Hellmuth Stieff completed an officer training course after the First World War and was transferred to the general staff in 1938. From October 1942 on he was chief of the Organization Department in the Army High Command. After discussions with Henning von Tresckow, in the summer of 1943 Stieff decided to collaborate in the preparations to kill Hitler. He tried to persuade General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge to take part in the coup attempt. In the following months, Stieff safeguarded explosives for an assassination attempt on Hitler on several occasions. However, he refused to carry out the assassination himself. He was arrested in East Prussia on the night of July 20, 1944 and severely maltreated by the Gestapo during interrogation. Hellmuth Stieff was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 8, 1944 and murdered the same day in Berlin-Plötzensee.