World War II · Film · 2008
Valkyrie
A maimed Wehrmacht colonel joins a conspiracy of officers and turns Hitler's own emergency plan into the blueprint for a coup, all hanging on one briefcase bomb.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Near Mezzouna, Tunisia
Already disgusted by the regime, Stauffenberg is badly wounded when Allied fighters strafe his unit in the desert.
Stop 2: The Berghof, Obersalzberg
At Hitler's mountain residence, Stauffenberg obtains the Führer's signature on the revised Valkyrie orders.
Stop 3: Wolf's Lair, East Prussia
Key location
Stauffenberg arms the bomb, places his briefcase under the conference table and walks out before the blast.
Stop 4: Bendlerblock, Berlin
Back at Reserve Army headquarters, the conspirators launch Valkyrie and race the news that Hitler is still alive.
What really happened
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg lost his right hand, two fingers and an eye in an air attack in Tunisia in April 1943. Posted to the Reserve Army in Berlin, he joined officers who had plotted against Hitler for years and rewrote Operation Valkyrie, a plan to mobilize the Reserve Army in an emergency, so that it would seize power once Hitler was dead.
On 20 July 1944 he left a bomb under the map table at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. It killed four people, but Hitler survived with minor injuries, and the coup in Berlin collapsed within hours. Stauffenberg and three others were shot in the Bendlerblock courtyard that night, and the regime arrested thousands in the purge that followed. The film is broadly faithful and was shot partly in the real Bendlerblock.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Valkyrie
- Directed by
- Bryan Singer
- Countries
- United States, Germany
- Languages
- English, German
- Released
- 2008
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe, Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Politics
- Resistance
- True story
