Wednesday, May 4, 2011

What is the story of the amar / immortal people ? | What Why How & more...

What is the story of the amar / immortal people ? | What Why How & more...
The great immortals: There have been many great warriors, saints, gods etc. in the Hindu mythology. According to the various Indian traditions and stories there are eight immortals who walk on this Earth.
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Friday, July 24, 2009

Indra Nooyi - The pepsico lady

Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi

World Economic Forum Meet, Davos 2008
Born October 28, 1955 (1955-10-28) (age 53)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Education Madras Christian College
IIM Calcutta
Yale School of Management
Employer PepsiCo
Salary 2006:
Salary - $964,413
Bonus - $3,000,000
Other - $153,506
Stock Awards - $1,033,505
Option Awards - $1,078,942
Total - $6,230,366[1]
Title CEO
Term 2006-Present
Predecessor Steven Reinemund
Board member of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
International Rescue Committee
Religious beliefs Hindu
Website
PepsiCo

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (Tamil: இந்திரா கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி நூயி) (born October 28, 1955 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PepsiCo, one of the world's leading food and beverage companies.[2] On August 14, 2006, Nooyi was named the successor to Steven Reinemund as chief executive officer of the company effective October 1, 2006.[3][4] On February 5, 2007, she was named Chairman, effective May 2, 2007.[5] Forbes magazine ranked Nooyi third on the 2008 list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.[6] Fortune magazine has named Nooyi number one on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for 2006, 2007 and 2008.[7][8][9] In 2008, Nooyi was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.[10]

Early life and career

Indra Nooyi was born into a Tamil family. She completed her schooling from Banasthali High School, Kathmandu. She received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Madras Christian College in 1974, and earned an MBA at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. Begining her career in India, Nooyi held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell. She was admitted to Yale School of Management in 1978 and earned a master's degree in Public and Private Management. Graduating in 1980, Nooyi started at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and then held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri.[11]

In addition to being a member of the PepsiCo board of directors, Nooyi serves as a member of the boards of the International Rescue Committee, Catalyst[12] and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She is a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation[13] and member of the Board of Trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships, and currently serves as Chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council.[11]

In 2007, she was chosen as a recipient of the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India.[14] In 2008, she was elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[15]

PepsiCo executive

Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001. Nooyi has directed the company's global strategy for more than decade and led PepsiCo's restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of its restaurants into Tricon, now known as Yum! Brands. Nooyi also took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998,[16] and merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo. In 2007 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo's 44-year history.[17]

Business officials rave at her ability to drive deep and hard while maintaining a sense of heart and fun. According to BusinessWeek, since she started as CFO in 2000[2], the company's annual revenues have risen 72%, while net profit more than doubled, to $5.6 billion in 2006.[18]

Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008,[19][20] and was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008. Forbes named her the #3 most powerful woman in 2008.

Compensation

Indra Nooyi has been named 2009 CEO of the Year by Global Supply Chain Leaders Group. [21]

While CEO of PepsiCo in 2008, Indra Nooyi earned a total compensation of $14,917,701, which included a base salary of $1,300,000, a cash bonus of $2,600,000, stocks granted of $6,428,538, and options granted of $4,382,569.[22]


Politics

In January 2008, Nooyi was elected Chairman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), a non-profit business advocacy organization representing more than 300 of the world's largest companies doing business in India. Nooyi leads USIBC's Board of Directors, an assembly of more than 60 senior executives representing a cross-section of American industry.[23][24]

Preceded by
Steven Reinemund		 Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
2006 – Present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sai Baba of Shirdi

Sai Baba of Shirdi

Shirdi Sai Baba sitting in front of his mosque
Full name Sai Baba of Shirdi
School/tradition Advaita Vedanta

Sai Baba of Shirdi (Unknown - October 15, 1918), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian guru and yogi who is regarded by both his Hindu and Muslim followers as a saint. Some of his Hindu devotees believe that he was an incarnation of Shiva or Dattatreya.There are many stories and eyewitness accounts of miracles he performed. He is a well-known figure in many parts of the world, but especially in India, where he is much revered.

The name 'Sai Baba' is a combination of Persian and Indian origin; Sāī (Sa'ih) is the Persian term for "holy one" or "saint", usually attributed to Islamic ascetics, whereas Bābā is a word meaning "father" used in Indo-Aryan languages. The appellative thus refers to Sai Baba as being a "holy father" or "saintly father".[1] His parentage, birth details, and life before the age of sixteen are obscure, which has led to a variety of speculations and theories attempting to explain Sai Baba's origins. In his life and teachings he tried to reconcile Hinduism and Islam: Sai Baba lived in a mosque, was buried in a Hindu temple, practised Hindu and Muslim rituals, and taught using words and figures that drew from both traditions. One of his well known epigrams says of God: "Sabka Malik Ek" ("One God governs all") which traces its root to Islam in general and sufism in particular.

Sai Baba taught a moral code of love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, inner peace, devotion to God and guru. His teachings combined elements of Hinduism and Islam and tried to achieve communal harmony between these religions.

