Albrecht von Mertz von Quirnheim was a career officer
and close friend of Colonel Claus
von Stauffenberg.
He succeeded Stauffenberg as Chief of Staff to General
Friedrich Olbricht, a co-conspirator in the plot against Hitler.
Quirnheim wasintimately involved in planning the coup and worked with Olbricht and Stauffenberg to update Operation Valkyrie for the planned uprising.
Quirnheim played important supporting role on July
15, 1944 when Stauffenberg went
to the Wolf's Lair to stage a second assassination attempt against Hitler.
After Stauffenberg reported the absence of Himmler and Goering at Hitler's
briefing, generals Beck and Olbricht ordered Stauffenberg
to abort the attempt. Quiernheim and Stauffenberg secretly agreed that
the opportunity to kill Hitler must be seized regardless. But when Stauffenberg
returned to the briefing room, the conference had already ended.
On July
20, 1944, Quirnheim pulled out the Operation
Valkyrie orders from the safe at Army High Command Headquarters
in Berlin and together with Olbricht ordered the first teletype directives
sent to all military bases throughout the Reich announcing Hitler's
assassination and the army's seizure of power under Field
Marshal Erwin von Witzleben.
Quirnheim stood by Stauffenberg to the end and was
executed by firing squad with him in the inner courtyard of the Bendlerstrasse.
