The grandson of a German aristocrat who was involved in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler 75 years ago today launches a new battle to reclaim his family's estate seized by the Nazis.

Prince Frederick Solms-Baruth, whose grandfather was involved in the Valkyrie plot, which also involved an officer called Claus von Stauffenberg, has produced scientific evidence which he says proves the Gestapo confiscated the land.

Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, agreed this week to support the claim which could end up in the European Court for Human Rights. 

Frederick Solms-Baruth III was arrested 24 hours after the failed July 20, 1944, assassination attempt as he was burning incriminating documents in a log fire in his castle 30 miles south of Berlin.

For nine months he was incarcerated in the notorious Prince Albrechtstrasse Gestapo prison in Berlin as the personal prisoner of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and one of Hitler's most trusted lieutenants

He was kept in solitary confinement and repeatedly tortured. He signed a legal declaration handing over control of the vast estate, which included castles, a steel works, a porcelain factory, a huge dairy, tens of thousands of acres of forestry and farmland, and an internationally-renowned stud.