Maurice Bavaud

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Maurice Bavaud (15 January 1916 in Neuchâtel - 14 May 1941 in Berlin-Plötzensee) attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1938.

He travelled to Germany on 9 October 1938, staying in Munich and Berchtesgaden, following the whereabouts of Hitler in the news. He intended to shoot Hitler on 9 November (the day followed by the Kristallnacht) at a memorial march in Munich, posing as an enthusiastic Nazi supporter visiting from Switzerland to see Hitler in order to get a good place. He took a pistol to the march, but he didn't shoot because he was too far from Hitler, and because the spectators in front of him raised their hands for the Nazi salute. Bavaud tried to get close to Hitler during the following days, but eventually he gave up and travelled to Paris. He was arrested by the Gestapo for not having a train ticket, and his weapon as well as incriminating documents were discovered. Bavaud finally admitted to his assassination plans under torture, and he was tried on 18 December 1938, naming as his motives that he considered Hitler a danger to humanity in general, to Swiss independence, and to Catholicism in Germany. Swiss diplomacy made no effort to save Bavaud; Hans Fröhlicher, the Swiss ambassador to Germany even publicly condemned Bavaud's assassination attempt. Bavaud was sentenced to death, and guillotined in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison on the morning of 14 May 1941.

Bavaud's father attempted to rehabilitate his son, resulting in a court decision of 12 December 1955 reverting the death sentence but posthumously condemning Bavaud to a five year sentence, arguing that Hitler's life was protected by law just as any other life. A second verdict of 1956 reverted the prison sentence and Germany paid Bavaud's family the sum of CHF 40,000 in reparation.

Rolf Hochhuth in 1976 idealized Bavaud as a "new William Tell". Klaus Urner in 1980 relativized Hochhuth's heroic picture, analyzing psychological aspects of Bavaud's motivation. The Swiss Federal Council in 1989 and again in 1998 admitted that the Swiss authorities did not make a sufficient effort to save Bavaud.

[edit] Literature

Peter Hoffmann. 'Maurice Bavaud’s Attempt to Assassinate Hitler in 1938', Police Forces in History ed. George L. Mosse. SAGE Readers in 20th Century History Vol. 2. London/Beverly Hills 1975, p. 173–204.
Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, Jonathan Cape, 2006. ISBN 0-224-07121-1