Franz Wilhelm von Schenk

Franz Wilhelm Karl Maria Gabriel Schenk Freiherr von Stauffenberg (14 August 1878 – 9 November 1950) was a German nobleman, landowner, businessman, and politician. He belonged to the old Swabian noble family of Stauffenberg. He served in the Chamber of Lords, the upper legislative chamber of the Kingdom of Württemberg during the German Empire, and in the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

Family

Stauffenberg was born in Rißtissen, a section of Ehingen in Württemberg, the tenth and youngest child and the only surviving son of Freiherr Franz August Schenk von Stauffenberg (1834–1901) and Gräfin Ida von Geldern-Egmont (1837–1887). Franz was married on 27 May 1903 to Gräfin Huberta Berta Wolff-Metternich (1882–1952) with whom he had five children. He was a distant cousin to Claus von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), who in 1944 was a chief participant in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Early life and education Stauffenberg attended the Gymnasium in Augsburg and the prestigious Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich where he received his Abitur in 1896. From 1897, he studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, from 1898 at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin and from 1901 at the Poppelsdorf Agricultural University (today, part of the University of Bonn) and at the University of Hohenheim from which he would later receive an honorary doctorate. Between 1902 and 1903, he was also enrolled in forestry studies at the University of Tübingen. He managed his family estates from 1901 and was a member of the Württemberg Chamber of Agriculture.

Service in the First World War Stauffenberg took part in the First World War from 1914 to 1918, entering military service with the Royal Bavarian Army as a Leutnant in the reserves of the heavy cavalry. He was promoted to Rittmeister,became a battalion commander in the 20th Infantry Regiment "Prince Franz" and was severely wounded in March 1918. He died in Riedlingen in November 1950.