Helmuth Stieff

Helmuth Stieff
Born	6 June 1901(1901-06-06) Deutsch Eylau (Iława) in West Prussia.
Died	8 August 1944(1944-08-08) (aged 43) Berlin, Germany
Allegiance	Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1922–1944
Rank	Generalmajor
Commands held	Chief of Organization at OKH
Battles/wars	World War II

Helmuth Stieff (6 June 1901 – 8 August 1944) was a German general and a member of the OKH (German Army General Staff) during World War II. He took part in attempts by the German resistance to assassinate Hitler, on July 7 and on July 20, 1944.

Stieff was born in Deutsch Eylau (now "Iława"), West Prussia (now in Poland). He was graduated from Infanterieschule München in 1922 and was commissioned a lieutenant of infantry. As early as 1927, young Stieff served in support of the General Staff of the Reichswehr, the German army after World War I. Stieff joined the General Staff in 1938.

Recognized for his excellent organizational skills, Stieff was appointed Chief of Organization at OKH headquarters in October, 1942, despite Hitler's strong personal dislike. Hitler called the young, diminutive Stieff a "poisonous little dwarf."

During the war (for example, when in Warsaw in November, 1939), Stieff wrote many letters to his wife expressing his disgust for and despair over Hitler's conduct of the war and the atrocities committed in occupied Poland. He wrote that he had become the "tool of a despotic will to destroy without regard for humanity and simple decency".

Invited by Henning von Tresckow, Stieff joined the German resistance. Taking advantage of being in charge of "Organisationsabteilung" [coordination department], he was able to acquire and keep all sorts of explosives, including foreign ones.

Helmuth Stieff on trial at the People's Court

As one of the officers who had occasional access to Hitler, he volunteered to kill Hitler in a suicide attack but later backed away despite repeated requests from Tresckow and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg to carry out the assassination. On July 7, 1944, during a demonstration of new uniforms to Hitler at Schloss Klessheim, a palace near Salzburg, Stieff was indisposed to trigger the bomb. Stauffenberg therefore decided himself to kill Hitler.

Stieff on July 20th had been flying with Stauffenberg in an He 111 plane provided by Wagner from Berlin to Rastenburg. He was arrested on July 21, 1944, at the Wolf's Lair and brutally interrogated under torture. Stieff held out for several days against all attempts to extract the names of fellow conspirators. Tried by the Volksgerichtshof ("People's Court"), he was sentenced to death on August 8, 1944, and executed that same day in Plötzensee prison in Berlin.

See also

• German Resistance

External links

• GDW-Biographies
• Kurzbiografie