Name Nina Grafin | ||
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Full Name Magdalena Elisabeth Vera Lydia Herta von Lerchenfeld Born August 27, 1913 ( 1913-08-27 ) Spouse Claus von Stauffenberg (m. 1933–1944) Grandchildren Claus Philipp Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg Similar People Claus von Stauffenberg, Berthold Maria Schenk G, Alexander Schenk Graf von | ||
"Nina" Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (27 August 1913 – 2 April 2006) was the wife of Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944. Following the plot's failure, she was arrested and imprisoned, during which time she delivered her youngest child.
Contents
- Grfin Nina von Stauffenberg Gedicht
- Early years
- Grfin von Stauffenberg
- Death
- Depictions
- Biography
- References
Gräfin Nina von Stauffenberg - Gedicht
Early years
Born Magdalena Elisabeth Vera Lydia Herta von Lerchenfeld in Kowno, Imperial Russia (now Kaunas, Lithuania), she was known by her nickname "Nina". Her father was the Bavarian nobleman and politician General Consul Gustav Freiherr von Lerchenfeld (1871–1944) and her mother Anna Freiin von Stackelberg (1880–1945), a Baltic-German noblewoman.
Gräfin von Stauffenberg
Nina von Lerchenfeld first met Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg around 1930. They were married on 26 September 1933 in Bamberg, Bavaria, making Nina the Countess (Gräfin) von Stauffenberg. Although Nina's and Claus von Stauffenberg's mothers were both Lutherans, the couple's children were raised as Roman Catholics, in accordance with the wishes of Stauffenberg's father.
The marriage produced five children:
After her husband's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler – he was summarily executed the following evening – the Countess von Stauffenberg was arrested by the Gestapo and taken into custody under the ancient Sippenhaft law reinstated by the Nazi government. Her five children were placed in an orphanage in Bad Sachsa, Lower Saxony, under the surname of Meister.
At the time of her husband's death, Stauffenberg was pregnant and in January 1945 she gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze, while imprisoned in a Nazi maternity center in Frankfurt an der Oder. That same year, her own mother, Anna, died in a Russian detention camp.
By the end of the Second World War, Stauffenberg had been moved to the Italian province of South Tyrol. There she was held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property. After the war, she was reunited with her family at the Stauffenberg family seat in Lautlingen, Baden-Württemberg.
Death
Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg died in Kirchlauter, near Bamberg, Bavaria, on 2 April 2006. She was 92. She was buried in Kirchlauter six days later.
Depictions
In the 1990 telemovie The Plot to Kill Hitler, Nina von Stauffenberg was portrayed by American actress Madolyn Smith. In the 2004 German film Stauffenberg, she was portrayed by actress Nina Kunzendorf. Dutch actress Carice van Houten portrayed her in the 2008 film Valkyrie.
Biography
The biography Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg - Ein Porträt by Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg, von Stauffenberg's youngest daughter, was published in 2008 (Munich: Pendo Verlag, ISBN 3-85842-652-0 / ISBN 978-3-85842-652-9).