8. The Oster Conspiracy of 1938
As evidence grew that Germany was lurching towards war over the issue of the Sudetenland with Czechoslovakia, France, and England, a group of conservative German soldiers, politicians and diplomats hatched a plot to overthrow Hitler and the Nazi government and restore the former Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne in a conservative parliamentary monarchy. The plot was named for its leader, Major General Hans Oster, head of the German Abwehr, the military intelligence officer of the Wehrmacht. It included German military leaders Ludwig Beck, Walther von Brauchitsch, Wilhelm Canaris, and several others, and was intended to create strong opposition by the British to German occupation of Czech territory by military means. With that in mind, German diplomats involved in the plot attempted to encourage Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to oppose Hitler.
Instead, Chamberlain, fearful of war, negotiated with the German Chancellor and eventually conceded territorial gains to Germany. Rather than overthrowing and executing Hitler, the plotters found themselves faced with a Fuhrer considered by the majority of the German people as a great statesman, with German international prestige completely restored. The plotters were forced to discard their plans though several, including Canaris when he assumed the role of head of the Abwehr, continued to act as a secret resistance to Hitler and the Nazis, narrowly avoiding the Gestapo and the SS throughout most of the war. Several of the Oster Conspiracy later joined in the plans for Operation Valkyrie, an attempted coup and assassination of Hitler and leading Nazis in 1944. The irony of the Oster Conspiracy and its attempt to eliminate Hitler is that it was foiled by the British, rather than by the German secret police and security forces.