If you could travel back in time and kill anyone, who would it be? Most people would say Adolf
Hitler-- the genocidal dictator who built Nazi Germany and ushered in the second world war.
But that might make you wonder -- why was Hitler NOT assassinated?
Well it wasn’t for a lack of trying. In fact, there were more than forty failed
attempts before Hitler went full Thanos and said “Fine, I will do it myself”.
But why did no one else succeed in killing Hitler? Let’s find out today on Nutty History!
The very first attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life was long before he came into power.
Back in 1921, a young and still largely unknown Hitler gave a radical speech at Munich’s famous
Hofbräuhaus beer hall. This was perhaps one of the earliest extremist speeches by Hitler
under the banner of a recently formed Nazi Party. This enraged a lot of drunk people in
the bar and a fight ensued. As fists, bottles, and chairs went flying, an unknown group of
assailants fired several rounds towards the podium where Hitler delivered the speech.
Miraculously, all the bullets missed Hitler who kept ranting for another twenty minutes
before the police arrived. Surviving this attack gave Hitler enough strength to attempt his first
seizure of power in Germany two years later, in what is now known as Beer Hall Putsch.
Hitler survived two more assassination attempts in 1923, the year of Beer Hall Putsch, a coup on
the German government. Assassins tried shooting him on two separate occasions, once while he was
delivering yet another speech, and once while he was traveling in a car. The efforts were dialed
to eleven nine years later, in 1932. Five separate assassination attempts were made on the soon-to-be
Fuhrer. They tried pelting stones at him during a speech, with one of the stones managing to wound
him, but not fatally. They tried ambushing his car again but failed to be at the right time
and at the right place. They tried to shoot him, one more time, while he was travelling by train.
Another attempt involved a poisoned letter from Ludwig Assner, a German politician in France, but
it was intercepted by the authorities. The closest of all five attempts was the effort to poison him
during a dinner at the revered Kaiserhof hotel in Berlin. Ironically, Hitler was the least
affected of all the guests. Some experts say the reason Hitler survived was his vegetarian diet.
The assassins tried twice to blow up Hitler, unsuccessfully in 1933.
Karl Luttner, the leader of the Labor Party, plotted to plant explosives under the stage made
for Hitler’s final speech before election day, which would lead to Hitler’s ascension to power.
However, the incumbent democratic government found out about the plot. Another group tried
blowing up a church, where newly appointed Chancellor Hitler was supposed to make a visit.
Nevertheless, the secret police discovered the tunnel made for planting explosives,
and the attempt was thwarted. The two failed assassination plans forced Hitler’s enemies
to rethink ways to take out the chancellor. Dr. Helmut Mylius, a German industrialist and a leader
of the Party of the Radical Middle Class, allied with Captain Hermann Ehrhardt, a retired navy
officer. They decided to overthrow Hitler from within the Nazi Party, and on their behest,
nearly a hundred and fifty right-wing politicians infiltrated the SS. But, the Gestapo found out
about the conspiracy long before any harm was done and a majority of infiltrators were arrested and
shot. Mylius himself used his connection with Field Marshal Erich von Manstein to escape
persecution. The infiltrators who were never found continued internal resistance from within SS.
On November 26th 1937, a mental patient named Joseph Thomas traveled from Elberfeld to Berlin
to shoot Hitler and Goring but was intercepted by Gestapo at the station. Thomas’ motive was
unknown, but Maurice Bavaud got very close to assassinating Hitler almost a year later with
a very similar plan. Bavaud had a clear reason unlike Thomas, he was convinced that Hitler was
the incarnation of Satan himself. Bavaud was a Catholic theology student from Switzerland,
attending the Saint Ilan Seminary, Brittany, and a member of the anti-communist student
group in France called Compagnie du Mystère. For some reason, the group believed that Hitler
was responsible for the rise of communism in Russia, and Bavaud was chosen as the one to
reinstate the Romanov Dynasty in the Soviet Union, by killing Hitler as the first step.
Bavaud traveled from Brittany to Baden-Baden on October 9th, 1938 with a semi-automatic pistol.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a personal meeting with the chancellor. Still, off a tip from a
police officer, Bavaud traveled to Munich for the anniversary of Beer Hall Putsch. His plan was to
shoot Hitler while the German dictator passed him during the parade. Yet, when the moment arrived,
Bavaud couldn’t muster the strength to shoot, as he didn’t have a clear shot and strangely,
Bavaud didn’t want to shoot any of the other Nazi leaders surrounding Hitler by mistake. Bavaud made
one more attempt to meet Hitler closely by forging a letter from a French politician but by the time
arrangements were made Hitler had left for another city. Gestapo then apprehended Bavaud on the tip
of the conductor of the bus he was taking to Paris. He was executed by guillotine in 1941.
