Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal

Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal
Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal
Born	(1907-02-23)23 February 1907 Potsdam, German Empire
Died	13 October 1944(1944-10-13) (aged 37) Berlin, Plötzensee Prison
Service/branch	German Army
Years of service	1935–44
Rank	Major
Battles/wars	Second World War

Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal (23 February 1907 – 13 October 1944) was a German and Army officer in the Second World War who was executed by the Nazi régime for his role in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Hans-Jürgen was born in Potsdam, the son of Count Hans (XII) von Blumenthal, and was christened Hans-Jürgen Adam Ludwig Oscar Leopold Bernard Arthur. His father, a colonel in the Prussian Army, had been wounded in the First World War, during which he served as military governor of the Belgian district of Neufchâteau.

The Blumenthal family, who had lost everything in the hyperinflation, moved to Neustrelitz in 1926. Educated at the Potsdam Gymnasium until 1928, followed by the Realgymnasium there, Blumenthal studied law and economics for two years at the Universities of Königsberg and Munich. He was a close friend of the eldest son of the last Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, to the extent that people said they behaved like twins.

At a young age he was a leading light of the Stahlhelm, or Steel Helmet Association, a conservative and fundamentally monarchist paramilitary organization formed after the end of the First World War for men who had served, later opened to military men in general. Blumenthal edited the Stahlhelm newsletter until the Nazis took over the Association in 1935. He was an instructor in the "covert" army. In 1928 he was approached by his cousin the First World War hero Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck with a proposal to form a common front between the German National People's Party and the Stahlhelm against the rise of National Socialism. The result was the so-called "Vorbeck-Blumenthal Pact".