28th July 1944
Graf von der Schulenburg

Notes

Schulenburg arrested on 21st July

This correspondence posted 28th July from Schulenburg's office (?) in Falkenberg seven days after his arrest. How much did the public know. How much did official know?

More research required.

Graf von der Schulenburg

Friedrich-Werner Erdmann Matthias Johann Bernhard Erich Graf von der Schulenburg (1875-1944) was a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, during World War II. He began his diplomatic career before World War I, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries.

After a prolonged conflict with the Nazi regime, he turned against the main Nazi Party and joined the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler. After the failed 20th July plot in 1944 to assassinate Hitler, Schulenburg was accused of being a co-conspirator and five months later executed.

He was a Knight of Justice of the Order of St John, which was regarded with disfavour by the Nazis.

In the 1930s, Schulenburg acquired the Burg Falkenberg, a castle in the Upper Palatinate. He had it converted and renovated to serve as a home for his retirement. This monumental work was undertaken between 1936 and 1939.

After the First World War, Schulenburg got his diplomatic career going again, becoming, among other things, an envoy to Tehran and Bucharest. In 1934, he was appointed German ambassador to the Soviet Union. Schulenburg favoured an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, and was instrumental in bringing about the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939. After the Soviet invasion of Poland, despite the state of war between Germany and Poland, he used his position as the most senior ambassador in Moscow to allow Polish diplomats (including ambassador Wacław Grzybowski) to leave the Soviet Union, when the Soviets tried to arrest them.

Schulenburg was kept in the dark about Germany's planned invasion of the Soviet Union. He knew for certain that the invasion would take place only a few hours before it was launched, when Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop cabled him a message to read to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov justifying the invasion. He, however, got suspicions of what his government was planning to do in the spring of 1941. To the last, he tried to thwart any talk of invasion by such means as hinting at the Soviet Union's military strength and the unassailability of its industrial reserves. He is quoted as having said to Molotov on the morning of the attack: 'For the last six years I've personally tried to do everything I could to encourage friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany. But you can't stand in the way of destiny.' A few weeks before the invasion, Schulenburg tried to warn the Soviet Ambassador to Germany Vladimir Dekanozov of his suspicions, but Dekanozov dismissed the evidence of military preparations as false British propaganda.

After the German invasion began on 22nd June 1941, Schulenburg was interned by the Soviets for a few weeks and was transferred to the Soviet-Turkish border for repatriation. Thereafter, Schulenburg was assigned as leader of the Russia Committee, a Foreign Office post with no political influence, to neutralise him.

He later joined the conspiracy to overthrow Hitler in the hope of reaching a quick peace agreement in the east. He was ready and willing to negotiate even with Joseph Stalin on behalf of the plotters. Had they been successful in overthrowing Hitler, Schulenburg would have been a high-ranking official in the Foreign Office; some sources had him listed as foreign minister. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life on 20th July 1944, Schulenburg was arrested and charged with high treason. On 23rd October 1944, the Volksgerichtshof ('People's Court') sentenced him to death, and he was hanged on 10th November 1944 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

Source: Wikipedia

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