Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg Friedrich - Werner Graf von der Schulenburg ( 20 November 1875 – 10 November 1944 ) was a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa . He began his diplomatic career before World War I , serving as consul and ambassador in several countries . After the failed July 20 plot in 1944 , Schulenburg was accused of being a co - conspirator and subsequently executed . Diplomatic career . Schulenburg was born in Kemberg , Saxony - Anhalt to Graf Bernhard von der Schulenburg . He studied law in Lausanne , Munich and Berlin after a one - year stint in the military . In 1901 , he joined the Foreign Office ' s consular service as a junior lawyer ( " Assessor " ) . By 1903 , he was already the vice - consul at Germany ' s consulate general in Barcelona , and in the years that followed , he found himself working at consulates in Lvov , Prague , Warsaw and Tbilisi . With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , von der Schulenburg returned to the military , and after the First Battle of the Marne was promoted to captain in October 1914 and put in charge of an artillery battery . In 1915 , he went as German liaison officer to the Ottoman Army on the Armenia n Front . In 1916 , he took over leadership of the Georgian Legion in the struggle with Russia , until its collapse in 1917 . During his time in the military , he received the Iron Cross and some high Turkish honours . After the German Empire ' s collapse , he was captured by the British and interned on the Turkish island of Prinkipo ( now called Büyük Ada ) , returning to Germany in 1919 . Von der Schulenburg returned to the Foreign Office Service and became consul in Beirut . Baron Schulenburg served as the German ambassador to Persia / Iran from 1922 to 1931 ( when his visit to the ancient monuments at Persepolis resulted in his engraving of his name at the Gate of All Nations seen in a photo in here ) . From 1931 to 1934 he served as the German ambassador to Rumania / Romania before being sent to Moscow as the last German envoy to the Soviet Union before the invasion of that country by Germany . Noble estate . In the 1930s , von der Schulenburg acquired the " Burg Falkenberg " , a castle in the Upper Palatinate . He had it converted and renovated to serve as a retirement home . This monumental work was undertaken between 1936 and 1939 . Resistance activities . After World War I , von der Schulenburg got his diplomatic career going again , becoming , among other things , an envoy to Tehran and Bucharest . In 1934 , he was appointed German ambassador to the Soviet Union . Von der Schulenburg favoured an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union , and was instrumental in bringing about the August 1939 German - Soviet Non - Aggression Pact . After the Soviet invasion of Poland , despite the state of war between Germany and Poland , he used his position as the most senior ambassador in Moscow to allow Polish diplomats ( including ambassador Wacław Grzybowski ) to leave the Soviet Union , when the Soviets tried to arrest them . Schulenburg was kept in the dark about Germany ' s planned invasion of the Soviet Union . He only knew for certain that the invasion was taking place just hours before it was launched , when Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop cabled him a message to read to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov justifying the invasion . He did , however , get suspicions of what his government was planning to do in the spring . To the last , he tried to thwart any talk of invasion by means such as hinting at the country ' s military strength and the unassailability of its industrial reserves . He is quoted as having said to Molotov on the morning of the attack : " For the last six years I ' ve personally tried to do everything I could to encourage friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany . But you can ' t stand in the way of destiny . " After the aggression began on 22 June 1941 , von der Schulenburg was interned for a few weeks , and transferred to the Soviet - Turkish border . Thereafter , von der Schulenburg was assigned as leader of the Russia Committee , a Foreign Office post with no political influence that neutralized him . He later joined the conspiracy to overthrow Hitler in hopes of reaching quick peace agreement in the east . He was ready and willing to negotiate even with Joseph Stalin in the plotters ' names . Had the plotters been successful in overthrowing Hitler , Schulenburg would have been a high - ranking official in the Foreign Office ; some sources had him listed as foreign minister . After the failure of the attempt on Adolf Hitler ' s life on 20 July 1944 , he was arrested and charged with high treason . On 23 October 1944 , the " Volksgerichtshof " ( " People ' s Court " ) sentenced him to death . He was hanged on 10 November 1944 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin . Marriage . He married from 1908 to 1910 Elisabeth von Sobbe ( Burg bei Magdeburg , 14 March 1875 - Wolframshof , 6 July 1955 ) , and had an only daughter :