page_title: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin
section_title: Postwar
hierarchical_section_title: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin / Postwar
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: 45. Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz 2009: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (li) und der Bundesverteidigungsminister, Deutschland, Dr. Franz Josef Jung (re) im Gespräch. English: 45th Munich Security Conference 2009: Ewald von Kleist (le) and the Federal Minister of Defense, Germany, Dr. Franz Josef Jung (ri) in Conversation.
context_page_description: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin was a German publisher and convenor of the Munich Conference on Security Policy until 1998. A member of the von Kleist family and an officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II, his parents were active in the German resistance against Adolf Hitler. Kleist was designated to kill Hitler in a suicide attack and was the last surviving member of the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.
context_section_description: After the war he was left homeless when most of Pomerania was transferred to Poland and all of its Germans were expelled. Kleist went into the publishing business in West Germany and founded his own publishing house, the Ewald-von-Kleist-Verlag, which became a leading German publishing house. He joined the Protestant Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) to which his executed father had belonged, and he was admitted as a Knight of Honour in 1957 and promoted to Knight of Justice in 1975.  
   
  In 1962, Kleist founded the Wehrkundetagung in Munich, the predecessor of the modern Munich Conference on Security Policy. He was the convenor of the conference until he retired in 1998. The forum was an important event during the Cold War and is now a forum for diplomats, politicians and defence personnel from around the world to debate international security issues.
  In recognition of his services to strengthening transatlantic ties, Kleist was awarded the US Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1991. When he retired from his role at the Munich conference in 1998, eight NATO Defence ministers attended the event to salute him.
  Although Kleist remained active in German public life after the war and expressed his views openly on a variety of subjects, including the German armed forces and unilateral nuclear disarmament, which he criticised, he never spoke publicly about the 20 July 1944 plot.
caption: Von Kleist (left) with German Federal Minister of Defence Franz Josef Jung in 2009.
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