Hitler was very nearly assassinated in 1939, but survived by just minutes

Elser, who had been born in 1903 in the town of Hermaringen in Württemberg, came from a working-class Protestant family and had developed a firm belief in personal responsibility.

During the early years of Nazi rule, he had seen independent trade unions banned, opposition crushed, and Germany turn into a dictatorship.

He felt alarm as those events unfolded. Though not a member of any political party during the later 1930s, he had previously had contact with left-wing groups and may have briefly joined the Red Front Fighters' League in the early 1930s.

As time passed, he became convinced that no change would occur unless someone removed the dictator by force.  

He saw Hitler’s annual appearance at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, where the regime held a yearly remembrance of the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, as the only predictable moment where such an attempt might succeed.

After he had visited the site in November 1938, Elser carefully observed the layout of the beer hall, the timing of the ceremonies, and the location of the speaker’s platform.

Soon after, he moved to Munich, where he began to visit the hall frequently in the evenings, hiding inside after the doors were locked and working through the night.

Using hand tools, he carved out a concealed chamber inside one of the central stone pillars near the speaker's platform and slowly removed debris in his pockets each day.

Over the course of several weeks, he transformed the pillar into a bomb chamber without being discovered and then returned home to build the device, using parts obtained from work sites, quarry dynamite, and radio components.

He had reportedly tested the explosives in secret on his parents' property.  

Elser had designed and built the time bomb entirely by himself, creating a double-clock mechanism that would allow the bomb to explode at exactly the right time, even in case one timer failed.

By November 1939, he had returned to Munich with the bomb hidden in pieces inside a suitcase and had put it back together inside the pillar chamber.

As part of his plan, he had set the timer to go off at 9:20 p.m. on 8 November 1939, which had been the usual time Hitler concluded his annual speech during past remembrances.

With the plan in place, Elser departed Munich and began his journey toward the Swiss border, hoping to cross before the explosion took place.  

By chance, Hitler had changed his travel plans that year due to heavy fog that disrupted flight schedules and required a switch to train travel.

As a result, he gave a shorter speech earlier than expected. At 9:07 p.m., he left the building and departed for Berlin by train.

Thirteen minutes later, at 9:20 p.m., the bomb exploded exactly as Elser had planned, sending a powerful blast through the Bürgerbräukeller and bringing down much of the ceiling.

As a result, eight people died, including six members of the Nazi Party, a waitress named Maria Stransky, and a Bürgerbräukeller waiter.

More than sixty others suffered injuries. Investigators later found that had Hitler stayed for just a few more minutes, he would have died in the explosion.  

Meanwhile, Elser had already reached the town of Konstanz, which was still on the German side of the Swiss border.

However, when border guards stopped him for inspection, they discovered suspicious items that included a fuse, diagrams of the Bürgerbräukeller pillar, and tools for cutting wire.

He was detained and handed over to the Gestapo, who began interrogations immediately.

At first, Elser gave false statements and claimed that he had no involvement in the bombing.

Over time, as evidence against him built up, he eventually confessed and provided detailed explanations of his motives, methods, and actions.

He told his captors that he had wanted to save Germany from destruction and had acted entirely alone, without support from any group or foreign government.  

Nazi authorities initially refused to accept that a lone German had come so close to killing Hitler and spent months trying to prove that British intelligence or communist networks must have been involved.

For months, Elser was interrogated repeatedly and reportedly suffered severe treatment in Gestapo custody.

According to testimony after the war, he reportedly suffered repeated beatings and prolonged sleep deprivation that together amounted to severe physical abuse.

He continued to insist that no one else had helped him. At the same time, the regime’s propaganda ministry, led by Joseph Goebbels, used the incident to launch a campaign blaming the British for an international assassination plot.

The propaganda ministry ordered a film about the incident that reportedly was never finished.

Eventually, however, evidence later made it clear that Elser had acted alone.  

Elser was imprisoned without trial and eventually transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp as a special prisoner.

Later, the SS moved him to Dachau, where he was kept in isolation under constant surveillance.

As a "Sonderhäftling," or special detainee, he received slightly better conditions, which included access to books and a radio.

These privileges changed over time. Some historians believe that Hitler may have intended to stage a show trial once the war ended.

As Allied forces advanced into southern Germany in April 1945, Heinrich Himmler ordered the execution of several high-profile prisoners, including Elser.

On 9 April 1945, the SS shot him at Dachau and cremated his body immediately afterward in the camp's crematorium.  

Dachau was liberated by American forces just twenty days later. Only many years after the war did Elser's story gradually receive the recognition it deserved.

Over time, historians confirmed that he had designed the bomb on his own, without any collaborators.

For decades, his actions received less attention because of the more famous failed 20 July Plot of 1944 led by Claus von Stauffenberg.

In 1969, West Germany erected its first official plaque to honour Elser's act in his hometown of Königsbronn.

Today, German society recognises him as one of the earliest and most committed figures in the resistance to Nazism.

He now has memorials in Berlin, Munich, and Königsbronn.