Margarethe von Oven

Margarethe von Oven (* 1904 in Berlin; † 5 February 1991 in Göttingen) was a secretary in the Bendlerblock accomplice of the assassination of 20 July 1944.

Her parents were of the royal Prussian Lieutenant Colonel Ludolf von Oven Guards Infantry Regiment (1st Grand Duchy of Hesse) No. 115, and Margarete von Oven, born of Jordan. Her father was killed on 22 August 1914 during the First World War. Margarethe von Oven was raised with three siblings.

Since 1920, Margaret worked as a secretary of Oven in order to support her family financially. In 1925 she got a job in the Defense Ministry and in 1928 moved to Moscow for six months. She worked again in Berlin's Department. 1938, an application in Budapest and in 1940 she went as secretary to the military attaches to Lisbon.

Later she worked as a secretary for Colonel General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch in Bendlerblock active. In summer 1943, she was requested by Henning von Tresckow for his office. He put complete trust in her because she was the best friend since childhood of his wife. Through him was Margarethe von Oven in the preparations of the 20th July 1944 and drawn to an accomplice. As Tresckow went back to the front, was Margarethe von Oven, who worked as a secretary in command of Army Group Centre, its news headlines mediator for the Berlin plotters. You typed the orders and decrees, which prepared a plan Valkyrie subsequent coup. Not infrequently, Tresckow and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg met in the summer and fall 1943 outside the Bendlerblock in order to discuss the orders with Margarethe von Oven and improve, making her the conspiratorial purpose was not concealed.

After the failure of the assassination of 20 July 1944 was jailed for two weeks. Then she returned to her office. She recalled: "It's really strange that I through the resistor, through the months I was branded, have lost any friends. Normally, yes, part of the Friends had to drop immediately. And so I realized that it was just a coincidence that the friends with whom I was really connected to me were understanding and threw a stone at me. Whether someone was a Nazi or not, that had an internal reason."

After the war, Margarethe von Oven was working temporarily in Switzerland, then in Germany as a receptionist. In 1954, she was employee of the investment management of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1955 she married Wilfred Graf von Hardenberg.

Portrayal in the media

In the 2004 German production, Stauffenberg, von Oven is portrayed by actress Stefania Rocca.

Persondata
Name	Oven, Margarethe von
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Date of birth	1904
Place of birth
Date of death	1991
Place of death