Heinz Brandt was born on March 11, 1907 in Charlottenburg, the western district of Berlin. After attending school he joined the Reichswehr in 1925 as an officer cadet. By 1928 he had been promoted to lieutenant and had attended cavalry school in Hanover.
Berlin Olympic Games
His skill on a horse led to his being selected for the German equestrian team in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Riding his horse Alchemy he was a member of the gold medal winning show jumping team.
World War II
When the Second World War erupted in September 1939, Brandt was a Captain and aide to General Adolf Heusinger of the German General Staff. He saw service in an infantry division before being promoted to Major in 1941 and then Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1942. His career was undistinguished and he would probably have remained one of the thousands of little known German officers who served during the war had it not been for a slight twist Fate.
Plot to Kill Hitler
Unknown to Brandt, in March 1943 he had been given some bottles of congac by Major General Henning von Tresckow to carry on board the Condor Adolf Hitler was flying in that day. In fact the package contained a bomb that failed to explode. No blame was attached to Brandt and he was promoted to Colonel in May 1943. But fate was not finished with Heinz Brandt yet.
Operation Valkyrie
On the fatal day of July 20, 1944 when Colonel von Stauffenberg, the primary conspirator in Operation Valkyrie, the plot to kill Hitler, arrived at the Wolf’s Lair to carry out the assassination, Brandt and twenty other officers were already there. Von Stauffenberg placed the explosive filled briefcase next to where Hitler and Brandt were standing and on an excuse left the room. Heinz Brandt, wanting to get a better view of the map that Hitler was studying, moved the briefcase to the other side of a massive wooden table leg, away from Hitler. When the bomb exploded a few minutes later one of Brandt’s legs was blown off. Three other people were killed. Hitler was slightly wounded.
Brandt was rushed to Rastenburg Hospital joking that he was not concerned about loosing his leg as it gave him trouble all the time anyway. He died two days later. In gratitude, Hitler posthumously promoted him to Major General.
Sources:
Alan Bullock - Hitler: A Study in Tyranny –1952
Jacques Delarue – The Gestapo: A History of Horror –1965
Joachim Fest – Plotting Hitler’s Death: The German Resistance to Hitler –1996
Pierre Galante – Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals’ Plot Against Hitler - 2002
William L. Shirer – The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich –1959
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