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Baron von Kleist is Ambassador’s Guest of Honor
Baron Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, a participant in the July 20, 1944, assassination plot against Adolf Hitler and founder in 1962 of the Munich “Wehrkundetagung,” now the International Conference on Security Policy, was the guest of honor at a dinner given by Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger and his wife on June 22 in Washington, DC. Many prominent individuals were in attendance, including US Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a reflection of how highly regarded Baron von Kleist is internationally both for his opposition to Hitler’s tyranny and his visionary establishment of the conference that would become the premier international forum on security issues. Born in 1922, Baron von Kleist joined the German army in 1940. Though Baron von Kleist had to swear the “führer oath” in becoming an officer, he swore to himself that he would break that oath. Son of the active Hitler opponent Count Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, Baron von Kleist followed his father’s example and committed himself to stopping Hitler and joining with others in the army who were like-minded. In January 1944, Baron von Kleist, on the urging of his father, volunteered for a suicide assassination attempt in which von Kleist was to model a new uniform for Hitler and would have hidden grenades inside his coat and then thrown himself on Hitler. That plan could not be carried out, but in July 1944, Baron von Kleist was among a group of young lieutenants who served as aides to Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in a coup attempt. The July 20 attempt was unsuccessful and his father was among those executed at Plötzensee in Berlin for their participation. Baron von Kleist was imprisoned in a concentration camp at Ravensbrück, but later released for lack of evidence and sent back to the front. After the war, he founded the publishing company Ewald-von-Kleist-Verlag in Berlin, one of whose publications was a monthly magazine on European security issues. In 1962, Baron von Kleist, an influential figure behind the scenes in security policy and transatlantic relations, hosted the first “Wehrkunde” conference in Munich, inviting government ministers, parliamentarians, military and scientific leaders as well as journalists. From the beginning, the conference has promoted the free exchange of views on political and military issues among experts in the field. Baron von Kleist served as chairman of the conference for the last time in 1998. Baron von Kleist has been awarded numerous high honors, including the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, Legion of Honor, Knight Commander of the British Empire, among others. Baron von Kleist is one of those interviewed in the 1992 Oscar-nominated documentary “The Restless Conscience,” a film about a small group of individuals who opposed the Nazi regime in Germany.
Also in attendance at the dinner at the Ambassador’s residence was the best-selling author and former publisher of the newsweekly Stern, Peter Scholl-Latour; members of the German parliament’s subcommittee on globalization and foreign trade; Fred C. Ikle, former Undersecretary of Defense and currently Distinguished Scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Robert Kimmit, former US Ambassador to Germany; and Rear Admiral David R. Oliver Jr. (Ret.), Chairman and Chief Executive officer of EADS North America. June 22, 2004 Photos by Victor Holt for the German Embassy
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