Valkyrie Fails, but Stauffenberg Escapes

Don Draper

There have been quite a lot of threads on the impact of a successful Operation Valkyrie plot. I thought of this as an interesting twist on the day's events.

The bomb still fails to kill Hitler, the coup still fails, but somehow, Stauffenberg manages to get out of the War Ministry before the SS closes in and is able to evade capture and get to Switzerland. What would become of him in post-war Germany? Would he pursue a career in politics in West Germany perhaps? Serve in the West German military? Is the very idea of him escaping ASB?
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
An SS hit squad take him out ? Something for Schellenberg or Skorzeny to arrange...

Or if he uses Switzerland as a staging post, goes to Britain then . . . its weird :)

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

The Vulture

Banned
Gets to Switzerland, then spends the rest of the war buying radio time and trying to rally support against Hitler. If he isn't killed in Switzerland, I can see him becoming a rallying point for West Germany and Konrad Adenauer. A career in politics and image as "Germany's Would-be Savior" isn't inconceivable.

Do any of the other plotters (Olbricht, Tresckow, etc.) escape?
 

Strategos' Risk

There is a severe paucity of a surviving Rommel timelines. Sure he's an overdone figure, but averting his forced suicide would be interesting. Canaris would also be interesting.
 

MerryPrankster

Having Canaris survive wouldn't be that difficult, as IIRC Himmler kept him alive on the grounds he could be a useful intermediary for peace with the Allies. IIRC he was executed just before the end of the war. Have the Allies advance a bit differently or have him escape in the chaos and he'll live.

Besides, alive, he'd be worth bragging about--the head of German military intelligence was a British agent the entire time!
 

BlairWitch749

Banned
Strategos' Risk said:
There is a severe paucity of a surviving Rommel timelines. Sure he's an overdone figure, but averting his forced suicide would be interesting. Canaris would also be interesting.
Click to expand...

Rommel wasn't in on the July 20th plot though, his staff was, he knew about it but he wasn't directly supporting it. He and other senior officers fell into the same boat they felt bound to their oath to Hitler, but if he was removed they would be friendly to a new regime that would keep them in control of the troops limit the power of the ss and try to make peace with the west

"Rommel stood above his peers not apart from them" - General Herman Hoth
 

Hörnla

Probably back into the military

My assumptions are:

- even post-1945, most Germans didn't question the Nazi-explanation of the assassination attempt. An outspoken key-figure surviving and explaining them might change that and quicken the dealing with the 3rd-Reich past.....slightly.

- the gradual return of power to civilian authorities 1945-49 would not necessarily mean that Stauffenberg had to involve himself in politics. I frankly do not see him as a politician except under the circumstances he saw himself thrown in.

- he might have been given a key-role when it came to establishing the Bundeswehr in the mid-50s.
 
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