Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg
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"Nina" Magdalena Elisabeth Vera Lydia Herta Schenk Gräfin[1] von Stauffenberg (27 August 1913 – 2 April 2006) collaborated with and advised her husband, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Later in life, she collaborated to reveal his full story and attempt to vindicate the German people as having attempted 15 times to remove Adolf Hitler from power via assassination.
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[edit] History
She was born as Freiin[2] von Lerchenfeld in Kowno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania), to General Consul Gustav Freiherr von Lerchenfeld (1871–1944) and the Baltic-German noblewoman Anna Freiin von Stackelberg (1880–1945). In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg, von Stauffenberg's youngest daughter, wrote a best-selling[citation needed] book about Nina Schenk Graefin von Stauffenberg[1].
Her efforts to show the world that many Germans struggled to kill and destroy Hitler are well documented[citation needed]. Her contributions have recently been revealed (2006) in several languages, translated or are being translated now, and were featured in a full-length motion picture with Tom Cruise. Her efforts in the latter part of her life have brought healing to the world that formerly believed little to no one opposed Hitler, lifted one finger to stop him and all Germans willingly enjoyed killing Jewish people and wreaking havoc on the world.
Nina met Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a Roman Catholic, at the age of sixteen while attending a girls' boarding school in Wieblingen, Heidelberg. They were engaged on his twenty-third birthday and married three years later on 26 September 1933, in Bamberg. In accordance with von Stauffenberg tradition, the couple's children were raised as Catholics, even though Nina, as well as Stauffenberg's own mother, remained Protestant. The marriage produced five children:
- Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. 1934)
- Heimeran Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. Bamberg, 9 July 1936), unmarried and without issue
- Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. 1938)
- Valerie Ida Huberta Karoline Anna Maria Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (Bamberg, 15 November 1940 - München, 4 June 1966), married on 4 April 1964 Heino von L'Estocq (b. Potsdam, 6 April 1935)
- Konstanze Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (b. in prison Frankfurt am Main, 27 January 1945), married on 8 April 1967 Dietrich von Schultheiss-Rechberg (b. Zurich, 13 October 1937)
After her husband's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler (von Stauffenberg was executed the night of 21 July), the Countess von Stauffenberg was arrested by the Gestapo and taken into custody. (Cf. the practice of Sippenhaft.) Since the children did not know what their father had done, the government placed them in an orphanage in Bad Sachsa, Lower Saxony, under false names (Meister), since Stauffenberg was no longer acceptable.
Nina von Stauffenberg (who had been pregnant at the time of Stauffenberg's death) gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze, on 17 January 1945, while imprisoned in a Nazi maternity center in Frankfurt an der Oder. That same year, her mother Anna died in a Russian camp.
By the war's end, she had been moved to the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen, where she was held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property. After the war, she was reunited with her family at the Stauffenberg family seat in Lautlingen, Baden-Württemberg.
Nina von Stauffenberg died on April 2 2006, aged 92, at Kirchlauter near Bamberg, Bavaria and was buried there on April 8.
[edit] Depiction in media
- Dutch actress Carice van Houten portrays Nina von Stauffenberg in the 2008 Bryan Singer thriller Valkyrie.
[edit] References
For additional English-language references, see the article on Claus von Stauffenberg.
- ^ Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg. Ein Porträt. Biography. Pendo Verlag: Munich 2008, ISBN 3-858-42652-0. Also, ISBN 9783858426529.
- (German) Zeller, Eberhard (1994). Oberst Claus Graf Stauffenberg. Ein Lebensbild. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 3506797700.
- (German) Steffahn, Harald (2002). Stauffenberg. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Reinbek. ISBN 3-499-50520-7.
- (German) Ueberschär, Gerd R. (2004). Stauffenberg. Der 20. Juli 1944. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 3100860039.
- (German) Von Hassel, Fey. "Niemals sich beugen". dtv.
- (German) Von Meding, Dorothee (1997). Mit dem Mut des Herzens – Die Frauen des 20. Juli. btb Verlag. ISBN 3-442-72171-7.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Regarding personal names: Gräfin is a title, translated as Countess, not a first or middle name. The male form is Graf.
- ^ Regarding personal names: Freiin is a title, translated as Baroness, not a first or middle name. The title is for the unmarried daughters of a Freiherr.
[edit] External links
- (German) "Stauffenberg-Witwe gestorben" – Netzzeitung, 4 April 2006
- Schenk von Stauffenberg
