Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
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Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born 15 March 1905 in Stuttgart - died 27 January 1964 in Munich) was a German aristocrat and historian.
Alexander was the younger twin of Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg who along with the youngest brother Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg is known for the July 20 Plot against Hitler in 1944.
The brothers were born into an old and distinguished aristocratic South German Catholic family. His parents were the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and Caroline née von Üxküll-Gyllenbrand. Among his ancestors were several famous Prussians, including most notably August von Gneisenau. His name points to the imperial Hohenstaufen mountain and castle.
Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg went to school in Stuttgart and studied Ancient History in University of Heidelberg, University of Jena, University of Munich and University of Halle. He and his brothers were introduced by Albrecht von Blumenthal to the circle of the mystic symbolist poet Stefan George, many of whose followers later worked for the German Resistance to National Socialism.
Alexander graduated Ph. D. in 1928 in Halle and habilitated in 1931 in University of Würzburg about Hiero II of Syracuse. He lectured in University of Berlin, University of Gießen and Würzburg where he was appointed assistant professor in 1936, and a professor in 1941, after having been wounded in Russia. He accepted a call to the Reichsuniversität Straßburg in December 1942, but had to serve in the army again, first at the Eastern front were he was wounded again in late 1943. He used the time to finish a book about Stefan George called „Tod des Meisters“. In July 1944, he was in Athens as Lieutenant at the artillery commander of the 68th Army Corps.
His brothers did not tell him about their plan, considering that risky due to his outspokenness, and the fact that his wife was of Jewish ancestry. He had married in 1937 the aviatrix and engineer Melitta Schiller, who had been released from the German Luftwaffe in 1936 due to her Jewish roots. She had been reinstated and was very active developing and testing war planes, but might have been under surveillance.
After the July 20 Plot failed, Alexander did not use the chance to escape to Egypt, but returned to Berlin to defend himself. He was arrested, as had been his wife and all others bearing the family name. While his brothers were executed and the rest of the adult family members were held in concentration camps, his wife Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg was released on 2 September 1944 due to her importance in the development of aircraft. She was now called "Gräfin Schenk", as Hitler wanted to erase the name Stauffenberg. In the final weeks of the war, she was shot down by an American fighter, and died hours later from the bullet wounds.
In 1948, Alexander von Stauffenberg became professor for Ancient History at the University of Munich where he remained until his death. In 1951 he was the founder and first president of the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik which became a part of the German Archaeological Institute. His field of research focussed on Late Antiquity, Ancient Sicily and Magna Graecia.
[edit] Notes
- Note regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.
