Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal (23 February 1907 – 13 October 1944) was a German aristocrat and Army officer in the Second World War who was executed by the Nazi régime for his role in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
His father, a colonel in the Prussian Army, had been wounded in the First World War, during which he served as military governor of the Belgian district of Neufchâteau.
Educated at the Potsdam Gymnasium until 1928, followed by the Realgymnasium there, Blumenthal studied law and economics for two years at the Universities of Königsberg and Munich.
He narrowly missed being killed during the Night of the Long Knives, perhaps because he was often at Göring's table and, through Prince Wilhelm, knew Mussolini's daughter Countess Ciano.
In the army he remade the acquaintance of his childhood friend, Mertz von Quirnheim, and came into contact with other members of the German Resistance such as Hans Oster.
In that same year he wrote a contribution for the illustrated book for boys Wir Soldaten ("We Soldiers") but it is impossible to tell which piece was written by him.
The idea was for a storm-party of officers, including Graf Hans-Jürgen, to march into the Reich Chancellery, overcome the resistance of any SS guards found there, and arrest Hitler.
However, the policy of appeasement towards Hitler espoused by the British Prime Minister Chamberlain led the conspirators to conclude that the planned coup had no future.
War broke out, and on 9 September Graf Hans-Jürgen married Cornelia von Kries, née Schnitzler, a 34-year-old divorcée.
When this blissful calm ended, he took part in the offensive in Alsace, but in July his regiment was transferred to Tomaszew in central Poland, close to Warsaw, nearer to the new Soviet frontier, where in spite of his junior rank he took command of a battalion.
Graf Hans-Jürgen led his battalion to the gates of Kiev, where in July 1941 he was badly wounded by a dumdum bullet, his right arm rendered useless.
Furthermore, in the late 1930s Dietrich Bonhoeffer had operated an underground seminary for training Confessing Church pastors at Albrecht's estate at Schlönwitz.
He was the liaison officer between the Berlin Group and the Stettin High Command, Army District II, and was thus closely involved in the planning of the 20 July Plot of 1944.
In his book Geist der Freiheit (1956), Eberhard Zeller wrote: It is known that in the weeks before 20 July, Major Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal was frequently driven to Stauffenberg in the evening.
Between then and his trial before the German "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof) and immediate execution by hanging at Plötzensee Prison on 13 October 1944, is almost unknown, apart from the slender details mentioned in his last letter to his wife.
The sentence was as follows: 'In the name of the German people: Georg Schulze Buttger, Hans Jurgen Count Blumenthal, Roland von Hosslin and Friedrich Scholz Babisch, knew well beforehand of the planned betrayal of 20 July.
We know from eyewitnesses to his interrogation that he did not reveal the names of his accomplices.In Fabian von Schlabrendorff's book Offiziere gegen Hitler, he is mentioned only in the death-roll.