Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). (archive photo)
© dpa
Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner has highlighted the significance of the attempt to overthrow the Nazi dictatorship 81 years ago.
"With the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, resistance fighters and opponents of National Socialism showed that there was also an 'Other Germany'," explained the CDU politician.
"July 20, 1944 was one of the most important days in the history of our country. Because the values that the resistance fighters stood up for outlived their deaths." They continue to have an impact today in the Basic Law and in Germany's free and democratic constitutional order. "It is therefore a permanent task of our country to commemorate the women and men of the resistance and to keep the memory of them and their work alive - as a reminder and as an obligation for all of us, for present and future generations."
On July 20, 1944, Wehrmacht officers led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg tried in vain to kill Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with a bomb, overthrow National Socialist rule and end the Second World War. Dozens of those involved were executed or forced to commit suicide. On the 81st anniversary on Sunday, Wegner will give a welcome address at the German government's commemorative event at the Plötzensee Memorial. In the afternoon, the Governing Mayor will take part in the swearing-in ceremony for soldiers of the Bundeswehr in the Bendlerblock.