Sai Baba remains a very popular saint[2] and is worshiped by people around the world. Debate over his Hindu or Muslim origins continues to take place.[3] He is also revered by several notable Hindu and Sufi religious leaders. Some of his disciples received fame as spiritual figures and saints such as Upasni Maharaj and Meher Baba.

Early years

Sai Baba’s origin is completely unknown to this day. He did not disclose to anyone where he was born nor where he grew up. Because of his unknown past, various communities have claimed that he belongs to them. Nothing has been substantiated, however. It is known that he spent considerable period with fakirs. His attire resembled that of a Muslim fakir. He regularly visited mosques and ate meat as well.[citation needed]

Baba reportedly arrived at the village of Shirdi in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India, when he was about sixteen years old. Although there is no agreement among biographers about the date of this event, it is generally accepted that Baba stayed in Shirdi for three years, disappeared for a year and returned permanently around 1858, which posits a possible birth year of 1838.[4] He led an ascetic life, sitting motionless under a neem tree and meditating while sitting in an asana. The Sai Satcharita recounts the reaction of the villagers

The people of the village were wonder-struck to see such a young lad practicing hard penance, not minding heat or cold. By day he associated with no one, by night he was afraid of nobody.[5]

His presence attracted the curiosity of the villagers and the religiously-inclined such as Mhalsapati, Appa Jogle and Kashinatha regularly visited him, while others such as the village children considered him mad and threw stones at him.[6]After some time he left the village, and it is unknown where he stayed at that time or what happened to him. However, there are some indications that he met with many saints and fakirs, and worked as a weaver; he claimed to have fought with the army of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[7]

Shirdi and teaching

In 1858 Sai Baba returned to Shirdi with Chand Patil's wedding procession. After alighting near the Khandoba temple he was greeted with the words "Ya Sai" (welcome saint) by the temple priest Mhalsapati. The name Sai stuck to him and some time later he started being known as Sai Baba.[8] It was around this time that Baba adopted his famous style of dress, consisting of a knee-length one-piece robe (kafni) and a cloth cap. Ramgir Bua, a devotee, testified that Baba was dressed like an athlete and sported 'long hair flowing down to his buttocks' when he arrived in Shirdi, and that he never had his head shaved. It was only after Baba forfeited a wrestling match with one Mohdin Tamboli that he took up the kafni and cloth cap, articles of typically Sufi clothing.[9] This attire contributed to Baba's identification as a Muslim fakir, and was a reason for initial indifference and hostility against him in a predominantly Hindu village.[10] According to B.V. Narasimhaswami, a posthumous follower who was widely praised as Sai Baba's "apostle", this attitude was prevalent even among some of his devotees in Shirdi, even up to 1954.[11]

For four to five years Baba lived under a neem tree, and often wandered for long periods in the jungle in and around Shirdi. His manner was said to be withdrawn and uncommunicative as he undertook long periods of meditation.[12] He was eventually persuaded to take up residence in an old and dilapidated mosque and lived a solitary life there, surviving by begging for alms and receiving itinerant Hindu or Muslim visitors. In the mosque he maintained a sacred fire which is referred to as a dhuni, from which he had the custom of giving sacred ash ('Udhi') to his guests before they left and which was believed to have healing powers and protection from dangerous situations. At first he performed the function of a local hakim and treated the sick by application of Udhi. Baba also delivered spiritual teachings to his visitors, recommending the reading of sacred Hindu texts along with the Qur'an, especially insisting on the indispensability of the unbroken remembrance of God's name (dhikr, japa). He often expressed himself in a cryptic manner with the use of parables, symbols and allegories.[13] He participated in religious festivals and was also in the habit of preparing food for his visitors, which he distributed to them as prasad. Sai Baba's entertainment was dancing and singing religious songs (he enjoyed the songs of Kabir most). His behaviour was sometimes uncouth and violent.[14][15]

After 1910 Sai Baba's fame began to spread in Mumbai. Numerous people started visiting him, because they regarded him as a saint (or even an avatar) with the power of performing miracles.[16] and they built his first ever temple at Bhivpuri, Karjat as desired by Sai Baba.[17][18]

Mahasamadhi

Sai Baba took Mahasamadhi (departure) on October 15, 1918 at 2.30pm. He took samadhi on the lap of one of his devotees with hardly any belongings, and was buried in the "Buty Wada" according to his wish. Later a mandir was built there known as the "Samadhi Mandir".[19]

Notable disciples

Sai Baba left behind no spiritual heirs and appointed no disciples. In fact, he did not even provide formal initiation. Some disciples of Sai Baba achieved fame as spiritual figures like Upasni Maharaj of Sakori and Meher Baba of Ahmednagar. After Sai Baba passed away, his devotees offered the daily Aarti to Upasani Maharaj when he paid a visit to Shirdi, two times with an interval of 10 years.

