The
need to take action coupled with a desire to protect the state
led Stauffenberg to enlist in the German Reichswehr (German
Army, pre-Hitler) in 1926. Stauffenberg was a sickly child and
during his early days as a soldier suffered from bouts of
exhaustion to acute gastritis. Through an iron determination he
pushed past these ailments and finished his basic training.
“Claus chose the No. 17 Cavalry Regiment which, like most
regiments of the truncated post-Versailles Reichswehr, was an
amalgamation of previously existing regiments."[4] He
became a second lieutenant in 1930 and a full lieutenant in
1933. Also in this year Stauffenberg married Frehierr Nina von
Lerchenfeld who was also a member of the old Germanic nobility.
As Claus worked his way through the junior ranks
of the Reichswehr Germany was embroiled in political and
economic chaos. The Great Depression had already broken
Germany’s economy which was already teetering on the brink due
to the massive stipulations of the Versailles Treaty which ended
World War One. While Reichswehr officers were discouraged from
political conversation and forbidden to vote by constitutional
decree, Stauffenberg did not concentrate entirely on his
military career. He felt that the army was not just an
instrument for war but was an important cog in the creation of a
new state. “In Stauffenberg’s eyes the armed forces were one of
the essential pillars of the nation, called upon to guarantee
both its security and reputation."[5] This should not imply
that he was in favor of the Weimar Republic. As mentioned
earlier his noble birth made him to feel that he had an
obligation to serve the community.
“Stauffenberg was no lover of the Weimar Republic; on the other
hand’ he did not approve of the attitude of some of his fellow
officers, though servants of the state, who despised it. In his
view, it was better to place oneself at the service of the
state, even if that seemed inadequate, rather than to stand
aside in ineffective arrogance."[6] While many of his colleagues
insulted the black, red, and gold flag of the Weimar Republic Stauffenberg did not primarily because it was the flag of the
state to which he had sworn fealty.
That fealty
would soon be tested when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came
to power. The actions of Hitler and his minions in the days
before the Second World War began would erode Stauffenberg’s
initial support of them and send him down a road that would lead
to eventual action against “The New Order.”
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Public History at the University of North
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Cadet
Stauffenberg, circa 1926
Claus and Nina von Stauffenberg
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wedding day - September, 1933
The rise of National Socialism
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