Generalleutnant Rudolf Schmundt was one of the casualties of the July 20 plot which failed to kill the German dictator Adolf Hitler. One of the conspirators, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, placed a bomb in a briefcase beside Hitler during a briefing at the Wolfsshanze or Wolf's Lair in East Prussia (now Poland). Colonel Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase behind a heavy table leg and unwittingly saved Hitler's life, but as a consequence lost his own. Severely injured in the assassination attempt, Schmundt initially made a promising recovery, but ultimately died of complications resulting from his injuries on 1 October 1944. He was posthumously promoted by Hitler to General Der Infanterie and given a State funeral.
