Remember this?
When we came back to the hotel from the Wannsee, we passed a street called Stauffenbergstrasse. I wondered what the connection was between the man and the street… Back in the hotel, I googled the name of the street and found out that the Bendlerblock was located there:
View Larger Map
The day afterwards, Lars and I had a look. The Bendlerblock was built in the beginning of the 20th century and was used by several department of the Wehrmacht during World War II. It is better known however as the headquarters of General Stauffenberg and his resistance group who tried to kill Hitler and create a new government. When Hitler discovered that Stauffenberg was one of the conspirators, he had him and his staff immediately executed in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock.
Nowadays this courtyard has been turned into the Memorial to the German Resistance. The place where the conspirators were shot is marked by the statue of a naked man and in front of it there is a plaque, embedded in the ground, with the following text:
You did not bear the shame.
You resisted.
You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change
by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honor. (translated from German)
Nearby there is a museum, which is not only dedicated to Stauffenberg and his men, but to other resistance groups as well.