Teachings and practices

Shirdi Sai Baba, leaning against the wall of his masjid, with devotees

In his personal practice, Sai Baba observed worship procedures belonging to Hinduism and Islam; he shunned any kind of regular rituals but allowed the practice of namaz, chanting of Al-Fatiha, and Qur'an readings at Muslim festival times.[20] Occasionally reciting the Al-Fatiha himself, Baba also enjoyed listening to moulu and qawwali accompanied with the tabla and sarangi twice daily.[21] He also wore clothing reminiscent of a Sufi fakir. Sai Baba also opposed all sorts of persecutions on religious or caste background.

Sai Baba of Shirdi was also an opponent of religious orthodoxy - both Hindu and Muslim.[22] Although Sai Baba himself led the life of an ascetic, he advised his followers to lead an ordinary family life.

Sai Baba encouraged his devotees to pray, chant God's name and read holy scriptures - he told Muslims to study the Qur'an, and Hindus, texts like the Ramayana, Vishnu Sahasranam, Bhagavad Gita (and commentaries to it), Yoga Vasistha.[23] He advised his devotees and followers to lead a moral life, help others, treat them with love and develop two important features of character: faith (Shraddha) and patience (Saburi). He also criticized atheism.[24] In his teachings Sai Baba emphasised the importance of performing one's duties without attachment to earthly matters and being ever content regardless of the situation.

Sai Baba also interpreted the religious texts of both faiths. According to what the people who stayed with him said and wrote he had a profound knowledge of them. He explained the meaning of the Hindu scriptures in the spirit of Advaita Vedanta. This was the character of his philosophy. It also had numerous elements of bhakti. The three main Hindu spiritual paths - Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga - were visible in the teachings of Sai Baba.[25] Another example of the way he combined both faiths is the Hindu name he gave to his mosque, Dwarakamai.[26]

Sai Baba said that God penetrates everything and lives in every being, and as well that God is the essence of each of them. He emphasised the complete oneness of God which was very close to the Islamic tawhid and the Hindu doctrine, e.g. of the Upanishads. Sai Baba said that the world and all that the human may give is transient and only God and his gifts are eternal. Sai Baba also emphasised the importance of devotion to God - bhakti - and surrender to his will. He also talked about the need of faith and devotion to one's spiritual preceptor (guru). He said that everyone was the soul and not the body. He advised his disciples and followers to overcome the negative features of character and develop the good ones. He taught them that all fate was determined by karma.

Sai Baba left no written works. His teachings were oral, typically short, pithy sayings rather than elaborate discourses. Sai would ask his followers for money (dakshina), which he would give away to the poor and other devotees the same day and spend the rest on matches. According to his followers he did it in order to rid them of greed and material attachment.

Sai encouraged charity and the importance of sharing with others. He said: "Unless there is some relationship or connection, nobody goes anywhere. If any men or creatures come to you, do not discourteously drive them away, but receive them well and treat them with due respect. Shri Hari (God) will be certainly pleased if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked and your verandah to strangers for sitting and resting. If anybody wants any money from you and you are not inclined to give, do not give, but do not bark at him like a dog."[27] Other favourite sayings of his were: "Why do you fear when I am here",[28] "He has no beginning... He has no end."[28] Sai Baba made eleven assurances to his devotees:

Sai Baba of Shirdi (took samadhi in 1918)
  1. Whosoever puts their feet on Shirdi soil, their sufferings will come to an end.
  2. The wretched and miserable will rise to joy and happiness as soon as they climb the steps of My Samadhi.
  3. I shall be ever active and vigorous even after leaving this earthly body.
  4. My tomb shall bless and speak to the needs of my devotees.
  5. I shall be active and vigorous even from my tomb.
  6. My mortal remains will speak from My tomb.
  7. I am ever living to help and guide all who come to Me, who surrender to Me and who seek refuge in Me.
  8. If you look at Me, I look at you.
  9. If you cast your burden on Me, I shall surely bear it.
  10. If you seek My advice and help, it shall be given to you at once.
  11. There shall be no want in the house of My devotee.

Worship and devotees

Main article: Shirdi Sai Baba movement

The Shirdi Sai Baba movement began in the 19th century, during his life, while he was staying in Shirdi. A local Khandoba priest - Mhalsapathy - is believed to have been his first devotee. However, in the 19th century Sai Baba's followers were only a small group of Shirdi inhabitants and a few people from other parts of India. It started developing in the 20th century and even faster in 1910 with the Sankirtans of Das Ganu (one of Sai's devotees) who spread Sai Baba's fame to the whole of India. Since 1910 numerous Hindus and Muslims from all parts of India started coming to Shirdi. During his life Hindus worshipped him with Hindu rituals and Muslims revered him greatly, considering him to be a saint. Later (in the last years of Sai Baba's life) Christians and Zoroastrians started joining the Shirdi Sai movement.[2]

The Sai Baba mandir in Shirdi is active and every day worship of Sai is conducted in it. Pilgrims visit Shirdi every day. Shirdi Baba is especially revered and worshipped in the state of Maharashtra. A religious organisation of Sai Baba's devotees called the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust is based there. The first ever Sai Baba temple is situated at Bhivpuri,Karjat.

The devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba have spread all over India.[2] According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Religion there is at least one Sai Baba mandir in nearly every Indian city.[2] His image is quite popular in India.[2] Some ordinary non-religious publishing houses (such as Sterling Publishers) publish books about Shirdi Sai written by his devotees.[29] Shirdi is among the major Hindu places of pilgrimage.[30] The Shirdi Sai Baba movement is partially organised. Only a part of his followers and devotees belong to the Shri Saibaba Sansthan or to other religious organisations that worship him.

Beyond India the Shirdi Sai movement has spread to other countries such as the U.S. or the Caribbean. Sai Baba mandirs and organisations of his devotees have been built in countries including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA. The Shirdi Sai Baba movement is one of the main Hindu religious movements in English-speaking countries.[31]

According to estimates the Sai mandir in Shirdi is visited by around twenty thousand pilgrims a day and during religious festivals this number amounts to a hundred thousand.[32]

Sai Baba had many notable disciples:

  1. Nana Chandorkar: Deputy Collector – legend has it that Baba saved his daughter from labor complications).
  2. Mhasalapathi: Priest of Khandoba Temple in Shirdi. He is the first one to have addressed Baba as Sai Baba.
  3. Ganapathi Rao: Popularly known as Das Ganu, police Constable, later resigned to become an ascetic.
  4. Tatya Patil: Ganapathi Rao's son had immense faith in Sai Baba and served him until Sai Baba died.
  5. Madhava Rao Deshpande later known as Shama, one of the staunch devotees of Sai Baba
  6. Hemadpant: Baba allowed him to keep memos and write Sai Sat Charitra

Reported Miracles

Sai Baba's millions of disciples, followers and devotees believe that he had performed many miracles. Some of them were: bilocation, exorcisms, curing the incurably sick, helping his devotees in need in a miraculous way, reading the minds of others. Numerous inhabitants of Shirdi talked about these miracles. Some of them even wrote about them in books. They talked and wrote about how they (and others) were the witnesses of his unusual Yogic powers: levitation, entering a state of Samādhi at wish, even removing his limbs and sticking them back to his body (Khanda Yoga) or doing the same with his intestines.

According to his followers he appeared to them after his death, in dreams, visions and even in bodily form, whence he often gave them advice. His devotees have many stories and experiences to tell.[33] Many books have been written on these events.

Historical sources

Biographers of Sai Baba of Shirdi (e.g. Govindrao Raghunath Dabholkar, Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja, Smriti Srinivas, Antonio Rigopolous) when writing about him base it on what people who knew Sai Baba said and wrote. Another source they use is the Shirdi Diary written by Ganesh Shrikrishna Khaparde, which describes every day of the author's stay at Shirdi. When speculating about the unknown episodes of Sai Baba's life, they mainly base their conclusions on his own words.

The most important source about Sai's life is the Shri Sai Satcharita written in Marathi, in 1916 by Govindrao Raghunath Dabholkar (translated into English by Nagesh Vasudevanand Gunaji with English title: Shri Sai Satcharitra) whom Sai Baba nicknamed Hemadpant, which is an account of his life, teachings and miracles. Other important sources about Sai Baba are books by B. V. Narasimhaswamiji such as Sri Sai Baba's Charters and Sayings or Devotee's Experiences of Sai Baba. Sri Sai Baba and His Teachings by Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja is an indepth study of Sai's life's routine and activities.

In various religions

Sai Baba depicted on a tapestry

Hinduism

During Sai Baba's life, the Hindu saint Anandanath of Yewala declared Sai Baba a spiritual "diamond".[34] Another saint, Gangagir, called him a "jewel".[34] Sri Beedkar Maharaj greatly revered Sai Baba, and in 1873, when he met him he bestowed the title Jagadguru upon him.[35][36] Sai Baba was also greatly respected by Vasudevananda Saraswati (known as Tembye Swami).[37] Sai of Shirdi was also revered by a group of Shaivic yogis, to which he belonged, known as the Nath-Panchayat.[38] Swami Kaleshwar publicly worships Sai Baba, and treats him as a great saint and his own guru.[39]

[edit] Other religions

Sai Baba is considered a Pir by some Sufi groups. Meher Baba declared Baba to be a Qutub-e-Irshad - the highest of the five Qutubs.[40] Baba is also worshipped by prominent Zoroastrians such as Nanabhoy Palkhivala and Homi Bhabha, and has been cited as the most popular non-Zoroastrian religious figure attracting the attention of Zoroastrians.[41]

In culture

Sacral art and architecture

In India, in nearly every larger city there is at least one temple dedicated to Sai Baba.[2] There are even some in towns and cities outside India. In the mosque in Shirdi in which Sai Baba lived there is a life-size portrait of him by Shama Rao Jaykar, an artist from Mumbai. Numerous monuments and statues depicting Sai Baba, which serve a religious function, have also been made. One of them, made of marble by a sculptor named Balaji Vasant Talim, is in the Samadhi Mandir in Shirdi where Sai Baba was buried.[42] In Sai Baba temples, his devotees play various kinds of devotional religious music, such as aarti.[43]

Indian Postal Service released a commemorative stamp on Sai Baba on 20 May 2008.[44]

Film and television

Sai Baba has been the subject of several feature films produced by India's film industry.

