Assassination Attempt on Hitler – Munich 1939

On November 8th 1939, a bomb planted by Georg Elser, a German Communist who worked as a carpenter, exploded at the Burgerbraukeller in Munich killing eight people and wounding 63. Eva Braun’s father was among the dead. The bomb was intended for Hitler who was scheduled to make a speech there on the occasion of the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. Elser had managed to hide in the Burgerbraukeller after closing every night for over a month. During that time he hollowed out a column near where Hitler would be speaking and filled it with explosives.

Hitler did make his speech but cut it short. Somewhere between eight to thirteen minutes after Hitler left the building (depending on which source you use) the bomb exploded. Elser was arrested, tortured and confessed to the attempt but claimed to have acted alone. He was imprisoned in a concentration camp and murdered there on April 9, 1945 to ensure he would not be rescued by the Allies. He lived as long as he did because Himmler wanted to use him in a show trial to establish British complicity in the assassination attempt after Germany won the war.

Historians generally agree that Elser planted the bomb but it remains uncertain whether he acted alone. Depending on how you count there were as many as seventeen attempts on Hitler’s life between September of 1939 and May of 1945. The July 20, 1944 attempt is only the most famous one.