End of the war 1945 | Absurd and murderous until the end

The "German Reich" surrendered in stages – in northern Italy, for example, effective on May 2, 1945, and in northern Germany on May 4. However, these partial capitulations did not replace the unconditional surrender demanded by the Allies, which was signed on May 7 at Allied headquarters in Reims and repeated on May 8 at Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. However, Nazi rule did not end completely, for a "Reich government" under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz remained in Flensburg-Mürwik in northwest Germany until May 23, before the British occupying forces, urged on by the USSR and the USA, occupied the last corner of the "German Reich" and arrested Dönitz, Alfred Jodl, and Albert Speer. The final phase of the Nazi Reich was now over, a phase in which the grotesque and the horror mingled.

The absurdity of this "government" is demonstrated by many examples in the new book by Gerhard Paul, Emeritus Professor of History and Didactics at the University of Flensburg: the daily morning cabinet meetings at the naval base in Mürwik; the inflated awarding of medals; the drafting of obviously pointless memoranda and planning documents, for example, on training measures in the Wehrmacht for 1947. This last "Reich government" was thus a ludicrous farce, yet cruel nonetheless. Many soldiers, mostly members of the Navy, simply wanted to go home after hearing about Hitler's suicide, who had deserted in his own way, and about the various stages of surrender. But what the Nazi leadership allowed themselves was by no means considered legitimate for ordinary soldiers by the merciless military justice system. And so, death sentences against "deserters" continued to be carried out and imposed at least until May 11, 1945, and possibly even beyond. As is well known, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg (1966–1978), Hans Filbinger, was later unable to recognize that he had acted unjustly when, as a naval judge, he had promoted and carried out the execution of a deserter in March 1945 and imposed a death sentence in April 1945.

Hitler appointed Dönitz as his successor, who, on the evening of May 1, informed the Germans of Hitler's death via radio, full of pathos, fanatical loyalty to the Führer, and lies. But why did Dönitz become "Reich President"—a position that hadn't been held since Hindenburg's death in August 1934? Dönitz later claimed that this surprised even him, as he had never been more than an apolitical soldier. Yet Dönitz was an ardent admirer of the "Führer," who viewed his navy as an indomitable branch of the armed forces that would never again be the starting point for a revolutionary mutiny like that of 1918. Paul sees precisely in this nationalist trauma of 1918 the reasons for the relentless severity of the naval courts against "deserters" as late as May 1945.

SS Chief Heinrich Himmler hoped in vain to secure a position in Dönitz's government. On May 5, 1945, he summoned 60 senior SS and police officers, as well as concentration camp commandants, to the Flensburg police headquarters for the last time—the largest gathering of mass murderers in one place in German history, as Paul aptly notes. Himmler's subsequent escape also ended on May 23 in Lüneburg, where he was arrested and committed suicide.

But why did the British leave the government in Flensburg in office, no matter how ridiculously small its influence was? Two considerations played a role. Firstly, at least the British Commander-in-Chief in Northern Europe, Bernard Montgomery, hoped that a formally intact German government could help hamper a possible advance by Soviet troops beyond the agreed occupation zones into Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, and thus to the North Sea, until the Western Allies had sufficient troops of their own on the ground. Above all, however, it must be taken into account that at the beginning of May 1945, the British were faced with a huge number of still-fit German troops in Norway and Denmark and an even larger number of retreating soldiers who wanted to evade capture by the Red Army.

At the end of the war, there were between 300,000 and 400,000 Wehrmacht soldiers in Norway alone, posing a major problem not only for the Norwegian and Danish resistance, but also for the British, who were far outnumbered in Northern Europe. Disarming them and repatriating them to Germany without significant resistance posed a significant challenge, but one that was nevertheless successful. Well over a million Wehrmacht soldiers remained prisoners of war in Schleswig-Holstein, primarily in Eiderstedt, after the war's end.

By May 23, even the British had had enough: "The strange show at Flensburg was over." With the exception of Admiral General von Friedeburg, who killed himself, no one in the Mürwik garrison was killed. The worst that happened to the mostly high-ranking prisoners were embarrassing body searches to find hidden weapons and, Himmler says hello, poison capsules. Dönitz was deeply outraged by this, as well as by the restriction of the clothing he was allowed to take with him into captivity to just one suitcase. What angered Dönitz most, however, was that his field marshal's baton was taken away, which he considered a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Alfred Jodl was sentenced to death and executed in Nuremberg in October 1946. Albert Speer successfully managed to spin the legend of the "apolitical technocrat" and received a 20-year prison sentence. The "apolitical soldier" Karl Dönitz was sentenced to only 10 years. His greatest "achievement" in May 1945, Gerhard Paul convincingly argues, was to circulate the legend of the "clean Wehrmacht," which had nothing to do with the crimes of the SS and other Nazis.

Gerhard Paul: May 1945. The Absurd End of the "Third Reich." How and Where Nazi Rule Truly Ended. WBG Theiss, 336 pp., paperback, €28.