Valkyrie: The real von Stauffenberg: a German colonel led a coup to assassinate Hitler and rescue Germany from an evil regime.(HISTORY--STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM)(Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and Adolf Hitler)(Biography)

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On a sultry July day in 1944, a man walks into the "Wolf's Lair" carrying a briefcase. He is initiating a bold plot, one that aims to assassinate one of the world's most ruthless and powerful men, Adolf Hitler, and topple the whole of his Nazi government. Integral to this ambitious coup is what lies in his briefcase--a bomb. It is set to detonate ... the wheels are in motion. It is only a matter of time now.

The man was Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the driving force behind what became known as the July 20 plot and the main character in Valkyrie, the recently released movie about the event. The film seeks to acquaint the audience with this hero and the conspiracy of which he was part, yet it depicts the machinations better than the man. And this is a shame, because quite a man he was.

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The Man and His Motivations

Claus von Stauffenberg was born of aristocratic stock in his family's castle in what was then the Kingdom of Bavaria, on November 15, 1907. He was the youngest of three brothers, and his Roman Catholic family was one of the oldest and most distinguished in southern Germany. Claus was a gifted boy and excelled in both academics and athletics. He gravitated toward literature, becoming a lover of poetry, and he learned to speak fluent Russian, French, and English and semi-fluent Greek and Latin. His equestrian skills won him a place on the German Olympic team. Nevertheless, he chose a military career, joined a cavalry regiment (horses were relied upon for many transportation duties even during WWII) in 1926, and four years later was commissioned a second lieutenant. In 1933, he married Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld, and they ultimately would have five children together.

That same year Hitler rose to power in Germany. But von Stauffenberg would not become a Nazi, and early on expressed misgivings about the regime, feelings that would become more intense as the National Socialists increasingly displayed their true colors. For example, he was appalled by the November 1938 Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Crystal," commonly referred to as "Night of the Broken Glass"), when in a single night the Nazis ransacked thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. He considered Kristallnacht to be a stain upon Germany, and, owing to this atrocity and many others, that year he became completely disillusioned with the Nazis. And he wasn't alone in his feelings.