Ulrich von Hassell Ulrich von Hassell ( 12 November 1881 – 8 September 1944 ) was a German diplomat during World War II . A member of the German Resistance against German dictator Adolf Hitler , Hassell was executed in the aftermath of the failed 20 July plot . Family . Von Hassell was descended from old landed nobility . He was born the son of First Lieutenant Ulrich von Hassell and Margarete ( born von Stosch ) . His mother was a niece of Albrecht von Stosch , the Prussian Minister of State and chief of the Admiralität . She was furthermore the great granddaughter of Henriette Vogel whom Heinrich von Kleist had accompanied in November , 1811 in suicide . Ulrich v . Hassell has not excluded later that his ever growing admiration for the writer has been increased by this fact . His grandfather on the mother ' s side was the godson of count August Neidhardt von Gneisenau . This explains the special interest of Hassell in the Prussian reformer which found its expression in some publications , among other things . His grandfather on his father ' s side , Christian von Hassell , born in 1805 , chose a lawyer ' s career , an exception in their old Hanoverian family . Their members had exclusively been landowner s or had taken a career in the military . Ulrich von Hassell is also the grandfather of Agostino von Hassell , a noted author on military and war history ; and of Corrado Pirzio - Biroli former civil servant of the European Commission and ambassador of the EU to Austria during the Austrian European Union membership referendum , 1994 . Early life . Hassell was born in Anklam , Province of Pomerania , to First Lieutenant Ulrich von Hassell and his wife Margarete . Hassell passed his Abitur at Prinz - Heinrich - Gymnasium in 1899 . Between 1899 and 1903 , he studied law and economics at the University of Lausanne , the University of Tübingen and in Berlin . He was active in the Corps Suevia Tübingen ( a Studentenverbindung ) . After spending some time in Qingdao ( then known as the German colony of " Tsingtao " ) and London , he began in 1909 to work as a graduate civil servant ( " Assessor " ) in the Foreign Office . In 1911 , Hassell married Ilse von Tirpitz , Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz ' s daughter . The couple would have four children . Also in 1911 , he was named Vice - Consul in Genoa . World War I . In the First World War , Hassell was wounded in the chest in the First Battle of the Marne on 8 September 1914 . Later in the war , he worked as Alfred von Tirpitz ' s advisor and private secretary . He also later wrote his father - in - law ' s biography . After the war ended in 1918 , Hassell joined the German National People ' s Party ( " Deutschnationale Volkspartei " or DNVP ) . In the years that followed , he returned to the Foreign Office and worked until the early 1930s in Rome , Barcelona , Copenhagen , and Belgrade . In 1932 , Hassell was made Germany ' s ambassador to the Kingdom of Italy . In 1933 , Hassell joined the Nazi Party . He was very much against the Anti - Comintern Pact concluded by Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy , and the Empire of Japan in 1937 , and favoured instead Western - Christian unity in Europe ( he was , in fact , a member of the Order of Saint John , a German Protestant noblemen ' s association , to which he had been admitted as a Knight of Honor in 1925 and in which he had been promoted to Knight of Justice in 1933 ) . In 1938 , as a result of the Blomberg - Fritsch Affair , Hassell was recalled from his posting as ambassador in Rome by Adolf Hitler , without , however , being cast out of the diplomatic service . Then , soon after the German attack on Poland on 1 September 1939 , Hassell led a delegation to allay north European governments ' fears of a forthcoming German strike on their countries . World War II . After the outbreak of the Second World War , Hassell took part in plans to overthrow Hitler . Hassell ' s main function was to be a liaison between the conservative opposition groups centred about Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck ( Hassell once ironically called this group " His Majesty ' s most loyal opposition " – using the English term ) and the younger Kreisau Circle . In 1940 von Hassell met with amateur diplomat James Lonsdale - Bryans to discuss a possible pact between Germany and the British Empire . Lonsdale - Bryans proposed that Germany would be allowed control of Europe whilst Britain would control the rest of the world . Over the next few years , Hassell used his position in the executive committee of the Central European Economic Congress to discuss with Allied officials what might happen after a possible coup d ' état in Germany . He envisaged himself , along with Beck and Johannes Popitz , planning for Germany ' s post - Hitler internal organization after a successful coup . Depending on the source , either he or the former ambassador to the Soviet Union Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg , would have become Foreign Minister in the foreseen transitional government . However , on 29 July 1944 , von Hassell was arrested by the Gestapo for his involvement in the 20 July plot , something that he had foreseen . On 8 September , after a two - day trial at the German People ' s Court ( " Volksgerichtshof " ) , over which presided Roland Freisler , he was sentenced to death , and executed the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin . References . Marie Vassiltchikov : Berlin Diaries 1940 - 1945 , 1988 . 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