The evening of April 30th, 1945 brought Grand Admiral Carl Dunitz, a radio message from the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellory in Berlin that would thrust him into a position he had never sought and for which he was entirely unprepared. Command of what remained of Nazi Germany as Adolf Hitler’s designated successor following the Furer’s suicide.
The telegram transmitted through military channels as Soviet forces fought through Berlin streets just blocks from where Hitler had taken his life informed Donuts that he had been appointed Reich President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, that Hinrich Himmler had been expelled from the party for attempting unauthorized peace negotiations, and that Donuts was now responsible for leading Germany through whatever remained of the war and into whatever post-war settlement could be achieved.
D for the next 20 days until Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allies took full effect on May 23rd, 1945. Donuts would preside over the final dissolution of the Third Reich, attempting to preserve German military forces and civilian populations from the worst consequences of total defeat while navigating between the impossible demands of continuing resistance that Hitler had ordered and the practical necessity of accepting unconditional surrender to enemies who would accept nothing less.
Carl Donuts had risen to prominence as commanderin-chief of the German Navy and as the architect of yubot warfare strategy that had threatened Allied shipping in the Atlantic. A professional naval officer whose competence and loyalty to Hitler had earned him promotion to Grand Admiral and increasing authority over naval operations as the war progressed.
Donitz’s relationship with Hitler had been characterized by the Furer’s confidence in the admiral’s aggressive operational concepts and by Donitz’s national socialist loyalty that made him one of the few senior military officers Hitler trusted completely even as the war turned decisively against Germany. This trust combined with Hitler’s fury at Herman Guring’s apparent attempt to seize power and at Hinrich Himmler’s unauthorized contact with Western powers led Hitler to bypass traditional succession arrangements and to designate
Donuts as his successor despite the admiral’s lack of political experience or governmental administrative background. The Germany that Donuts inherited as its final leader was a nation in its death throws with Soviet forces occupying Berlin and Eastern Germany, British and American forces controlling Western Germany, Allied strategic bombing having destroyed German industrial capacity and transportation networks, and German military forces either defeated and in captivity or retreating in disorder before overwhelming enemy advances from
multiple directions. The governmental structure of the Reich had largely ceased to function with ministries scattered or destroyed, communication networks disrupted, and the administrative apparatus that had governed Germany and occupied territories for 12 years dissolving under the pressure of military defeat.
Donuts’s authority extended theoretically over all remaining German forces and territory, but practically his control was limited to areas not yet occupied by Allied forces and to military units that retained communication capabilities and organizational coherence. The government donuts assembled in Finsburg near the Danish border in the area of northern Germany, still under German control, represented his attempt to establish administrative continuity and to present Allied forces with a functioning German government capable of negotiating
surrender terms and of implementing whatever arrangements were agreed upon. The Flynnburg government as it came to be known included Albert Shpear continuing as minister of economics and production, Foreign Minister Lutz Graph Schwarin von Crosik who would serve as Donitz’s chief adviser and various military commanders who controlled the remnants of German armed forces.
This government operating from naval headquarters and from buildings requisitioned in Fenceburg existed in a strange twilight zone where it exercised some authority over German forces not yet in Allied custody while being completely dependent on Allied sufference for its continued existence. Donuts’s immediate priorities upon assuming power reflected his naval background and his focus on military rather than political considerations.
evacuating as many German soldiers and civilians as possible from eastern territories before Soviet forces captured them, surrendering to Western Allied forces rather than to Soviet forces whenever choice was available, maintaining military discipline and organizational structure during the transition to captivity, and attempting to negotiate surrender terms that would preserve some protection for German forces and populations rather than simply accepting dictated terms without discussion.
These priorities reflected Donitz’s assessment that Germany’s military defeat was complete and inevitable, that continued resistance served no purpose, but that the manner of Germany’s surrender might affect the treatment of German soldiers and civilians during occupation and captivity. The military situation Donuts inherited on May 1st, 1945 was one of total collapse across all fronts.
In the west, British and American forces had crossed the Rine and were advancing through Germany, meeting minimal resistance from German forces that were surrendering on mass. In the east, Soviet forces had completed the encirclement of Berlin, had driven through Poland and into Germany, and were accepting surrender of German units that could no longer retreat.
In Italy, German forces had already surrendered through negotiations that predated Hitler’s death. In Norway and Denmark, substantial German forces remained organizationally intact, but were completely isolated from Germany proper. The only military question remaining was whether Germany’s final surrender would be coordinated and relatively orderly, or whether it would be chaotic and peacemeal with different German units surrendering at different times to different enemy forces.
