The fascination with “what‑if” scenarios fuels our imagination, especially when it comes to the top 10 failed attempts to eliminate Adolf Hitler. How different would the world be if any of these daring, bizarre, or downright desperate schemes had succeeded? Below we dive into each plot, preserving every twist, tragedy, and oddball detail.
Top 10 Failed Assassination Plots Against Hitler
10 Johann Georg Elser Missed Hitler By Minutes
On November 8, 1938, a Munich Beer Hall was about to become the stage for a near‑miraculous escape. Hitler, slated to deliver a speech, abruptly left the venue 30 minutes early to catch a train home, fearing worsening weather. That split‑second decision saved his life.
Less than ten minutes after his departure, a timed explosive hidden in the column behind his podium detonated, killing eight and wounding sixty. The bomb, meticulously planted by Johann Georg Elser—a carpenter, union activist, and communist—would have likely incinerated the Führer had he remained on schedule.
Elser believed that removing Hitler would spark a communist revolution, a vision he shared with a friend just days before the attack. Hitler’s survival was later attributed to a seemingly providential twist of fate. Elser was apprehended while attempting to flee to Switzerland, endured torture, was sent to Dachau, and ultimately executed.
The night after his failed plot coincided with Kristallnacht, the horrific night when Jewish businesses and synagogues across Germany were set ablaze—a grim prelude to the Holocaust.
9 Maurice Bavaud Tried To Kill Hitler The Next Day
Swiss theology student Maurice Bavaud convinced himself that Hitler was the antichrist, a dire threat to both Christianity and humanity. Determined to fulfill what he saw as a divine mission, he armed himself with a pistol and entered Germany, seeking an audience with the Führer.
When his plans to arrange a meeting fell through, Bavaud blended into a crowd of Nazi supporters watching Hitler parade through Munich, pistol concealed in his pocket. As Hitler approached, the sea of saluting arms blocked his line of sight, forcing Bavaud into a split‑second decision: fire and risk innocent casualties or retreat.
Choosing caution, he fled, only to be caught on a train to France with a forged ticket. A search revealed his weapon and a map of Hitler’s vacation home. Bavaud’s fate was sealed; he faced a guillotine in May 1941, penning a heartbreaking farewell to his parents: “I want to cry, but I can’t. I feel my heart would explode.”
8 William Seabrook Tried To Kill Hitler With Voodoo Magic
While guns and explosives dominated most attempts, American writer William Seabrook opted for the occult. On January 22, 1941, he convened a “hex party” in a Maryland cabin, where participants drank rum, hammered drums, and invoked pagan deities to strike down Hitler.
The group fashioned a dummy in a Nazi uniform, chanting, “You are Hitler! Hitler is you!” They called upon the pagan god Istan, believing the dummy’s wounds would transfer to the Führer. Drums pounded as nails were driven into the dummy’s heart, and Seabrook decapitated it before burying it deep in the woods.
Despite the ritual’s fervor, Hitler survived, leaving historians baffled by the failure of such a supernatural scheme.
7 The First Attempt On Hitler’s Life
Long before his rise to power, Hitler faced an early brush with death in November 1921. Speaking at the Munich Beer Hall, he addressed a massive, partially hostile crowd. Over‑drunk opponents hurled beer steins, turning the hall into a chaotic battlefield of chairs, lead pipes, and brass knuckles.
Amid the melee, a gunman fired at Hitler, missing his mark. Undeterred, Hitler allegedly drew his own weapon, returned fire, and continued his speech for another twenty minutes while the venue erupted in violence.
This first documented assassination attempt illustrates how even in his early political days, Hitler survived perilous moments that could have altered the course of history.
6 Operation Flash
General Henning von Tresckow, a key figure in the German Resistance, engineered a daring scheme on March 13, 1943. As Hitler flew from Vinnitsa, USSR, back to Germany, his aircraft made a layover in Smolensk. Tresckow slipped a bottle of expensive brandy—filled with a 30‑minute‑delay bomb—into the plane, presenting it as a gift for Berlin officials.
The bomb, concealed within the luggage compartment, failed to detonate because the cold temperature prevented the explosives from igniting. Hitler returned safely, while Tresckow frantically tried to retrieve the suspicious bottle before anyone discovered it.
This botched attempt underscores the precarious nature of resistance operations within the Nazi war machine.
5 Rudolf von Gersdorff Got a Bomb Within Inches of Hitler
After Operation Flash, General Rudolf‑Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff volunteered for a suicide mission to eliminate Hitler. The plan hinged on a March 15, 1943 exhibition of captured Russian equipment in Berlin, where Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler would be present.
Gersdorff concealed explosives in his coat pockets, set to detonate ten minutes after activation. However, Hitler’s delayed arrival meant the timer would expire after he had already left, risking the deaths of Gersdorff and innocent bystanders while sparing the Führer.
Faced with this grim calculus, Gersdorff abandoned the attempt, forced to watch Hitler stroll through the exhibition unscathed before slipping away unnoticed.
4 The Oster Conspiracy
In 1938, Hans Oster, chief of German Military Intelligence, orchestrated a bold coup to overthrow the Nazi regime. Alarmed by Hitler’s demand for Czechoslovakia, Oster assembled a team of sixty officers, intending to arrest and eliminate the Führer, either by execution, declaring him mentally unfit, or by shooting him during a staged “resisting arrest.”
The coup never materialized. The Munich Agreement allowed Germany to annex Czechoslovakia without firing a shot, leading the conspirators to believe the crisis had passed. By the time war erupted, internal divisions had fractured the resistance, rendering Oster’s plot ineffective.
3 The British Snuck Estrogen Into Hitler’s Food
The British devised a non‑lethal, yet sensational strategy: feminizing Hitler by introducing estrogen into his diet. Believing that a hormonal shift would temper his aggression, they bribed a gardener to inject estrogen into the carrots served to the Führer.
While the plan was executed—spies accessed Hitler’s meals and estrogen‑laced carrots were delivered—the outcome remains unclear. Food testers may have detected the tampering, or the gardener could have betrayed the operation. Some speculate the scheme succeeded, potentially influencing Hitler’s decision‑making during the Russian campaign.
2 The 20 July Plot
On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg carried the most famous attempt on Hitler’s life. Armed with a briefcase bomb, he entered the Wolf’s Lair conference room, setting a single fuse before a guard reminded him of Hitler’s imminent arrival.
Stauffenberg placed the briefcase under the table, excused himself, and awaited the explosion. The bomb detonated, killing four, but the single fuse lacked sufficient force to kill Hitler, who escaped with minor injuries. Stauffenberg was captured and executed shortly thereafter.
1 Operation Foxley
British intelligence formulated Operation Foxley in 1944 after interrogating one of Hitler’s personal guards at his Bavarian Alpine retreat. The guard disclosed that Hitler took a solitary walk to a nearby teahouse each day at 10 a.m., unguarded for about twenty minutes along a forested path—perfect for a sniper.
Although a marksman and insider were ready, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Thornley argued that assassinating Hitler would turn him into a martyr, preserving Nazi ideology. As the war neared its end, the British concluded it was strategically wiser to let Hitler live.