Year Film Title role Director Language Notes
1977 Shirdi ke Sai Baba Sudhir Dalvi Ashok V. Bhushan Hindi Also featuring Manoj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Sachin, Prem Nath
1986 Sri Shirdi Saibaba Mahathyam Vijayachander K. Vasu Telugu Dubbed into Hindi as Shirdi Sai Baba Ki Kahani, into Tamil as Sri Shiridi Saibaba
1989 Bhagavan shri Sai Baba Sai prakash Sai prakash Kannada
1993 Sai Baba Yashwant Dutt Babasaheb S. Fattelal Marathi Also featuring Lalita Pawar
2001 Shirdi Sai Baba Sudhir Dalvi Deepak Balraj Vij Hindi Also featuring Dharmendra, Rohini Hattangadi, Suresh Oberoi
2005 Ishwarya Avatar Sai Baba Mukul Nag Ramanand Sagar Hindi Composite movie drawn from Sagar's TV serial, Sai Baba.
2008 Malik Ek Jackie Shroff Deepak Balraj Vij Hindi Expected release in 2008. Also featuring Manoj Kumar, Divya Dutta, Rohini Hattangadi, Zarina Wahab and Anup Jalota as Das Ganu.
  • In the popular Hindi film Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Rishi Kapoor playing the Muslim character Akbar sings "Shirdi Wale Sai Baba" in a temple. Laxmikant Pyarelal composed the music, Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics, and Mohammed Rafi was the playback singer. The song became a hit and is still played today.
  • A more recent Hindi TV series, "Sai Baba" was made by Ramanand Sagar and broadcast by Star Plus in 2006, with 31-year old Mukul Nag in the title role.[45] This series is telecasted on Star Vijay, a Tamil Channel, every Friday 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
  • A TV serial on Sai Baba is telecasted on Star TV network every Sunday at 8:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. by Prof. C. V. Vijendra in Hyderabad.
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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - the bhagat singh of germany

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg


Stauffenberg, Puttkamer, Hitler and Keitel at the Wolf's lair on 15 July 1944
Born Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf
15 November 1907(1907-11-15)
Jettingen, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany
Died 21 July 1944 (aged 36)
Berlin, Germany
Cause of death Execution by firing squad
Nationality German
Employer Wehrmacht Heer
Home town Albstadt, Germany
Known for 20 July plot coordinator
Title Oberst (Colonel)
Religious beliefs Roman Catholic Church
Spouse(s) Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg
Parents Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Caroline Schenk Gräfin
(von Stauffenberg family)
Relatives Gm Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (son), Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (son)

Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer and Roman Catholic aristocrat who was one of the leading members of the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to kill German dictator Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power in World War II Germany. Along with Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he was one of the central figures of the German Resistance movement within the Wehrmacht.

Early life

Stauffenberg at the Kavallerieregiment 17 during 1926

Stauffenberg was the third of four sons (the others being the twins Berthold and Alexander and his own twin brother Konrad Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who died in Jettingen on 16 November, 1907) of Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg, and Caroline Schenk Gräfin (Countess) von Stauffenberg, née Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband. Claus was born in the Stauffenberg castle of Jettingen between Ulm and Augsburg, in the eastern part of Swabia, at that time in the Kingdom of Bavaria, part of the German Empire. The Stauffenberg family is one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic Roman Catholic families of southern Germany.[1] Among his maternal Protestant ancestors were several famous Prussians, including Field Marshal August von Gneisenau.

In his youth, he and his brothers were members of the Neupfadfinder, a German Scout association and part of the German Youth movement.[2][3]

Like his brothers, he was carefully educated and inclined toward literature, but eventually took up a military career. In 1926, he joined the family's traditional regiment, the Bamberger Reiter- und Kavallerieregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in Bamberg. It was around this time that the three brothers were introduced by Albrecht von Blumenthal to poet Stefan George's influential circle, Georgekreis, from which many notable members of the German resistance would later emerge. George dedicated Das neue Reich ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the Geheimes Deutschland ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold.[4] The work outlines a new form of society ruled by a hierarchical spiritual aristocracy. George rejected any attempts to use it for mundane political purposes, especially Nazism.

Stauffenberg was commissioned as a Leutnant (second lieutenant) in 1930. He studied modern weapons at the Kriegsakademie in Berlin-Moabit, but remained focused on the use of the horse — which continued to carry out a large part of transportation duties throughout the Second World War — in modern warfare. His regiment became part of the German 1st Light Division under General Erich Hoepner, who had taken part in the plans for the September 1938 German Resistance coup, cut short by Hitler's unexpected diplomatic success in the Munich Agreement. The unit was among the troops that moved into the Sudetenland, the part of Czechoslovakia that had a German-speaking majority, as agreed upon in Munich. However, Stauffenberg disliked the method by which the Sudetenland was annexed and strongly disapproved of the invasion of Prague.

