After the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, he was arrested as one of the personalities planned for leading positions in a new beginning. Months later, he was sentenced to death and executed. He is remembered as a man who sacrificed his life consciously, based on his Christian faith, to fight against an unjust regime. He was introduced as a martyr of the 20th century by the Catholic Church, and a school and streets were named after him.