Adenauer, according to Der Spiegel, accused Kordt of already once having "betrayed" his boss.
But these views have now been buried and the 1944 bid to kill Hitler is this year being celebrated with lavish TV documentaries, feature films and exhibitions.
Chancellor Schroeder, who has a good nose for shifts in the public's mood, seems to have caught on to the changing view of Stauffenberg early during his first term in office.
One of his government's first military policy decisions after taking power in 1998 was to allow army recruits to swear their oath in the Bendlerblock courtyard where Stauffenberg was executed.
It was here, standing in the headlights of military vehicles before being shot by the firing squad, that the already wounded Stauffenberg shouted his final words: "Holy Germany lives!"
Although there has been some dispute over whether this was what he really said, his mourning widow later insisted, "that sounds just like him."
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