Berlin: Germany held ceremonies around the country to mark the anniversary of the failed 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
The speaker of Germany’s Parliament placed a wreath on Wednesday at the Defence Ministry, where plot leader Col Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg and three others were executed shortly after their July 20 plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb failed.
Later, German President Christian Wulff presided over the swearing-in of 470 new German Army recruits outside the Reichstag Parliament building.
It’s the first crop of new soldiers since Germany did away with conscription and went to an all-volunteer military earlier this year.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 10:55