Help
Add this page to your book
Show book (0 pages)
Suggest pagesFlensburg Government
The Flensburg Government (German: Flensburger Regierung), also known as the Flensburg Cabinet (German: Flensburger Kabinett) and the Dönitz Government (German: Regierung Dönitz), was the short-lived administration that attempted to rule Nazi Germany during a period of several weeks directly before and after the end of World War II in Europe. The government was formed following the suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April during the Battle of Berlin, and headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.
The administration was referred to as the "Flensburg Government" because Dönitz's headquarters was located in the city of Flensburg in Northern Germany. Due to the rapid Allied advance, its effective jurisdiction was limited to a narrow wedge of territory running from the Austrian border through Berlin to the Danish border.
Contents |
[edit] Formation
In his last will and testament, Hitler designated Dönitz his successor. Dönitz was not to become Führer, but rather President (Reichspräsident), a post Hitler had abolished in 1934. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was to become Chancellor (Reichskanzler). Martin Bormann was designated the "Party Minister", granting him de facto control of the Nazi Party. Hitler had condemned both Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler as traitors and expelled them both from the Nazi Party and the German government. Göring was at that time in Bavaria under arrest by SS-guards. Himmler was with Dönitz but was not informed of his being condemned by Hitler.
In the evening of April 30, Donitz received a message from the Reich chancellery, issued by Bormann, informing him that Hitler had named him as his successor in the place of Göring. On 1 May, Dönitz received a further communication from the Reich chancellery, issued by Bormann and Goebbels informing that Hitler had committed suicide and that accordingly the Führer's will was in effect, so that Dönitz was now Reich President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Later that day, Goebbels committed suicide while Bormann fled the Führerbunker, and Dönitz asked former finance minister Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk to replace Goebbels as Chancellor. Von Krosigk refused the job. Instead, the two agreed that Von Krosigk would become the 'Leading Minister'.
That night, Dönitz gave his first nationwide radio address, in which he spoke of Hitler's "hero’s death" and vowed that the war would continue "to save Germany from destruction by the advancing Bolshevik enemy." However, Dönitz had known before he accepted the reins of power that Germany's position was untenable and that the Wehrmacht was no longer capable of offering meaningful resistance. During his brief period in office, he devoted most of his efforts to ensuring the loyalty of the German armed forces and trying to ensure German troops would surrender to the British or Americans and not the Soviets, since he feared they would face Soviet reprisals.
The Cabinet Schwerin von Krosigk, the nominal administration of the Flensburg government, had its first meeting in Mürwik, near (and now part of) Flensburg on 5 May. The Naval Academy at Mürwik, overlooking the Flensburg Fjord served as the headquarters of the Dönitz administration from its establishment until its dissolution.
[edit] Actions
At the urging of Dönitz, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and General Alfred Jodl attempted to direct what was left of the Wehrmacht towards the armies invading from the west.[1]
On 4 May Dönitz sent Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, his successor as the commander in chief of the German Navy to the headquarters of British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery at Lüneburg, with orders to negotiate a surrender to the Western Allies. Montgomery informed Admiral Von Friedeburg that an unconditional surrender to all Allies was necessary and non negotiable. Nevertheless, authorized by Dönitz, Von Friedeburg signed an instrument of surrender of all German troops in the Netherlands, Denmark and in Northwestern Germany, that was accepted by Montgomery on behalf of the Allied Powers.
Given that the Americans and the British would not accept a surrender to the Western Allies only, and insisted on a complete surrender, Dönitz instructed Von Friedeburg to go to the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, to negotiate the terms of surrender. Accordingly, on the next day, May 5, Von Friedeburg arrived at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Rheims, France, to negotiate a surrender to the Allies. Jodl arrived a day later. Dönitz had instructed them to draw out the negotiations for as long as possible so that German troops and refugees could surrender to the Western Powers. However, Eisenhower let it be known he would not tolerate the Germans' stalling, and threatened to close the front unless it stopped, meaning that German soldiers attempting to cross the line to surrender would be fired on, that all subsequent surrenders would have to be to the Soviets. When Dönitz learned this, he authorized Jodl to sign the unconditional German Instrument of Surrender at 1:30 A.M. on the morning of May 7. Just over an hour later, Jodl signed the documents. The surrender documents included the phrase, "All forces under German control to cease active operations at 23:01 hours Central European Time on 8 May 1945." Walter Bedell Smith signed on behalf of the Western Allies, and Ivan Susloparov on behalf of the Soviets. French major general François Sevez signed as the official witness.
At Stalin's insistence, on 8 May, shortly before midnight, the signing was repeated in Berlin at Marshal Georgiy Zhukov’s headquarters, with Marshall of the Royal Air Force A.W. Tedder representing the United Kingdom and also acting as Eisenhower's representative (he signed "on behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force", in his capacity as Deputy Supreme Commander). U.S. Army Air Forces General Carl Spaatz signed on behalf of the United States. Empowered by Dönitz, Von Friedeburg, Wilhelm Keitel and Hans-Jürgen Stumpff signed the second instrument of surrender in Berlin as the representatives of Germany. At the time specified, World War II in Europe ended.[1] On May 9, Dönitz issued orders to the German Armed Forces regarding the surrender.
