Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff
German general (1905–1980)
Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff (27 March 1905 – 27 January 1980) was an officer in the German Army. As a Wehrmacht intelligence officer, he attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing on 21 March 1943; the plan failed when Hitler left early, but Gersdorff was undetected. That same month, soldiers from his unit discovered the mass graves of the Soviet-perpetrated Katyn massacre.
Early years
Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff was born into a military family of Silesian nobility. He was the second son of Baron Ernst von Gersdorff and his spouse Christine (née Countess zu Dohna-Schlodien). In 1934, Gersdorff married Renata Kracker von Schwartzenfeldt (1913–1942), co-heiress to the rich Silesian industrialist family von Kramsta, with whom he had one daughter, Eleonore. Gersdorff later married Eva-Maria von Waldenburg, who was a direct descendant of Prince Augustus of Prussia, although through an illegitimate line. She was previously married to Kurt von Wallenberg-Pachaly. His third and final marriage was to Irmgard Löwe. Rudolf-Christoph joined the Reichswehr as an officer cadet in 1923.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62355. VIAF identifies the subject as 13098872. The Library of Congress control number is n2004043279. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1980, 1943 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.