Wilhelm Bernardo Walter Cramer (1 May 1886 – 14 November 1944) was a German businessman from Leipzig and a member of the failed

20 July Plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...

to assassinate

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

at the Wolf's Lair in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

Life

In 1919, Cramer became managing director of the ''Kammgarnspinnerei Gautzsch AG'', a

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead (from Old English ''Wurðestede'', "enclosure place"), a village in the English county of Norfolk. T ...

yarn spinning mill. From 1923, he was on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

of the ''Leipziger Kammgarnspinnerei Stöhr & Co. AG'', another

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

in the same industry. In the first half of the 1940s, Cramer took part in civilian resistance against the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

régime with Leipzig's former mayor Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1884-1945). After the attempt on the

Führer ( , spelled ''Fuehrer'' when the umlaut is unavailable) is a German word meaning "leader" or " guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially cal ...

's life failed on 20 July 1944, Cramer was seized on 22 July, and later found guilty at the '' Volksgerichtshof'' of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

and

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

, for which he was sentenced to death. He was

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

at Plötzensee

Prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

in Berlin on 14 November 1944.

Honours

In 1945, a street in the Gohlis neighbourhood of Leipzig was named ''Walter-Cramer-Straße'' after him. The City of Leipzig also honoured Walter Cramer with a monument in the Johannapark in 1996.

External links

* 1886 births 1944 deaths People educated at the St. Thomas School, Leipzig German National People's Party politicians Executed monarchists in the German Resistance Executed members of the 20 July plot People from the Kingdom of Saxony Businesspeople from Leipzig People from Saxony executed at Plötzensee Prison People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison {{Germany-business-bio-stub