20 July Plot - Planned Government

Planned Government

The conspirators were earlier designated positions in secret to form a government that would take office after the assassination of Hitler were it to prove successful. Because of the plot's failure, such a government never rose to power and most of its members were executed. The following were appointed these roles as of July 1944:

• Generaloberst Ludwig Beck (Army) – President
• Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (DNVP) – Chancellor
• Wilhelm Leuschner (SPD) – Vice-Chancellor
• Paul Löbe (SPD) – President of the Reichstag
• Julius Leber (SPD) or Eugen Bolz (Centre Party) – Minister of the Interior
• Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg or Ulrich von Hassell (DNVP) – Foreign Minister
• Ewald Loeser (DNVP) – Minister of Finance
• Friedrich Olbricht (Army) – Minister of War
• Hans Oster (Army) – President of the Reichskriegsgericht (military supreme court)
• Hans Koch (Confessing Church) – President of the Reichsgericht (supreme court)
• Bernhard Letterhaus (Catholic trade unionist) – Reconstruction Minister (Minister without portfolio if not appointed)
• Karl Blessing – Minister of Economics or President of the Reichsbank
• Paul Lejeune-Jung (DNVP) – Minister of Economics
• Andreas Hermes (Centre Party) – Minister of Agriculture
• Josef Wirmer (Centre Party) – Minister of Justice
• Henning von Tresckow (Army) – Chief of Police

Note: Party allegiances as shown here indicate party membership before the dissolution of all political parties apart from the NSDAP.

Albert Speer was listed in several notes of the conspirators as a possible Minister of Armaments; however, most of these notes stated Speer should not be approached until after Hitler was dead and one conjectural government chart had a question mark beside Speer's name. This most likely saved Speer from arrest by the SS in addition to Speer being one of Hitler's closest and most trusted friends.

The only German political force which was not involved, other than the Nazi Party, was the Communist Party (KPD).