Some 400 Bundeswehr recruits took their oath in front of the Reichstag.

The soldiers pledged to serve the Federal Republic faithfully and to defend freedom, the rule of law and the German people bravely.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told the recruits that the lawn before parliament was "just the right place for the occasion," because it sent a clear signal about the Bundeswehr's duty to protect democracy.

Merkel also praised Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg's group of army officers, who gave their lives 65 years ago in a failed attempt to bomb Adolf Hitler.

"There were unfortunately not many men and women of the German resistance, but those who chose to revolt against National Socialism preserved dignity and honor for our nation," she said.

Merkel called German resisters an "example" to the nation, adding that in her view "respect for the dignity of human beings around the world remains our core policy."

Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told the recruits that the Bundeswehr was "inextricably" linked to the plotters of July 20.

"We acknowledge the tradition of military resistance, a tradition we can be proud of," he said.

The swearing-in ceremony has been linked to the anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Hitler for some time. However, the lawns of parliament were chosen as a symbolic site for the occasion only last year.

Actions across Berlin

Anti-military demonstrators seized the opportunity to protest against war at a rally on Potsdam Square, out of earshot of the parliament building. Police had banned them from marching through Berlin's Tiergarten Park, in the vicinity of the Reichstag.

Elsewhere, politicians and soldiers laid wreaths at the Berlin Resistance Memorial Center at the Bendler Block, seat of the Defense Ministry, where Stauffenberg was executed alongside three fellow plotters on July 20, 1944.

Victims of Nazi Germany were also remembered at Ploetzensee, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin where more than 2,500 people were killed between 1933 and 1945.

Speaking at Ploetzensee, German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said resistance to Nazi Germany came from all areas of society, including trade unionists, politicians, scientists, public servants and members of the Jewish community.

"July 20 is a warning to the future, and not an annually recurring nostalgic event," he said.

Assassination plot

On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), the Allies had landed in France. Like many German professional military officers, Colonel von Stauffenberg had no doubt that the war was lost. Now was the time to act, and he believed that only an armistice could avoid more bloodshed and damage to Germany.

He and his co-conspirators tried to kill Adolf Hitler in order to start talks with the Western Allies for an end to World War II. He knew he was committing high treason under German law.

On July 20 the same year, Stauffenberg planted a bomb hidden in a briefcase in Hitler's Wolfsschanze headquarters in Eastern Prussia during a briefing.

The bomb exploded but its impact was broken by a heavy table. Of the 24 people present, four died, but Hitler received only minor injuries.

Meanwhile, Stauffenberg had already returned to Berlin. Convinced that the dictator was dead, he put in motion the so-called Operation Valkyrie, a plan originally conceived by the German military to suppress a possible rebellion during World War II which was adopted by the resistance plotters.

But the plan failed when it emerged later that evening that Hitler had survived the bomb attack. Among those sentenced to death with Stauffenberg were General Friedrich Olbricht, the head of the group, as well as Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Werner von Haeften.

The core group of plotters was executed that night by firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendler Block, then the General Army Office of the Army High Command.

nw/db/dpa/AP
Editor: Nathan Witkop