Hans Bernd von Haeften

Hans-Bernd August Gustav von Haeften
Born	(1905-12-18)December 18, 1905 Berlin, Germany
Died	August 15, 1944(1944-08-15) (aged 38) Berlin, Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Occupation	Diplomat
Known for	German Resistance

Hans-Bernd August Gustav von Haeften (18 December, 1905 – 15 August, 1944) was a German jurist and member of the German Resistance against Adolf Hitler.

Haeften was born in Berlin to Agnes (née von Brauchitsch, a relative of Walther von Brauchitsch) and Hans von Haeften, an army officer and President of the Reichsarchiv. His siblings were Elisabeth and Werner (1908-1944). After studying law, which had led him as an exchange student to Oxford University, he first found himself busy with the Stresemann Foundation, and then in 1933, he joined the Foreign Service. He worked mainly for the cultural-political department of the Foreign Office and as a cultural attaché in Copenhagen, Vienna and Bucharest.

In 1940, Haeften became the department's leader, but refused to join the Nazi Party. From 1933, he belonged to the Confessing Church. He had contacts with the Kreisau Circle, especially through Ulrich von Hassell and Adam von Trott zu Solz. He refused on religious and moral grounds to have anything to do with the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life that the Kreisau Circle was planning, but supported the attempt to overthrow Hitler and stood ready to take power at the Foreign Ministry for the plotters.

In January 1944 he stopped his brother, Werner, from shooting Hitler with a pistol with the argument that this would break the Fifth Commandment.

Haeften was arrested on 23 July 1944, three days after the assassination attempt at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, for which his brother Werner von Haeften, as Claus von Stauffenberg's adjutant, was summarily shot. On 15 August, Haeften was brought before the People's Court, where he described Hitler as "a great perpetrator of evil". He was sentenced to death and hanged the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

References

• Fest, Joachim (1996), Plotting Hitler's Death (translation of 'Staatsstreich: Der lange Weg zum 20 Juli'), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297817744
• von Haeften, Barbara (1997, with the documents, accusation of crimes before and after the 8 Mai 1945, in defense against/accusation of the Hitlerite/nazist lawunderstanding, "lawhumiliation" (Fam. von Moltke, 1943) of 1944 and against the "wrong way of amnesty" (FJ Müller / Weiße Rose, Affidavit at "President's Holocaust Commission" and partners/notifiers, Berlin/London. The 1944 lawsuite was renewd to advantage to the humiliated and terrorised, censored "Supreme Command of Lawenforcement" at Buckingham Palace, Atalanta et al., which is of course not possible with Hitler/nazi Amnesty. Ref.: Affidavit Ms von Haeften at O&W und/and partner)), Nichts Schriftliches von Politik - Hans Bernd von Haeften: Ein Lebensbericht, München (C.H.Beck) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Fam Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt, "Verbrecher und andere Deutsche / Criminals and the other Germany", Oslo 1946 / Bonn 2007, mit einer Bestrafung 1:1.
• Hoffmann, Peter (1995), Stauffenberg (translation of 'Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine Brüder'), University of Cambridge, ISBN 0521453070

See also

• German Resistance
• List of members of the July 20 plot

External links

• Template:PND
• 20 July, Operation Vakyrie/Walküre, [1]
• "bringing killers to justice" of Fam. von Haeften, partners/notifiers was and is the Presidential, Lawenforcement guiding line, which has to be respected and protected effectively against fascist attacks, a line which is accepted by more than 80% in a referendum, here and there, 1 Nov 2003, www.VOANews.gov, as well as to check (by writing) at: wwww.stiftung-adam-von-trott.de