Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg

"Nina" Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (27 August 1913 – 2 April 2006) was the wife of Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, after which she was arrested and imprisoned, where she delivered her youngest child.

Early years

She was born Magdalena Elisabeth Vera Lydia Herta von Lerchenfeld, but known as "Nina" in Kowno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to General Consul Gustav Freiherr von Lerchenfeld (1871–1944) and a Baltic-German noblewoman, Anna Freiin von Stackelberg (1880–1945).

Biography

Nina and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg first met around 1930 and were married on 26 September 1933 in Bamberg. In accordance with von Stauffenberg's father's tradition, the couple's children were raised as Catholics, although Nina and Stauffenberg's own mother were Protestant. The marriage produced five children:

• Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. 1934)
• Heimeran Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. Bamberg, 9 July 1936), unmarried and without issue
• Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (b. 1938)
• Valerie Ida Huberta Karoline Anna Maria Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (Bamberg, 15 November 1940 - München, 4 June 1966), married on 4 April 1964 Heino von L'Estocq (b. Potsdam, 6 April 1935)
• Konstanze Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (b.Frankfurt an der Oder, January 1945), married on 8 April 1967 Dietrich von Schultheiss-Rechberg (b. Zurich, 13 October 1937)

After her husband's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler (von Stauffenberg was executed the night of 21 July), the Countess von Stauffenberg was arrested by the Gestapo and taken into custody (according to the new Nazi law reinstating the ancient practice of Sippenhaft.) The government placed her five children in an orphanage in Bad Sachsa, Lower Saxony, under the false surname Meister.

Nina von Stauffenberg was pregnant at the time of Stauffenberg's death, and gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze, in January 1945, while imprisoned in a Nazi maternity center in Frankfurt an der Oder. That same year, her own mother, Anna, died in a Russian camp.

By the end of World War II, Nina had been moved to the Italian province of South Tyrol, where she was held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property. After the war, she was reunited with her family at the Stauffenberg family seat in Lautlingen, Baden-Württemberg.

Death

Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg died on 2 April 2006, aged 92, at Kirchlauter near Bamberg, Bavaria, and was buried there six days later.

Depiction in media

American actress Madolyn Smith Osborne portrayed Nina in the 1990 telemovie The Plot to Kill Hitler. In the 2004 German production, Stauffenberg, Nina is portrayed by actress Nina Kunzendorf. Dutch actress Carice van Houten portrayed Nina in the 2008 film, Valkyrie.

Biography

In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg, von Stauffenberg's youngest daughter, wrote Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg - Ein Porträt. Pendo Verlag: Munich, 2008, ISBN 3-858-42652-0/ISBN 9-783-85842-652-9

References

For additional English-language references, see the article on Claus von Stauffenberg.

• (German) Zeller, Eberhard (1994). Oberst Claus Graf Stauffenberg. Ein Lebensbild. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 3506797700.
• (German) Steffahn, Harald (2002). Stauffenberg. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Reinbek. ISBN 3-499-50520-7.
• (German) Ueberschär, Gerd R. (2004). Stauffenberg. Der 20. Juli 1944. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 3100860039.
• (German) Von Hassel, Fey. "Niemals sich beugen". dtv.
• (German) Von Meding, Dorothee (1997). Mit dem Mut des Herzens – Die Frauen des 20. Juli. btb Verlag. ISBN 3-442-72171-7.

Notes

1. ^ Regarding personal names: Gräfin is a title, translated as Countess, not a first or middle name. The male form is Graf.
2. ^ Regarding personal names: Freiin is a title, translated as Baroness, not a first or middle name. The title is for the unmarried daughters of a Freiherr.

External links

• (English) Nina von Stauffenberg – The Times 2006-04-11. Retrieved on 2009-07-18.
• (German) "Stauffenberg-Witwe gestorben" – Netzzeitung, 4. April 2006
• Schenk von Stauffenberg
• http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00000600/images/index.html?id=00000600&nativeno=331

Persondata
Name	Stauffenberg, Ninaschenkgrafinvon
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 August 1913
Place of birth
Date of death	2 April 2006
Place of death