Pre-war misgivings

Although Stauffenberg agreed with some of the Nazi Party's nationalistic aspects, he found many aspects of its ideology repugnant and never became a member of the party. Moreover, Stauffenberg remained a practising Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church had signed the Reichskonkordat in 1933, the year Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Stauffenberg vacillated between a strong personal dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen. On top of this, the growing systematic ill-treatment of Jews and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong personal sense of religious morality and justice;[5] he felt, for instance, that the November 1938 Kristallnacht ("Night of the broken glass") had brought shame upon Germany. [6]

[edit] World War II

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

Conquest of Poland, 1939

Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the attack on Poland. He supported the occupation of Poland and its handling by the Nazi regime and the use of Poles as slave workers to achieve German prosperity[7] as well as German colonization and exploitation of Poland. The deeply-rooted belief common in the German aristocracy was that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles and mostly absorbed by Prussia in partitions of Poland, but taken from the German Empire after World War I, should be colonized as the Teutonic Knights had done in the Middle Ages. Stauffenberg said, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonization in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur".[8] It is certain that in the early stages of the war, he still held the usual aristocratic beliefs typical of late imperial times.

Early appeals to join resistance, 1939

While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, had approached him before to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg's conscience and religious convictions made him consider it. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army, in order to participate in a coup against Hitler. Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German Reich, but to the person of Adolf Hitler, due to the Führereid introduced in 1934.

Battle of France, 1940

Stauffenberg's unit was reorganized into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its general staff in the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Like many others, Stauffenberg was impressed by the overwhelming military success, which was attributed to Hitler.

Operation Barbarossa, 1941

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, was launched in 1941. The mass executions of Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and others, as well as what he believed was an already apparent deficiency in military leadership (Hitler had assumed the role of supreme commander in late 1941 after sacking Hoepner and others), finally convinced Stauffenberg in 1942 to sympathize with resistance groups within the Wehrmacht, the only force that had a chance to overcome Hitler's Gestapo, SD, and SS. During the idle months of the so-called Phoney War, preceding the Battle of France (1939–40), he had already been transferred to the organizational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German army high command, which directed the operations on the Eastern Front. Stauffenberg opposed the Commissar Order, which Hitler wrote and then cancelled after a year.[9] He tried to soften the German occupation policy in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union by pointing out the benefits of getting volunteers for the Ostlegionen which were commanded by his department. Guidelines were issued on 2 June, 1942 for the proper treatment of prisoners of war from the Caucasus region who had been captured by Heeresgruppe A. The Soviet Union had not signed the 1929 Geneva Convention. However, a month after the German invasion in 1941, an offer was made for a reciprocal adherence to the Hague Conventions. This 'note' was left unanswered by Third Reich officials.[10] Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plot at this time. Hitler was at the peak of his power in 1942. The Stauffenberg brothers (Berthold and Claus) maintained contact with former commanders like Hoepner, and with the Kreisau Circle; they also included civilians and social democrats like Julius Leber in their scenarios for an administration after Hitler.

Tunisia, 1942

In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa, and the 10th Panzer Division occupied Vichy France (Case Anton) before being transferred to the Tunisian Campaign, as part of the Afrika Korps.

In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to Oberstleutnant i.G.[11] (lieutenant-colonel of the general staff), and was sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff (Ia). On 19 February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive against British, American and French forces in Tunisia. The Axis commanders hoped to break rapidly through either the Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British 1st Army. The assault at Sbiba was halted, so that Rommel concentrated on Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italians in the form of their 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Centauro Armoured Division had defeated the American defenders.[12] During the fighting, Stauffenberg drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division.[13] The division, together with the 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April.

While he was driving from unit to unit, directing them,[14] his vehicle was strafed on 7 April, 1943 by British fighter-bombers and he was severely wounded. He spent three months in hospital in Munich, where he was treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and 2 fingers on his left hand. He jokingly remarked to friends never to have really known what to do with so many fingers when he still had all of them. For his injuries, Stauffenberg was awarded the Wound Badge in Gold on 14 April, 1943 and for his courage the German Cross in Gold on 8 May, 1943.

In the resistance, 1943-1944

For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg was sent to his home, Schloss Lautlingen (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. Initially, he felt frustrated not to be in a position to stage a coup himself. But by the beginning of September 1943, after a somewhat slow recovery from his wounds, he was positioned by the conspirators and was introduced to Henning von Tresckow as a staff officer to the headquarters of the Ersatzheer ("Replacement Army" — charged with training soldiers to reinforce first line divisions at the front), located on the Bendlerstrasse (later Stauffenbergstrasse) in Berlin.

There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was General Friedrich Olbricht, a committed member of the resistance movement. The Ersatzheer had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have Operation Valkyrie in place. This was a contingency measure which would let it assume control of the Reich in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. Ironically, the Valkyrie plan had been agreed to by Hitler and was now secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power after his death.

