the

interrogation techniques Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

utilized by them, Loringhoven committed suicide at Mauerwald in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

Aftermath

After his death, Loringhoven's wife was imprisoned along with relatives of the other members of the plot. Loringhoven's four sons were separated from their mother. All were eventually liberated by

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

forces. A close cousin,

Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven Alexander Otto Hermann Wolfgang Bernd(t) Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven (6 February 1914 – 27 February 2007), was a Baltic German officer in the German Army during World War II. In 1956, he joined the German Federal Armed Forces, the ''Bunde ...

, was not implicated only due to the intervention of General

Heinz Guderian Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (; 17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a German general during World War II who, after the war, became a successful memoirist. An early pioneer and advocate of the " blitzkrieg" approach, he played a central role in t ...

. His cousin was an occupant of the ''

Führerbunker The ''Führerbunker'' () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters ( ...

'' in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

towards the

end of World War II in Europe The final battle of the European Theatre of World War II continued after the definitive overall surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. After German dictator Adolf H ...

. Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven escaped Berlin, was captured by the British, and survived the war.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* Astaf von Transehe-Roseneck u.a.: ''Genealogisches Handbuch der Baltischen Ritterschaften.'' Band ''Livland'', Görlitz 1929, S. 416ff. *

: ''Freytag von Loringhoven. Eine kurzgefaßte Familiengeschichte'', München 1986 * Ulrich Cartarius: ''Opposition gegen Hitler. Deutscher Widerstand 1933–1945'' Berlin 1984, * Harald Steffahn: ''Die Wahrheit über Stalingrad'', in: Christian Zentner: ''Adolf Hitler'', Hamburg 1979 * '' Kaltenbrunner-Berichte an

Bormann Bormann is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Albert Bormann (1902–1989), German Nazi Party official, adjutant to Adolf Hitler * Cheryl Bormann (fl. 2008), American attorney * Edwin Bormann (1851–1912), German writer * ...

und Hitler über das Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944'', in: Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (Hrsg.): ''Spiegelbild einer Verschwörung'', Stuttgart 1961 * Sven Steenberg: '' Wlassow – Verräter oder Patriot?<'' Köln 1968 * Peter Hoffmann: ''Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat. Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler'', München 1969 * ''Wessel Baron Freytag von Loringhoven. Zum 25. Jahrestag des 20. Juli 1944'', in: ''Nachrichtenblatt der Baltischen Ritterschaften<'' 11. Jg. (1969), Heft 2 (Juni) * '' 20. Juli 1944'', hrsg. von der Bundeszentrale für Heimatdienst, Bonn 1960

Biography

20 July plot

Aftermath

References

Footnotes

Sources

Further reading