Brandt, Heinz, born 11-03-1907, in Charlottenburg, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, 
the son of General Georg Brandt 
born 24-08-1976, died 21-04-1945 and who survived his son. Heinz was and a Wehrmacht officer. Brandt attended a course at the cavalry school in Hanover from 1927 to 1928 and was commissioned a leutnant. He was a renowned show jumper, the winner of an equestrian Olympic Gold medal in 1936,
and of numerous other riding awards.
At the outbreak of World War II, he was a Hauptmann on the General Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. After serving in an infantry division he was promoted to Major in January 1941 and Oberstleutnant in April 1942. 
In Peenemünde spring 1941. V.l.n.r. Generalmajor Dr. Walter Dornberger, 
General Friedrich Olbricht 
(with Knight’s Cross) Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, 
Major Heinz Brandt and in citizen 
Wernher von Braun.
Twice Brandt played an unwitting role in plots to kill Adolf Hitler. On 13-03-1943 he was asked by General Henning von Tresckow 
to carry onto Hitler’s plane a gift of Cointreau.
for delivery to Oberst Helmuth Stieff 
as payment for a lost bet. The gift package actually contained a bomb, but it did not detonate because of the cold temparture in the plane.
The morning of July 20, Stieff flew with Claus von Stauffenberg and Oberlieutenant Werner von Haeften 
in General Eduard Wagner’s 
Heinkel He 111 plane from Berlin to the Wolfsschanze. But in the evening he was arrested and interrogated under torture by the Gestapo. Stieff held out for several days against Gestapo efforts to obtain the names of fellow conspirators. Rejected by the Wehrmacht, he was tried by the Volksgerichtshof under President Roland Freisler 
and sentenced to death on 08-08-1944. At Hitler’s personal request, Hellmuth Stieff, age 43, was hanged on the afternoon of the same day in Plötzensee prison in Berlin. General Eduard Wagner after the failure of the coup attempt, he feared that his arrest by the Gestapo was imminent and that he might be forced to implicate other plotters. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at noon on 23-07-1944, age 50.
Death and burial ground of Brandt, Heinz.
On July 20, 1944, Heinz Brandt attended a conference at the “Wolf’s Lair,” at which Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg
and other conspirators had planned to kill Hitler with a suitcase bomb. Wishing to get a better view of a map, Brandt moved the suitcase to the other side of a thick table leg from Hitler, sparing Hitler the brunt of the blast when the bomb exploded, but losing a leg and died the next day after surgery in the Wolf’s Lair hospital[, 
his own life as a result. Hitler awarded Brandt posthumously the rank of Generalmajor. (Brandt died in the city, age 37, known at the time as Rastenburg in German. In 1945, it became part of Poland and was known as Rastembork. it is now called Kętrzyn.) With the assistance of Major Ernst John von Freyend,
, the person who, unaware that it was a bomb, took the briefcase with a bomb and placed it with Hitler. Oberst von Stauffenberg put a briefcase containing a primed bomb at Brandt’s feet as close as possible to Hitler and to the right of General Adolf Bruno Heusinger 
who was standing next to him. Stauffenberg then made an excuse that he had a phone call and left the room. 
Soon after he left, Brandt wanted to get a better look at a map on the table, he found the briefcase in his way and moved the briefcase to the other side of a thick strong table leg. Seven minutes later the bomb exploded and blew one of Brandt’s legs off. Where Brandt was standing right beside the bomb.
After the assassination, Brandt was taken to a hospital. Although badly wounded, he phoned his wife from the sickbed. Ernst John von Freyend himself was slightly injured and died 24-03-1980, one day begore his 71 birthday.
Three other people also died as a result of the explosion. It was later concluded that its exact positioning next to a leg of the map table was a crucial factor in determining who in the room survived.
Heinz Brandt is buried at the Stadtfriedhof Engesohde in Hanover, Region Hanover, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany.
Leave a Reply