[edit] Cabinet
- Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, Reich President
- Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Foreign Minister, Minister of Finance, and presiding officer of the Cabinet
- Wilhelm Stuckart, Minister of Culture, succeeded Himmler as Minister of the Interior
- Albert Speer, Minister of Industry and Production
- Herbert Backe, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forests
- Franz Seldte, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
- Julius Dorpmüller, Minister of Posts and Communications
Colonel General Alfred Jodl was Chief of Operations Staff of the Wehrmacht and represented Dönitz in negotiations with the Allies in Rheims, France. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, was Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), to which the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres) had been made subject since April 28, 1945, and he represented Dönitz in negotiations with the Red Army in Berlin. Admiral Von Friedeburg was appointed to succeed President Dönitz as Commander of the Kriegsmarine. The Air Force was destroyed, so no appointment was made, and formally Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim remained the Commander of the Luftwaffe.
[edit] Dissolution
Former armaments minister Albert Speer suggested that, after the surrender, the Flensburg government should dissolve itself. Instead Dönitz and his ministers chose to continue in hope of presiding over post-War Germany as a provisional government.
The speech by Winston Churchill announcing victory to the British people is evidence of a de facto recognition of the Flensburg Government's authority, at least up to the moment of the unconditional surrender, since Churchill specified that the surrender had been authorized by "Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated Head of the German State".[2] However, after the unconditional surrender, the Flensburg government was not recognised by the Allies.
On 20 May, the Soviet government made it clear what it thought about the Flensburg government. It attacked the Dönitz Administration, calling it the "Dönitz Gang" and harshly criticised any idea of allowing it to retain any power. Pravda said:
Discussions of the status of the Fascist gang around Dönitz continue. Several prominent Allied circles will deem it necessary to make use of the "services" of Dönitz and his collaborators. In the British Parliament, this gang has been described as the 'Dönitz Administration'... A reporter of the reactionary Hearst press has called the enlistment of Dönitz "an act of political sagacity." Thus a Fascist scribbler has seen fit to make common cause with Hitler's marauding disciple. At the same time, the Fascist press on both sides of the Atlantic has put it abroad that conditions in Germany in 1918, when German Rightists produced similar fairy-tales of impending chaos. Then, the intact German Army units were used for new adventures in the East, immediately after capitulation. The present campaign has similar objectives. Many reactionary circles around the Allies are opposed to the creation of a new Europe on the basis of the Crimea Conference. These circles consider the preservation of Fascist states and breeding grounds a means of thwarting the democratic aspirations of all freedom-loving nations...[3]
On May 12 American Major General Lowell W. Rooks and his British deputy, Brigadier E. J. Foord, arrived in Flensburg and established their quarters in the passenger ship Patria, that was docked in Flensburg's harbour. Their mission was to liaise with the Dönitz acting government and to impose the will of the victorious Allied Powers on the German High Command. After several contacts between the Allied liaison officers and the Dönitz "acting government", a decision regarding the dissolution of that Government and the arrest of its members as POWs was made by the SHAEF on May 19, and carried out on May 23. On that day, a British officer went to Dönitz's headquarters and asked to speak with the members of the government. Dönitz, Von Friedeburg and Jodl were then taken aboard the Patria, where Maj. Gen. Rooks informed them of the dissolution of the Government and of their arrest.[4][5]
The communication regarding the dissolution of the acting Government and the arrest of its members was made around a table that was set in the Patria's deck: Dönitz, Jodl and Von Friedeburg sat at one side, while Major General Rooks, British Navy Captain Mund and Soviet General Trusov sat on the other side. Brigadier Foord remained standing next to Maj. Gen. Rooks, and an official interpreter was also present at the proceedings.[5] By the time Dönitz emerged from the ship, the town's main street was filled with British tanks and with troops rounding up the Germans. Von Friedeburg succeeded in committing suicide, while Dönitz, Speer, Jodl and other members of the dissolved Flensburg Government were taken as prisoners.[4]
The power vacuum that ensued from the arrest of the Flensburg Government and the dissolution of the Third Reich was terminated on June 5, 1945, when the representatives of the Allies signed the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers.[6] The said declaration stated:
The Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom, and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by the German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not affect the annexation of Germany.
Therefore, on June 5, 1945, although Germany continued to exist as a nation, it was placed under full authority of the Allied Military Occupation Government.
During the initial stage of the occupation of Germany, supreme authority was discharged by the Four Powers jointly for all occupation zones, via the Allied Control Council, so that this Council was the immediate successor of the Dönitz Administration in the Government of Germany.
[edit] See also
- End of World War II in Europe
- German Instrument of Surrender
- Victory in Europe Day
- Victory Day (Eastern Front)
[edit] References
- ^ a b The German Surrender Documents — WWII, iBiblio, http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450506a.html#1.
- ^ Churchill, Winston, End of the War in Europe, http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/95-end-of-the-war-in-europe.
- ^ Dollinger, Hans. The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Library of Congress Catalogue Card # 67-27047, p. 239
- ^ a b http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/other/us-army_germany_1944-46_ch15.htm
- ^ a b http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55858898
- ^ WWII, Yale Law, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/ger01.asp.
