Designed as a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and topple the Nazi government on July 20 1944, the 20 July plot Mostly made of Wehrmacht officials, the plotters were part of the German resistance.
German military officials had planned to remove Hitler as early as 1938, but indecisive leadership and the speed of world events hampered action. After Germany lost the Battle of Stalingrad and Soviet forces started to advance towards Germany, plotters developed a sense of urgency 1943. Plotters aiming at killing Hitler at least five times in 1943 and 1944 were led by Stauffenberg.
A last effort was planned in July 1944 while the Gestapo closed in on the plotters. Stauffenberg personally carried explosives in a briefcase to a conference in Wolf's Lair. Although the explosives were armed and positioned next to Hitler, it seems Heinz Brandt moved unintentionally at last moment behind a table leg, so saving Hitler's life.
The bomb exploded killing Brandt and two others; the rest of the room's occupants were injured; one of them, Rudolf Schmundt, later passed away from his wounds. Though he suffered a perforated eardrum and conjunctivitis, Hitler's pants were singed by the blast and he was otherwise uninjured.
Ignorant of their shortcomings, the plotters then tried a coup d'état. Shortly after the blast, the conspiracy used Wehrmacht troops to seize several cities, including Berlin, right after misleading them on the purpose of the given orders.
Known as "Operation Valkyrie," this component of the coup d'état also has come to be connected with the whole event.[3][4] The Nazi government had restored its rule of Germany within hours. Stauffenberg among other conspirators was executed by firing squad the same evening. The Gestapo arrested more than 7,000 people, 4,980 of which were executed, in the months following the coup d'état effort. About 200 conspirators were put to death.[5]