How many assassination attempts were there on Hitler?

Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany began in the early 1920s when he became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party).

He had successfully used his oratory skills and propaganda to gain popularity and achieve his position of power.

By 1933, Hitler had managed to be appointed Chancellor of Germany.

Within just 18 months, he had quickly consolidated power and established his totalitarian regime.

By the end of the decade, he had started World War II, which subsequently led to the horrors of the Holocaust. 

As Hitler's aggressive expansionism and brutal policies dominated wartime life in Germany, resistance within and outside Germany grew.

Various groups and individuals, including political opponents, military officers, and foreign governments, began to consider the assassination of Hitler as the most effective means to end the war and his regime. 

The first recorded assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler occurred on 5 January 1921, during a speech at the Munich Hofbräuhaus.

A group of communists threw a bomb towards the podium where Hitler was speaking.

Fortunately for Hitler, the bomb missed its target and exploded without causing him any harm.

Instead of acting as a deterrent to Hitler's political ambitions, he saw it as confirmation that he was on the right path to power. 

Then, in the years that followed, Hitler's increasing influence and the growing strength of the Nazi Party attracted even more enemies.

The next time Hitler came close to death was reported on 9 November 1923, during the Beer Hall Putsch.

This was an attempted coup d'état by the Nazi Party to overthrow the government.

During the uprising, Hitler narrowly escaped being shot by police. While he survived, he was arrested and found jailed.

It was during his incarceration that he wrote his famous book, Mein Kampf. 

As the early years of the 1930s rolled around and Hitler consolidated his power in Germany, the number of assassination attempts gradually diminished.

However, the threat to his life did not disappear entirely. One notable attempt during this time was by Maurice Bavaud, a Swiss theology student.

He planned to shoot Hitler during a parade in Munich on 9 November 1938.

Bavaud's plan failed when he could not get a clear shot, and he was later arrested and executed.  

Once World War II had broken out, the number of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler increased dramatically.

This was a direct result of the widespread suffering and destruction Hitler had unleashed across Europe.

On the 8th of November 1939, just over a month after the war began, a carpenter named Johann Georg Elser planted a bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, where Hitler was scheduled to give another of his rousing speeches.

Much to the dismay of the would-be-assassin, Hitler unexpectedly left the venue early, and the bomb exploded 13 minutes after his departure.

Instead of neutralizing its intended target, the bomb ended up killing eight people and injuring over sixty.

After this disastrous outcome, Elser was arrested. 

The next significant attempt which was reported occurred on 13 March 1943.

This time it was undertaken by a Germany army office called Henning von Tresckow.

He reported planted a bomb on Hitler's plane. The bomb was cleverly disguised as a gift of two bottles of Cointreau.

Unfortunately, the bomb failed to detonate, and Hitler landed safely.

What is notable about Tresckow's attempt was that it demonstrated that there was growing desperation among some members of the German military to stop Hitler. 

Then the most famous assassination attempt took place on the 20 July Plot in 1944, led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators from within the German government aimed to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime.

To achieve this, they planted their bomb in a briefcase during a meeting at the Wolf's Lair, which was Hitler's military headquarters.

The bomb exploded successfully when Hitler was in the room, as planned.

However, Hitler survived with only minor injuries due to the placement of the briefcase and the structure of the room.

In response to just how close Hitler had come to death, there was a brutal crackdown on those involved.

It resulted in the execution of over 4,000 people, many of whom were not directly involved in the conspiracy. 

After the Second World War came to an end following Hitler taking his own life in mid-1945, a number of new allegations of assassination attempts emerged.

Some of these claims were later substantiated, while others remained unverified.

One such allegation involved the British Secret Service and a plan to assassinate Hitler using a sniper.

This plan, however, was reportedly abandoned due to concerns about the potential chaos that might follow Hitler's death. 

One of the more surprising accounts involved the Vatican. It was alleged that Pope Pius XII had approved a plan to kill Hitler in the early 1940s.

The plan was supposedly carried out by a group of German officers and a Jesuit priest, but it ultimately failed.

Out of all the post-war claim of potential assassination attempts, this one has been the one subjected to the most controversy. 

For most of the post-war claims, most of them lack credibility due to an absence of concrete evidence.

For some of them, the chaos of the post-war period made it difficult to verify many of these allegations.

Ultimately, the true number of assassination attempts on Hitler may never be fully known, but many historians calculate that there were at least 40 that can be verified. 

Each one of the attempts on Hitler failed for its own unique combination of reason.

However, there were some common elements that made it incredibly difficult for any attack to be successful.

One of the significant challenges was the tight security measures surrounding Hitler.

He was constantly protected by the Schutzstaffel (SS) and reportedly relied upon multiple body doubles.

Also, Hitler frequently changed his schedule at the last minute, which made it very difficult to plan ahead with any certainty. 

In addition, the lack of coordination between disaffected groups limited any chance at success they had.

Since many conspirators were forced to operate in secret, it meant that they had to act independently without knowledge of other plots.

Ultimately, this was a necessity for many plots, as the fear of reprisals was a significant deterrent.

The Nazi regime was notorious for its brutal crackdown on any dissenters.

Therefore, the consequences of a failed attempt were severe: involving the execution of not only the conspirators but also their families and associates. 

Lastly, lots of the attempts failed simply due to bad luck or technical malfunctions.

This is most clearly seen in the bomb planted by Georg Elser when he left the venue earlier than expected, and in the case of the 20 July Plot, when the briefcase containing the bomb was inadvertently moved. 

Ultimately, the failure to kill Hitler was not due to a lack of trying. Many people sacrificed their own lives and futures for the smallest chances of saving millions of others.

Their bravery and resourcefulness should be things that are celebrated, rather than a source of criticism for their lack of success.

At least they tried as much as they could.

Would we have had the same courage if we were in their shoes?