Bendlerblock
The Bendlerblock is a building in Berlin, located in the Stauffenbergstraße (originally named Bendlerstraße), south of the Tiergarten. It was erected between 1911 and 1914 for the German Navy Office. During the Weimar Republic it additionally served as the seat of the Reichswehr Command. Today, the building complex serves as secondary office of the German Federal Ministry of Defence, and is a major memorial place for the July 20 plot against Adolf Hitler.
Origin of the name
Stauffenbergstraße was originally named Bendlerstraße from 1837 until July 20, 1955, the year West Germany's army, the Bundeswehr was established. Bendlerstraße bears the name of Johann Christoph Bendler (1789-1873), Chief Mason and member of the Berlin city council, hence the name Bendlerblock.
History
Execution site, 1944
Under the leadership of the Infantry General Friedrich Olbricht, the center of the military resistance was formed in the Bendlerblock. It was here that Olbricht developed the "Valkyrie" operation plan into a plan for a coup d'état against Hitler. In October 1943 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was transferred to the General Army Office as Chief of Staff. His position gave him direct access to situation briefings in Hitler's eastern headquarters, the "Wolf's Lair in East Prussia." On July 20, 1944 he set the fuse of a bomb there and returned to Berlin.
The bomb went off, but Hitler survived. When news of Hitler's survival spread, the conspirators were unable to take control of Germany. Following the arrest of the conspirators in the Bendlerblock, General Olbricht, Colonel von Stauffenberg, Werner von Haeften, and Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim, all members of the uprising, were executed that same night in the courtyard of the building, by firing squad. A fifth plotter, Generaloberst Ludwig Beck, was offered the option of shooting himself, after which, he did.
Battle of Berlin, 1945
During the Battle of Berlin in late April early May 1945, General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, used the Bendlerblock as his headquarters before he surrendered to the Soviets at 06:00 hours on May 2. [1]
Post-war era
The section of the Bendlerblock around the courtyard where Stauffenberg and the other conspirators were executed now houses the Memorial to the German Resistance. It is also used as one of the ceremonial sites where new members of the Wachbataillon of the Bundeswehr (German military's drill unit) take their oaths.
Use in filming
The Ministry tends to restrict access to the Bendlerblock due to its historical significance and lingering sensitivities about Germany's role in World War II.[citation needed] Filming permission was granted to a movie studio in 2003, but the Ministry of Defence was displeased with the result.[citation needed] The Ministry hesitated to grant permission for scenes of the Tom Cruise led-movie Valkyrie, about the July 20 Plot, to be filmed there. However, the permission was eventually granted, and filming for the movie was allowed. (Primarily photographed in and around Berlin, with some African and other scenes having been filmed in California.) [2] Director Bryan Singer led the film crew in a minute of silence before filming began in honour of those who were executed on the site in 1944.[3]
External links
References
- ^ Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5 pp.358,388
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Tom Cruise Marks Disputed Filming With Moment of Silence". Deutsche Welle. September 24, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
'Shortly before we started filming, screenplay writer Christopher McQuarrie, director Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise made short remarks and then asked for a minute of silence, out of respect for the place and out of respect for the life achievement of these people who were executed there,' German actor Christian Berkel, who plays fellow plotter Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, was quoted as saying in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
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