A detailed military plan was developed not only to occupy Berlin, but also to take the different headquarters of the German army and of Hitler in East Prussia by military force after the suicide assassination by Axel von dem Bussche in late November 1943. Stauffenberg had von dem Bussche transmit these written orders personally to Major Kuhn once he had arrived at Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (today Kętrzyn, Poland). However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was canceled, and the attempt could not be made. Kuhn hid these compromising documents under a watch tower of the OKW, located not far from the Wolfsschanze.

Kuhn became a prisoner of war of the Soviets after the 20 July plot. He led the Soviets to the hiding place of the documents in February 1945. In 1989, Gorbachev presented these documents to then-German chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl. These documents, produced by Stauffenberg and his fellow officers in 1943 in Berlin, evince the idealistic motivation of the resistance group. This had been doubted and was a matter of discussion for years in Germany after the war. Some thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end the war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility.[15]

On 6 June, 1944, the Allies had landed in France on D-Day. Stauffenberg, like most other German professional military officers, had absolutely no doubt that the war was lost. Only an immediate armistice could avoid more unnecessary bloodshed and further damage to Germany, its people, and other European nations. However, in late 1943, he had written out demands with which he felt the Allies had to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace. These demands included Germany retaining its 1914 eastern borders, including the Polish territories of Wielkopolska and Poznań.[16] Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as Austria and the Sudetenland within the Reich, giving autonomy to Alsace-Lorraine, and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol as far as Bolzano and Merano. Non-territorial demands included such points as refusal of any occupation of Germany by the Allies, as well as refusal to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of "nations to deal with its own criminals". These proposals were only directed to the Western Allies — Stauffenberg wanted Germany only to retreat from western, southern and northern positions, while demanding the right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east.[17] After the Allied landing in Normandy, von Tresckow and Stauffenberg understood that their attempt at a negotiated peace was then only symbolic. The war would be ended only by the unconditional surrender of Germany.

20 July plot

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Main article: 20 July plot
Office at Bendlerblock

From the beginning of September 1943 until 21 July, 1944, von Stauffenberg was the driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany. His resolve, organizational abilities, and radical approach put an end to inactivity caused by doubts and long discussions on whether military virtues had been made obsolete by Hitler's behavior. With the help of his friend Henning von Tresckow, he united the conspirators and drove them into action.[18]

Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing high treason. He openly told young conspirator Axel von dem Bussche in late 1943, "ich betreibe mit allen mir zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln den Hochverrat..." ("I am committing high treason with all my might and means....").[19] He justified himself to Bussche by referring to the right under natural law ("Naturrecht") to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler ("Nothilfe").

Stauffenberg decided, only after the conspirator General Helmuth Stieff on 7 July, 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin. By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about the possibility of success. Tresckow convinced him to go on with it even if it had no chance of success at all,[citation needed] as this would be the only way to prove to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany were not one and the same and that not all Germans supported the regime.

Stauffenberg's part in the original plan required him to stay at the Bendlerstrasse offices in Berlin, so he could phone regular army units all over Europe in an attempt to convince them to arrest leaders of Nazi political organizations such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Gestapo. Unfortunately, when General Helmuth Stieff, Chief of Operation at [OKH| Army High Command], who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier committment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg was forced to take on two critical roles: kill Hitler far from Berlin and trigger the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the very same day. Beside Stieff, he was the only conspirator who had regular access to Hitler (during his briefings) by mid-1944, as well as being the only officer among the conspirators thought to have the resolve and persuasiveness to convince German military leaders to throw in with the coup once Hitler was dead. This requirement greatly reduced the chance of a successful coup.

After several unsuccessful tries by Stauffenberg to meet Hitler, Göring and Himmler when they were together, he went ahead with the attempt at Wolfsschanze on 20 July, 1944. Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs. The location had unexpectedly been changed from the subterranean Führerbunker to Speer's wooden barrack/hut. He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially-adapted pliers, a task made difficult because he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left. A guard knocked and opened the door, urging him to hurry as the meeting was about to begin. As a result, Stauffenberg was able to arm only one of the bombs. He left the second bomb with his aide-de-camp, Werner von Haeften, and returned to the briefing room, where he placed the briefcase under the conference table, as close as he could to Hitler. Some minutes later, he excused himself and left the room. After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel Heinz Brandt.

When the explosion tore through the hut, Stauffenberg was convinced that no one in the room could have survived. Although four people were killed and almost all survivors were injured, Hitler himself was shielded from the blast by the heavy, solid-oak conference table and was only slightly wounded.

Stauffenberg and Haeften quickly left and drove to the nearby airfield. After his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg immediately began to motivate his friends to initiate the second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders. When Joseph Goebbels announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler himself personally spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realized that the coup had failed. They were tracked to their Bendlerstrasse offices and overpowered after a brief shoot-out, during which Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder.

