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Hellmuth Stieff | |
|---|---|
 Stieff in Russia, May 1942 | |
| Born | (1901-06-06)6 June 1901 Deutsch Eylau,West Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 8 August 1944(1944-08-08) (aged 43) Plötzensee Prison,Berlin,Nazi Germany |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Allegiance |  Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany |
| Service | Army |
| Years of service | 1922–44 |
| Rank | Generalmajor |
| Commands | Chief of Organisation atOKH |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | German Cross in Gold Iron Cross 1st Class Iron Cross 2nd Class |
Hellmuth Stieff (6 June 1901 – 8 August 1944) was aGermangeneral and a member of theOKH (German Army Headquarters) duringWorld War II. He took part in attempts by theGerman resistance to assassinateAdolf Hitler on 7 and20 July 1944.
Stieff was born inDeutsch Eylau (nowIława, Poland) in the province ofWest Prussia. He was graduated fromInfanterieschule München of theReichswehr, the German army afterWorld War I in 1922, and was commissioned alieutenant ofInfantry. As early as 1927, young Stieff served in support of theGeneral Staff .
Stieff joined theWehrmacht General Staff in 1938, serving in theOrganisationsabteilung (coordination department) under MajorAdolf Heusinger. Recognized for his excellent organizational skills, Stieff in October 1942 was appointed Chief of Organisation at OKH, despite Hitler's strong personal dislike. Hitler called the young, diminutive Stieff a "poisonous little dwarf."
From the 1939Invasion of Poland onwards, Stieff conceived an abhorrence for the Nazi military strategy. When inWarsaw in November 1939, he wrote letters to his wife expressing his disgust for and despair over Hitler's conduct of the war and the atrocities committed inoccupied Poland. He wrote that he had become the "tool of a despotic will to destroy without regard for humanity and simple decency."[1]
_Hellmuth_Stieff.jpg)
Invited by GeneralHenning von Tresckow, Stieff joined the German resistance in summer 1943. Taking advantage of being in charge ofOrganisationsabteilung, he acquired and kept all sorts of explosives, including some from foreign sources. He provided the explosives forvon dem Bussche's canceled assassination attempt on Hitler at theWolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in November.
As one of the officers who had occasional access to Hitler, he volunteered to kill Hitler himself in a suicide attack but later backed away despite repeated requests from Tresckow and ColonelClaus von Stauffenberg to carry out the assassination. On 7 July 1944, during a demonstration of new uniforms to Hitler atSchloss Klessheim, a palace nearSalzburg, Stieff was indisposed to trigger the bomb. Stauffenberg, therefore, decided to kill Hitler himself.
In the morning of 20 July, Stieff flew with Stauffenberg and LieutenantWerner von Haeften in theHeinkel He 111 plane provided by GeneralEduard Wagner fromBerlin to theWolfsschanze. In the night he was arrested and brutally interrogated under torture by theGestapo. Stieff held out for several days against all attempts to extract the names of fellow conspirators. Ousted by the Wehrmacht, he was tried by thePeople's Court (Volksgerichtshof) under PresidentRoland Freisler and sentenced to death on 8 August 1944. At Hitler's personal request, Stieff was executed by hanging in the afternoon of that same day atPlötzensee Prison inBerlin.
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