Heinz Brandt
| Heinz Brandt | |
|---|---|
Peenemünde (1941): Brandt is on the left of Wernher von Braun (wearing a civil suit)
|
|
| Born |
11 March 1907 Charlottenburg, Berlin |
| Died | 21 July 1944 (aged 37) Rastenburg, East Prussia |
| Allegiance |
 Weimar Republic Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch | Army |
| Years of service | 1925–1944 |
| Rank | Generalmajor (posthumously) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Equestrian | ||
Representing  Germany
|
||
 |
1936 Berlin | Show jumping, Team |
Generalmajor Heinz Brandt (11 March 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German officer during World War II who served during as an aide to General Adolf Heusinger, the head of the operations unit of the General Staff. He may have inadvertently saved Adolf Hitler's life, at the cost of his own, by moving the 20 July plot bomb planted by Claus von Stauffenberg.
Brandt was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin and enlisted in the Reichswehr in 1925. He attended a course at the cavalry school in Hanover from 1927 to 1928 and was commissioned a lieutenant. In 1936 he was a member of the gold medal winning German show jumping team in the equestrian event at the Berlin Summer Olympics, on his horse Alchemy.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he was a Hauptmann on the general staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. After serving in an infantry division he was promoted to Major in January 1941 and Oberstleutnant in April 1942.
On 13 March 1943 Brandt was an unwitting participant in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. Generalmajor Henning von Tresckow instructed Lieutenant Fabian Von Schlabrendorff to ask Brandt to carry a package containing bottles of what he claimed was Cointreau onto Hitler's Condor plane for delivery to Oberst Helmuth Stieff as payment for a lost bet. The package in fact contained a primed bomb which in the event failed to detonate.
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