Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (22 March 1902 – 23/24 April 1945) was a member of the German anti-Nazi resistance. He was executed in the aftermath of the failure of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
The von Guttenberg family originates back to 1149 in Franconia (northern part of Bavaria) in the southern part of Germany. Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg studied law and history in Munich and graduated in 1929. In that year he married Therese, Princess Schwarzenberg. They had two daughters and one son.
Title page of the White Papers of September 1938
Karl Ludwig von Guttenberg was a Catholicmonarchist who started publishing the White Papers; Journals on History, Tradition and State (formerly called Monarchy) in 1934. Amongst its authors were Reinhold Schneider, Jochen Klepper, Ulrich von Hassell and Werner Bergengruen. The White Papers (in German: Weiße Blätter) soon became an important organ and also a meeting place, through their publishers many various contacts, for the conservative opposition against the Nazi regime under Hitler. Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg first introduced Carl Goerdeler and Ulrich von Hassell to each other in 1939.
Maria von dem Bottlenberg-Landsberg, "Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg; 1902–1945; ein Lebensbild". Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN3-931836-94-0.