Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg

Schulenburg was one of the inner circle of the plotters against Hitler and was actively involved in the planning of Operation Valkyrie. He was intended by the plotters to head the Interior Ministry after Hitler had been killed. On 20 July 1944, Schulenburg was in the headquarters of the revolt, the Bendlerstrasse military intelligence headquarters in Berlin, and he was arrested there on that day, shortly after the attempt on Hitler's life had failed. On 10 August 1944 he was tried by the notorious Nazi Volksgerichtshof. In this show trial, with the infamous Nazi Roland Freisler presiding, Schulenburg explained his actions thus:

Schulenburg was executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin later the same day, 10 August 1944.

A remarkably forward-looking resistance-group plan for postwar Europe, co-authored by Schulenburg in 1943, says:

By 1943, Schulenburg had fallen under suspicion of working against the régime and spent one night under arrest. However, owing to his aristocratic status and connections, he was released.

On the Eastern Front, the crises that became apparent involving the provisioning, military leadership, and treatment of civilian populations in conquered lands gave Schulenburg reason to distrust the Nazis. His attitude towards Nazism changed radically at this time. Schulenburg observed with growing anxiety and disgust the lawlessness of the Nazi régime, and he made contacts with like-minded opposition forces from a spectrum of political circles, including other Prussian aristocrats like himself. One of the greatest friends to the circle at that time was Count Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, another scion of a historically famous Prussian noble family. By 1942, he was regularly taking part in the small Kreisau Circle's meetings.

As a lieutenant in the reserves, Schulenburg was posted to the reserve battalion of Infantry Regiment 9 in Potsdam. With this elite unit, he participated in the Russian Campaign and was awarded the Iron Cross, first class. However, it was not until his experiences in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941-1942 that he became a critic of Hitler's conduct of the war. During this period, his job changed often, and in the end he returned to the reserve battalion in Potsdam. By this time he viewed his duty as organizing a plot for the forcible removal of Hitler.

In 1939, the year Hitler attacked Poland, Schulenburg was appointed as acting Oberpräsident of Upper and Lower Silesia. By this time, the Nazi régime had come to view him as politically untrustworthy, and in 1940 he was excluded from the Nazi Party.

Despite military officials' reservations about Hitler's plans for conquest, and despite shock over the seamy affair of Army Commander in Chief Werner von Fritsch's discharge in 1938 (see Blomberg-Fritsch Affair), Schulenburg volunteered for military service at the front with patriotic enthusiasm. After his superior, the Gauleiter and Oberpräsident Wagner, had been dismissed, his position as Regierungspräsident ("Government President") in Breslau had become untenable anyway.

However, Schulenburg increasingly came into conflict with his superior, Erich Koch, the infamous Gauleiter of East Prussia. In 1934 he had himself transferred to the small town of Fischhausen, west of Königsberg, as a district administrator. The conflicts with Koch increased as time went on, but in 1937 he was promoted by the German Interior Ministry and posted to Berlin as vice president of police. His immediate superior was the Berlin President of Police Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, who resisted having Schulenburg assigned for a long time. Contrary to expectations, however, the two very different officials got along well together.

In March 1933, Schulenburg was appointed to the government council in Königsberg and gained increasing influence, both as a government official and as a member of the Party. He married Charlotte Kotelmann in the same month. His new jobs at this time were mainly to establish Gleichschaltung (the Nazi policy of forced "coordination" of societal groups) among officials in the realm of his influence, and also to delegate jobs to Nazi Party members.

Schulenburg's first contacts with the Nazi Party came in 1930, and he had become a party member by 1932, at about the same time as the rest of the family joined. In the same year, he was posted to East Prussia, where he helped to build the Nazi rank and file. Schulenburg could be counted among the followers of "north German" Nazism, characterized mainly by the brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser. Gregor Strasser was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives on Hitler's orders. Otto Strasser escaped into exile in following the 1930 Bamberg Conference where he opposed Hitler. He returned to Germany in 1956.

In 1920, Schulenburg passed his Abitur exam in Lübeck. He then decided not to pursue a career as a military officer, the family tradition, but instead studied law at the universities of Göttingen and Marburg. During that time, he became a member of the Corps Saxonia Göttingen, a German student fraternity, and he sustained several cuts as a result of the traditional dueling with swords. In 1923, he took the state examination in Celle, and for the next five years was employed as a trainee civil servant in Potsdam and Kyritz. In 1924, he interrupted his training for three months and served as a sailor on a steamship to South America and back. He completed his training in 1928, and became a graduate civil servant (Assessor) in Recklinghausen.

Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg (5 September 1902 – 10 August 1944) was a German government official and a member of the German Resistance in the 20 July Plot against Adolf Hitler.

Schulenburg was born in London, as his father, Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg, was at the time the German Empire's military attaché to the Court of St James's in the British capital. His mother was Freda-Marie von Arnim [de] (born 1873). As a result of the nature of their father's work, Schulenburg, his four brothers, and their sister Tisa von der Schulenburg, grew up in several different places, including Berlin, Potsdam, Münster, and the family's country house, Schloss Tressow in northwestern Mecklenburg. In accordance with the traditions of the Prussian nobility, the children were at first strictly educated at home by a governess.