German Operation Valkyrie Leaders Collection WW2 – Custom Printed Brick Block Figure

1. Heinz Brandt (Staff Officer)

• Specific Identification: Heinz Brandt (Colonel / Major General)

• Visual Details: The far-left building block figure represents a mid-ranking German staff officer. He is distinguished by the silver adjutant’s cord (aiguillette) draped across his right shoulder and chest. He wears a standard field-grey tunic with silver collar tabs, an Iron Cross, and a dark grey peaked cap with silver piping.

• Historical Background: Before the war, Brandt was an Olympic gold medalist in equestrian show jumping (1936). During the war, he served as a staff officer at the Eastern Front headquarters (the Wolf’s Lair). He is historically famous for inadvertently saving Adolf Hitler’s life during the July 20 Plot. When Claus von Stauffenberg placed the briefcase bomb under the map table, Brandt unknowingly moved the briefcase behind a heavy wooden table leg to get a better view of the map. The thick table leg deflected the blast, saving Hitler. Brandt was severely wounded in the explosion and died the next day.

2. Claus von Stauffenberg (General Staff Officer)

• Specific Identification: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

• Visual Details: The second figure from the left is instantly recognizable by his black eye patch. He wears a field-grey officer’s tunic with a brown leather belt and a printed sidearm holster. His dark grey trousers feature the double red stripes (Lampassen) denoting his status as a member of the General Staff.

• Historical Background: Stauffenberg was a highly decorated aristocratic officer who lost his left eye, right hand, and two fingers on his left hand during combat in North Africa. Disillusioned by the regime, he became the driving force of the German Resistance. On July 20, 1944, he was the man who personally smuggled the briefcase bomb into the Wolf’s Lair and placed it near Hitler. After the bomb detonated, he flew to Berlin to initiate the coup, but was arrested and executed by firing squad when the plot failed.

3. Ludwig Beck (Colonel General)

• Specific Identification: Ludwig Beck (Generaloberst)

• Visual Details: The third figure from the left represents a senior commander. He is detailed with ornate red and gold general’s collar tabs, a gold breast eagle, and a brown officer’s belt. Like Stauffenberg, he wears trousers with the General Staff double red stripes.

• Historical Background: Beck served as the Chief of the German General Staff before the war but resigned in 1938 in protest of Hitler’s aggressive expansionist policies, which he knew would lead to a disastrous war. He became a central, guiding figure in the resistance against the Nazi regime. Had Operation Valkyrie succeeded, Beck was the resistance’s designated choice to become the provisional Head of State. Following the failure of the coup, he was forced to commit suicide in the Bendlerblock headquarters.

4. Friedrich Olbricht (General of Infantry)

• Specific Identification: Friedrich Olbricht (General der Infanterie)

• Visual Details: The figure on the far right is another senior general, sharing the red and gold collar tabs and double red trouser stripes. He is distinguished by the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross worn around his neck, a colorful ribbon bar, and a distinct red piping line running down the center closure of his field-grey tunic.

• Historical Background: Olbricht was the strategic mastermind behind the military side of the coup. He secretly rewrote Operation Valkyrie—a legitimate continuity-of-government plan—so that the resistance could use the Reserve Army to seize control of Berlin and arrest SS officials once Hitler was dead. On the day of the plot, his hesitation to issue the Valkyrie orders (because he was unsure if Hitler was actually dead) cost the resistance critical time. He was arrested and executed by firing squad alongside Stauffenberg.