Execution

Death certificate
Memorial at Bendlerblock

In what would turn out to be a futile attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators, held an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg and fellow officers Colonel General Olbricht, Lieutenant von Haeften, and Oberst (Colonel) Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were shot before 1:00 a.m. that night (21 July, 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck.

As his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words: "Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland!" ("Long live our holy Germany!") [20][21] Others say the last words were: "Es lebe das geheime Deutschland"("Long live the secret Germany!")[21][22] Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honors in the Matthäus Churchyard in Berlin's Schöneberg district. Today, there is a stone in memorial of this event. The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals, and cremated.

Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. On 10 August, 1944, Berthold was tried before Judge-President Roland Freisler in the special "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof). This court was established by Hitler for political offenses. Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation (reputedly with piano wire used as the garrote) in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, later that day. More than two hundred[citation needed] were condemned in mock trials and executed.

20th anniversary memorial service

In 1980, the German government established a memorial for the failed anti-Nazi resistance movement in a part of the Bendlerblock, the remainder of which currently houses the Berlin offices of the German Ministry of Defense (whose main offices remain in Bonn). The Bendlerstraße was renamed the Stauffenbergstraße, and the Bendlerblock now houses the Memorial to the German Resistance, a permanent exhibition with more than 5,000 photographs and documents showing the various resistance organizations at work during the Hitler era. The courtyard where the officers were shot on 21 July, 1944, is now a memorial site, with a plaque commemorating the events and a bronze figure of a young man with his hands symbolically bound which resembles Count von Stauffenberg.

Family

Stauffenberg married Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld on 26 September, 1933 in Bamberg. They had five children: Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie, and Konstanze, who was born in Frankfurt on the Oder after Stauffenberg's execution. Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig and Valerie, who were not told of their father's deed,[23] were placed in foster home for the remainder of the war and were forced to use new surnames, as Stauffenberg was now considered taboo. Nina died aged 92 on 2 April, 2006 at Kirchlauter near Bamberg, and was buried there on 8 April. Berthold went on to become a general in West Germany's post-war Bundeswehr, and Franz-Ludwig became a member of both the German and European parliaments. In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg wrote a best-selling book about her mother, Nina Schenk Graefin von Stauffenberg.

Describing her late husband, Nina von Stauffenberg said:

He let things come to him, and then he made up his mind ... one of his characteristics was that he really enjoyed playing the devil's advocate. Conservatives were convinced that he was a ferocious Nazi, and ferocious Nazis were convinced he was an unreconstructed conservative. He was neither.[24]

Assignments, promotions and decorations

A German stamp of Stauffenberg and Helmuth James Graf von Moltke in commemoration of their 100th birthdays.
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Assignments
  • 1 January, 1926 - 17th (Bavarian) Cavalry Regiment, Bamberg
  • 17 October, 1927 - Infantry School, Dresden
  • 1 October, 1928 - Cavalry School, Hannover
  • 30 July, 1930 - Pioneer Course
  • 18 November, 1930 - Mortar Course
  • 1 October, 1934 - Cavalry School, Hannover / Adjutant
  • 6 October, 1936 - War Academy, Berlin
  • 1 August, 1938 - 1st Light Division (renamed 6th Panzer Division 18 October, 1939) / Second Staff Officer (Ib)
  • 31 May, 1940 - OKH / General Staff / Organization Branch / Section Head II
  • 15 February, 1943 - 10th Panzer Division / Senior Staff Officer (Ia)
  • 7 April, 1943 - Seriously wounded in Tunisia, assigned to Officer Reserve Pool
  • 1 November, 1943 - OKH / General Army Office / Chief of Staff
  • 20 June, 1944 - OKW / Chief of Replacement Army / Chief of General Staff
  • 4 August, 1944 - (Posthumous) Expelled from Wehrmacht by the Führer at the recommendation of the Army Court of Honour
Promotions
  • 18 August, 1927 - Fahnenjunker-Gefreiter
  • 15 October, 1927 - Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier
  • 1 August, 1929 - Fähnrich
  • 1 January, 1930 - Leutnant
  • 1 May, 1933 - Oberleutnant
  • 1 January, 1937 - Rittmeister (Hauptmann i.G. from 1 November, 1939)
  • 1 January, 1941 - Major i.G.
  • 1 January, 1943 - Oberstleutnant i.G.
  • 1 April, 1944 - Oberst i.G.
Decorations and awards
  • 17 August, 1929 - Sword of Honour
  • 2 October, 1936 - Distinguished Service Badge, IVth Class
  • 1 April, 1938 - Distinguished Service Badge, IIIrd Class
  • 31 May, 1940 - Iron Cross, Ist Class
  • 25 October, 1941 - Royal Bulgarian Order of Bravery, IVth Class
  • 11 December, 1942 - Finnish Liberty Cross, IIIrd Class
  • 14 April, 1943 - Wound Badge in Gold
  • 20 April, 1943 - Italian-German Remembrance Medal
  • 8 May, 1943 - German Cross in Gold

In popular culture

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Stauffenberg memorial site in Altes Schloss in Stuttgart

German films

American films

German television

American television

Related movies

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