Background
He was born in Dietzhausen near Suhl, Thuringia and attended the Klosterschule Roßleben convent school and the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry.
He was born in Dietzhausen near Suhl, Thuringia and attended the Klosterschule Roßleben convent school and the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry.
Breitenbuch was a Knight of Justice of the Order of Saint John. He originally joined the army as a reserve officer During the Second War he served as special missions officer to Generalfeldmarschall Erwin von Witzleben and in August 1943 Henning von Tresckow arranged for him to be an aide to Generalfeldmarschall Guenther von Kluge in an attempt to gain his support for the conspiracy.
When Kluge was injured in a road accident on 27 October 1943, Breitenbuch became an aide to Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch.
On 9 March 1944 Busch and his aides were summoned to brief Hitler at the Berghof in Bavaria on 11 March. Following a debate with Tresckow, Breitenbuch agreed to attempt to assassinate the Führer by shooting him in the head using a 7.65mm Browning pistol concealed in his trouser pocket, having declined a suicide attempt using a bomb.
A Condor aircraft was sent to collect Busch and Breitenbuch and he was allowed into the Berghof, but was not able to carry out the plan because Steamship guards had been ordered - earlier that day - not to permit aides into the conference room with Hitler. He worked in forestry after the war and died on 22 September 1980 in Gottingen after undergoing cancer surgery.