During March of 1943, the second world war was at its peak and Hitler had shown his true colors. He
began spreading his forces on both fronts of Europe. He was scheduled to visit Ukraine and
Smolensk, Russia -- to encourage soldiers fighting through the harsh winter of East Europe. General
der Gebirgstruppe Hubert Lanz, who was stationed in Ukraine, planned a coup against the Fuhrer,
that would’ve surrounded Hitler’s entourage with tanks to lead to an arrest. However,
Hitler canceled his visit and the plan never went through. Yet, Hitler did visit the fronts
in Russia, and on his return, several attempts were made on his life. Major Georg von Boeselager,
along with his faithful officers, tried to intercept and assassinate Hitler in a grove,
but the presence of SS forced the conspirators to drop the plan. At the headquarters of the Army
Group Center in Smolensk, Boeselager along with Tresckow planned to fire their pistols at Hitler
in a near-suicide mission. But the plan was called off again after it was known that Himmler won’t
be attending lunch alongside the Fuhrer. Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, who was supporting
the coup silently, intervened as he feared Himmler would be worse for the Fatherland if he replaced
Hitler -- making the assassination fruitless. As a last-ditch effort, Fabian von Schlabrendorff,
gifted a bomb to an officer in Hitler’s entourage, disguised as a package of two liquor bottles.
The bomb was set to explode while Hitler’s aircraft was somewhere over Poland. However,
the bomb froze as it was kept in the hold, and the detonator malfunctioned. Luckily,
the package was retrieved by the schemers before it’s true contents were discovered.
On the 21st of March, Tresckow tried once more to kill Hitler when Rudolf Gersdorff
volunteered to act as a suicide bomber, during a tour of captured Soviet weapons.
This was an enormous opportunity, as Hitler wasn’t alone. Goring, Himmler, Donitz, and Keitel,
the whole top administration of Nazi Germany was there along with the dictator. The exhibition of
weapons was set in a museum and Gerdorff set off two ten-minute delayed fuses on explosive devices,
hidden in his coat. His plan was to embrace Hitler as the bombs went off to make sure
the dictator wouldn’t survive, alongside himself. However, Hitler was pressed for time,
and raced along the exhibition to end the tour well within ten minutes. After Hitler left the
building, Gersdorff dashed to the bathroom to defuse the bombs. Hitler got away, once again.
On July 20th 1944, a handsome Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, entered Hitler’s military
headquarters with a briefcase rigged to explode. His motive was simple, to assassinate the Fuhrer,
and flip the control of the German Government. This wasn’t your average “shoot hitler when he’s
speaking in a bar fight” plan, but a conspiracy, years in the making. Stauffenberg was just one of
a very large group of German elites, desperate to get rid of the dictator, bring back monarchy to
Germany, and restore peace with the allied powers. Other major plotters consisted of
General Friedrich Olbricht, General Tresckow, and General Helmuth Stieff among many others.
Helmuth Stieff, chief of organization in Army High Command, volunteered early to be the assassin but
later backed out. This is why Stauffenberg had to be the one who had to carry the bomb briefcase
and the one to initiate Operation Valkyrie, the change of power on a fateful day. Despite
meticulous planning, this assassination attempt was a result of desperation. Two other attempts by
the same group had been foiled in the past. Major Axel von dem Bussche, encouraged by Stauffenberg,
attempted a suicide bombing of Hitler with a landmine, while modeling the new Uniforms for
inspection. But the viewing was canceled, as the new uniforms didn’t arrive on time. Later, Ewald
von Kleist tried a similar scheme during another uniform inspection but this time Hitler himself
canceled the visit. This is why, 20th of July was so important for Stauffenberg and his associates.
They considered this opportunity, as now or never, and decided to go with the plan,
no matter what. But as fate would have it, everything that could go wrong for Stauffenberg,
did. It was a hot summer day, and somebody in the organization management decided to shift the venue
of the meeting to an airy wood cabin instead of the concrete bunker, where such meetings
usually occurred. This reduced the intensity of the bomb explosion due to windows and softer
floors and walls. Moreover, as Stauffenberg was also in charge of initiating Valkyrie,
he couldn’t risk sacrificing himself in the process. Stauffenberg, put the briefcase next
to the desk adjacent to Hitler’s, and slipped out of the meeting on the pretense of a phone call.
The officer who came in and replaced Stauffenberg, ended up kicking the briefcase further away from
the Fuhrer. And when the explosion happened, while Stauffenberg saw the windows blown out
from a distance, the impact inside the cabin was less critical than expected.
Adolf was sincerely injured, his trousers shredded, he found his right arm paralytic-- but
the dictator would survive. Unaware of Hitler’s survival, Stauffenberg rushed operation Valkyrie,
declaring the dictator dead on the phone to his co-conspirators. This call played an important
role in exposing the convicts of the assassination plots. Soon, news of Hitler’s survival surfaced,
causing massive hysteria amongst lesser members of the coup. Colonel-General Fromm,
who was aware of the coup from the beginning, executed General Olbricht to save his own skin. He
was also the reason behind the executions of other major members including Stauffenberg. Himmler and
Goring started a massive loyalty check among the ranks of SS and Gestapo. Anyone showing the
slightest hesitation of blind loyalty to Hitler, was executed, imprisoned, or hung by piano wires.
It is said that Hitler ordered filming of the executions of the personal families of the
conspirators and enjoyed viewing them. However, it wasn’t long after, that the Red Army’s invasion of
Berlin happened and Hitler took his own life. So, what do you think? What would the world look like
today if any of the people in this story actually killed Hitler? Tell us in the comments below,
and don’t forget to subscribe, and click that bell for more crazy stories, on Nutty History.