Field Marshal Wilhelm Kitle, chief of the armed forces high command, remained in position under Donitz’s government and attempted to maintain some semblance of military command structure during the final days. Kitle, who had been Hitler’s most compliant military subordinate, and who had enabled Hitler’s worst decisions through his unwillingness to provide realistic military advice, now found himself in the position of implementing the surrender that all his optimistic assessments had claimed would never be necessary. Kitle’s role in Donuts’s
government was to coordinate with field commands to ensure that surrender orders were transmitted and implemented and to maintain military discipline during the transition period when German forces were moving from combat operations to captivity. General Alfred Jodel, chief of the operations staff, served as Donuts’s primary military adviser and as the officer who would ultimately sign the German instrument of surrender at Eisenhower’s headquarters in rhymes on May 7th, 1945.
Yodel had been responsible for operational planning at Hitler’s headquarters throughout the war, had witnessed the progressive deterioration of Germany’s military situation and now had the task of implementing the unconditional surrender that he had long recognized as inevitable. Yodel’s professionalism and his understanding of military realities made him valuable to Donitz during the transition period.
Though his role in implementing Hitler’s directives throughout the war would lead to his prosecution and execution at Nuremberg, the question of whether Donut’s government should attempt to negotiate surrender terms or should simply accept unconditional surrender as the allies had demanded at Casablanca in 1943 represented the central diplomatic dilemma of the 20-day period.
Donuts understood that Germany’s military position provided no leverage for negotiation, that the allies had repeatedly stated they would accept only unconditional surrender. But he also believed that attempting to preserve some protections for German forces and civilians required at least attempting to engage with allied representatives about implementation details, even if the fundamental terms were non-negotiable.
This approach reflected Donuts’s naval background where operational details of surrender could significantly affect the treatment of surrendering forces translated into the political sphere where details of Germany’s capitulation might affect occupation policies and the treatment of German populations. The Allied response to Donitz’s assumption of power was to treat the Fenceburg government as a practical mechanism for implementing Germany’s surrender rather than as a legitimate government with which negotiations would be conducted. General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe, made clear that he would deal with Dunits and his government solely for the purpose of arranging the unconditional surrender of all German forces, that no political negotiations would occur, and that the Fenceburg government would be dissolved once it had served its purpose of implementing surrender.
This approach reflected Allied policy that Germany would be occupied by Allied military government rather than being allowed to retain any form of independent governance during the immediate postwar period. The partial surrenders that occurred in the first week of May with German forces in various theaters capitulating to local allied commanders before the general surrender was formalized created complications for Donuts’s government as they represented both the collapse of centralized command authority and potential opportunities to
achieve different surrender terms in different locations. The surrender in Italy had already occurred through Operation Sunrise before Hitler’s death. German forces in northwest Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands surrendered to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on May 4th. These local surreners reflected both the military reality that German forces could no longer sustain coordinated resistance and the political reality that German commanders preferred surrendering to Western Allied forces rather than to
Soviet forces when choice was available. Donuts’s attempt to continue fighting on the Eastern front while surrendering to Western allies with the goal of allowing as many German soldiers and civilians as possible to escape Soviet captivity represented his primary strategic objective during his brief period of authority.
This policy reflected widespread German fear of Soviet treatment of prisoners and occupied populations. fears that were based on legitimate concerns about Soviet retribution for German atrocities committed in the Soviet Union and on Nazi propaganda about Bolevik cruelty that had been disseminated for years. The policy also represented a calculation that Western allies might be more lenient in their treatment of Germany and might potentially see value in preserving German military capacity for use against Soviet expansion. The
Allied rejection of partial surrender and their insistence that Germany surrender simultaneously to all Allied powers eliminated whatever possibility existed for Donuts’s preferred approach of differential surrender. Eisenhower made clear that Germany must surrender unconditionally to all allies simultaneously.
That attempts to surrender only in the west while continuing to fight in the east would not be accepted. that the allies maintained unity regarding German surrender regardless of emerging tensions about post-war arrangements. This allied firmness meant that Donuts’s government could delay surrender only briefly to allow additional evacuations from the east, not indefinitely as Donuts had hoped.
The formal surrender ceremony at Eisenhower’s headquarters in Rise on May 7th, 1945 saw General Yodel signing the instrument of unconditional surrender on behalf of Donitz’s government with the surrender to take effect at 11:01 p.m. on May 8th, 1945. The ceremony was repeated in Berlin on May 8th to 9th to satisfy Soviet demands for a formal surrender in the captured German capital and to ensure that Soviet representatives participated fully in accepting Germany’s capitulation.
