A Tribute to Ewald von Kleist

Film shown on the occasion of the Ewald von Kleist Award ceremony on February 1, 2014, when Helmut Schmidt and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing received the award at the 50th Munich Security Conference. The award is named after Ewald von Kleist, who founded the conference in 1963 and had been one of the members of the July 20, 1944, plot to assasinate Hitler.

[@emilmanke1020]

Ich hatte 2012 noch die Möglichkeit, mit Herrn Ewald von Kleist zu telefonieren. Er lebte bis 1945 in Schmenzin, in meinem Heimatkreis Belgard in Pommern

[@filipwag4859]

Respekt !

[@ralfrath699]

He had no other option to kill evil. But what a tragedy he was not successful.

[@feldmarshal9378]

I thought his dad was a hell of a general in world war 2.one of those generals who couldn't get back to been captured by the allies.probably still would of been imprisoned even though not been a nazi

[@RottiDog100]

I believe his father was captured by the allies and passed to the czecks, who then extradited him to thesoviets.

[@tribeofjosepht.i.community9977]

Consider the personages speaking about von Kleist.

[@liamhackett513]

Yep. Not to mention the piano and vilolins warbling away in the background.

[@caractacusbrittania7442]

Kleist was lucky to survive
And.....like speer over plays his
Dislike of nazism and Hitler
And underplays his role in fighting wholeheartedly for that cause.
Stauffenvbergs brother also a lowly officer on the eastern front
And not involved in July 20 plot
Was murdered by the nazis just
Because he was family.
He was hung with cord in plotzenzee.....then revived....then
Hung again...then revived....
Then hung yet again....just to prolong his agony.
Before his hanging he was beaten and tortured by the gestappo for days.
So yes....Kleist son got off lightly.

[@JustMe00257]

July 1944 was quite late to stand up. The imminent defeat and expected demise of Germany was their main driver, not moral grounds.

[@roybean7166]

JustMe, Very true. Although there were officers who wanted to get rid of Hitler earlier, some much earlier, the majority were latecomers, and only as they saw Germany collapsing totally.

[@josebarroso97]

I understand that he was the son of General Kleist?

[@jamesglass4842]

FieldMarshal

[@MS4View]

He is from the famous Kleist family. Field marshal Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist actually wasn't his father but a relative. His father was Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, a german lawyer who took part in a plot to assassin Hitler and was executed for that in april 1945.

[@chipschannel9494]

@@MS4View enlightening, I know him from the bbc’s world at war

[@MrSmokeman63]

Ewald von Kleist died in Russia in 1954 @ Valadimir Central Prison --- per his bio .

[@paulneilson6117]

I thought this was a tribute to Ewald Georg Von Kleist cleric and inventor of the leyden jar. The device in your hand wouldn't exist without his discovery.

[@AndryFateev]

Kleist participated in the German invasion of Poland (1939) and commanded the tank corps that broke through the Ardennes Forest and thus began the rout of the French army in June 1940. He led the mechanized column that took Belgrade in the Yugoslavian campaign (1941). Early in the invasion of the Soviet Union, his tank army led the German attack on Kyiv and the advance through Ukraine. In November 1941 Kleist’s armies captured Rostov lol, you pay tribute for that guy??????

[@MunSecConf]

As there are a couple of people with a similar name, mixups can happen. The Ewald von Kleist who we are referring to, is our founder and member of the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. You can find more information on him here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewald-Heinrich_von_Kleist-Schmenzin.

[@AndryFateev]

@@MunSecConf thank you