Quotes

[to Friedrich Fromm's secretary when realizing the July 20 plot has failed] They have all left me high and dry.

My injuries have at least one advantage - finally I don't have to hide my fear of wasps anymore. [laughs]

[asked if he drank often or much] Gladly often much!

[to his secretary] I would rather punch myself in the mug 10 times than lift a single finger for Fromm [General Friedrich Fromm, commander of the Reserve Army]!

[report by his squadron leader, October 1933] He is somewhat sloppy in his dress and bearing, and as a young officer, should take more care of his appearance and give an impression of greater energy.

Claus Graf Stauffenberg continued attending school after his brothers had entered university, interrupted - just like since 1919 already - by long episodes of illness. He suffered from headaches, did not have to stay in bed but could not go to school either. Classmates remember him as being frail and quiet, sickly, not involved in handball games and pranks, often and during the last two years completely absent from school. - Peter Hoffmann, historian

The grades Stauffenberg received for his works in military school were not always good in the beginning though, many times the remarks they received were "poor" or "you did not finish it", "you need to improve your time management" and "you need to write more legibly". - Peter Hoffmann, historian

I have never known anyone with such a capacity for laughter. - Tisa von der Schulenburg, on Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

He [Stauffenberg] was irascible by nature. Already as a child he had been called 'Wü' (for wüterich or rager), which always infuriated him greatly. Yet as passionately as his temper boiled inside him, as strictly he had himself under control. He had learned with time to master his irascibility, and he rarely allowed himself outbursts of temper. - Wolfgang Venohr

Stauffenberg's personality appears to have been characterized by considerable willpower and by being downright ascetically hard on himself. - Gestapo investigation report, 26 August 1944

[after an especially irritating meeting with the leader of the Kreisau Circle] I can't stand that fellow Helmuth Moltke.

He [Stauffenberg] didn't really take dress codes seriously: Often, the top button of his garments had been left unbuttoned, or his hat had been perched on his head in a lopsided way. He also appreciated it when other people did not get all dressed up to the nines. - Sophie von Bechtolsheim, Stauffenberg's granddaughter

Fritz and Stauffenberg became friends in the 1930s; they shared an aristocratic background, and a certain reckless streak. - Kim Peter Bielenberg, grandson of July 20 Plot member Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg

He [Stauffenberg] was very lively, direct and spontaneous in his interactions. - Richard von Weizsäcker

These guys [generals] have their pants full of shit or their skulls full of straw. They don't want to do anything.

With subordinates, farmers and soldiers I get on well and there is a balance of mutual give and take. This is different with the comrades of the 'same level of education', whose pride is stupid arrogance and whose comradeship is paltry egoism. Of whom you do not want to demand anything because you cannot order it, and whose tact mainly consists of lessening the gaps as much as possible...