Speculative Natures – What Ifs at The Wolf’s Lair (Northern Poland & Berlin #41e)

Put two guys together for two plus weeks sleeping in five different places under varying levels of stress and there will be a certain amount of tension that at some point has to be released. Add to this the fact that both guys, spend an inordinate amount of the rest of their lives alone and it is a miracle they made it as far as Poland. You must really like someone to enjoy travelling with them. More importantly, you must exercise a certain amount of tolerance for one another’s differing habits, diets, and opinions. In the case of my travel companion and I, we are compatible on the most important level, specifically a shared love of history. That has taken us a long way in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe. We reached the eastern limit of our travels at the Wolf’s Lair (Wolfsschanze) in north Poland. Fortunately, our tolerance for one another never reached a limit.

Knowing their places – Exhibit at Wolf’s Lair on the July 20 assassination attempt

Bomb’s Away – A Brief Moment
Travel with another person long enough and a disagreement is likely to occur at some point. If it does not, then you must be traveling alone. My travel companion and I were just beginning to get our bearings at the Wolf’s Lair when we came across its most famous ruin, the Staff Meeting Barrack where Claus von Stauffenberg planted the bomb that came close to killing Adolf Hitler. My friend and I stood staring at the concrete traces of the building where the most famous failed assassination attempt in history took place. It was a very strange feeling. So much speculation surrounds what happened here in the early afternoon of July 20, 1944, that standing before the ruins is a surreal experience. If the Staff Meeting Barrack was not marked, no one would give it a second thought. Because of its fame, visitors stare at the ruins not quite knowing what to think.

Later on our visit, my travel companion and I came across an exhibit at the Wolf’s Lair which did a good job of telling the story of what happened on that fateful day. The most fascinating part was seeing the room’s exact setup. This is integral to understanding why Hitler was not killed when the bomb went off. Just five minutes prior to the bomb’s detonation, Stauffenberg left the meeting as he claimed to be taking an important phone call. He had already placed the briefcase with the bomb close to Hitler. Between the time he left the building until the bomb’s detonation, one crucial thing happened that saved Hitler’s life. One of the briefing attendees wanted to get a closer look at the map being shown about the situation on the Eastern Front. The briefcase with the bomb was in his way so he moved it with his foot and pushed it behind the leg of the conference table. If not for that, Hitler would almost certainly been killed. Many believe that history would have taken a much different turn, but would it have?

Bombed out – Site of the Staff Meeting Barrack where the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler occurred

All or Nothing – Until The Bitter End
“If he was going to assassinate Hitler, he had to go all the way. That was his (Stauffenberg’s) mistake.” That was my friend’s verdict on Stauffenberg’s failed assassination attempt. I could not have agreed more. Stauffenberg was not prepared to be blown to bits along with Hitler. Instead, he was trying to have his cake and eat it too. Where my friend and I disagreed was with what would have happened if Hitler had been assassinated. My friend believes that the rest of the 20 July Plot which involved the arrest of the Nazi leaders and formation of an emergency government would have worked. This argument has it merits. With Hitler dead, the Nazi’s would have lost their indispensable leader. It is doubtful anyone could have replaced Hitler, especially the psychological grip he held over his fellow Nazis, many military leaders, and the German people.

I acknowledge that Hitler was irreplaceable, but the ruthlessness of other Nazi leaders along with the rank and file of the SS would have been difficult to contain. Rather than a provisional government that could stop the war, a successful assassination might just as well have led to a period of anarchy as differing factions fought for control of Germany. One of the reasons that the Nazis were able to take power and keep it was because they were much more ruthless than any of their opponents. That included many of the military officers who loathed Hitler. Stauffenberg and others involved in the resistance to Hitler were attempting a coup as much to keep their own privileges, as they were to save Germany from destruction. Conversely, the Nazis were all in on the war to the bitter end. For them it was an all or nothing proposition. They were bound to try any measures possible to get control of a post-Hitler Germany. Because of this, the likelihood of civil conflict would have been extremely high.

Pants down – Hitler’s trousers after the assassination attempt (Credit: Bundesarchiv)

Anyone’s Guess – A License To Speculate
As far as disagreements among travelers ours was a rather mild one. Yet it illustrates that history is a very serious business, as it should be for anyone trying to understand the world we live in today. Today is nothing more nor less than the product of a thousand yesterdays and all the devastated dreams of the future that failed to materialize due to historical happenstance. The stakes for my friend and I in settling what amounts to a historical argument were nonexistent. This is the opposite of everything that was at stake the moment Stauffenberg’s bomb detonated. A successful assassination of Hitler by Stauffenberg would have changed history. How that would have all played out post-Hitler is anyone’s guess. It certainly would have been messy.

History is full of what-ifs, but there are also some constants that should not be overlooked. History has an internal logic of its own, predicting the future is impossible because of innumerable variables. The most unpredictable variable is human behavior. The failed assassination attempt at the Wolf’s Lair is proof of that. If Stauffenberg had decided to go all the away by becoming a suicide bomber, history would have been changed forever. How that would have changed the war’s outcome is impossible to predict, but we can always speculate.

Click here for: Falling In Love At Seven In The Morning – Romance In Olsztyn (Northern Poland & Berlin #42)