These surrender ceremonies marked the formal end of the European War, though Dernit’s government would continue to exist for two more weeks as it implemented surrender provisions and as allied authorities decided how to proceed with occupation administration. The policies Donitz’s government implemented during its brief existence revealed the admiral’s priorities and his understanding of Germany’s situation.
Orders were issued to all German forces to cease combat operations and to surrender to Allied forces. Instructions were provided for the orderly transition from military operations to captivity with emphasis on maintaining discipline and organizational structure. During the process, efforts were made to continue evacuation operations from eastern territories with German naval vessels and merchant ships transporting refugees westward from areas falling under Soviet control.
The government attempted to preserve some continuity of civil administration in areas not yet under allied occupation, maintaining police forces and attempting to ensure that essential services continued during the transition period. The treatment of Nazi party officials and SS personnel by Donuts’s government reflected the admiral’s distancing from ideological aspects of the Nazi regime and his focus on military and administrative functions.
Donitz had never been a party member in the way that SA or SS leaders were. His authority derived from military competence and professional service rather than from party ideology and his government included few prominent party figures. Hinrich Himmler expelled by Hitler before his death and wanted by Allied authorities committed suicide on May 23rd after being captured by British forces.
Ysef Gerbles, Hitler’s propaganda minister, had committed suicide with his family in Hitler’s bunker shortly after the Furer’s death. Herman Guring, once Hitler’s designated successor, was in Allied custody. The absence of these figures from Donuts’s government reflected both the physical impossibility of their participation and the admiral’s preference for administrators and officers who could focus on practical matters of surrender implementation rather than on ideological posturing.
Albert Spear’s role in Donitz’s government as minister of economics and production represented continuity from his position in Hitler’s government where Spear had been responsible for armaments production and for attempting to maintain German industrial output despite strategic bombing and resource shortages. Spear’s expertise in industrial administration and logistics made him valuable to Donits during the transition period.
Though Spear’s influence was limited by the fact that German industry had largely ceased functioning and that economic decisions were increasingly being made by Allied occupation authorities rather than by the Flynnburg government. Foreign Minister Schwarin Fonroi, a professional diplomat and former finance minister, served as Donuts’s closest political adviser and as the government’s primary contact with Allied representatives regarding surrender implementation.
Schwarin vonic drafted the radio addresses that donits broadcast to announce Hitler’s death, Germany’s surrender, and the policies of the Flynnburg government. messages that attempted to maintain some dignity in defeat while acknowledging the reality of total military collapse. These addresses emphasize the government’s commitment to preventing chaos during the transition to occupation, to preserving German lives and property to the extent possible and to implementing surrender provisions in ways that maintain German organizational
capacity for whatever would come next. The continuing German military operations during the first days of May, particularly in the east, where forces were attempting to retreat westward and to evacuate civilians, represented the most significant actions of Donuts’s brief period of authority. German naval vessels conducted evacuation operations from ports in the Baltic, transporting refugees and retreating military units westward toward areas that would be occupied by British or American forces rather than by Soviet forces.
German ground forces in the east conducted fighting withdrawals designed to delay Soviet advances long enough to allow these evacuations to proceed, accepting that ultimate capture by Soviet forces was inevitable, but attempting to preserve some additional time for civilian evacuations. These operations, while militarily futile in the strategic sense, saved hundreds of thousands of German civilians from immediate Soviet occupation and represented the primary achievement of Donuts’s government beyond the administrative implementation
of surrender. The Allied decision to dissolve Donuts’s government on May 23rd, 1945 reflected the completion of surrender implementation and the Allied determination to assume direct control over German territory rather than to work through any German governmental structure. British forces arrested Donits and the members of his government, detaining them for interrogation and eventual prosecution.
The Fensburg government ceased to exist and Germany entered the period of Allied military occupation that would last until the establishment of separate West and East German states in 1949. The arrests marked the complete end of any German governmental authority and the beginning of the Allied control council’s direct rule over occupied Germany.
The historical assessment of Donitz’s 20-day government and of his actions as Germany’s final leader has debated whether he served German interests by implementing orderly surrender and by attempting to preserve German lives during the transition to occupation or whether he served primarily his own interests by distancing himself from Nazi criminality while maintaining authority for as long as possible.
The fact that Donuts was prosecuted at Nuremberg and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for war crimes specifically for his conduct of submarine warfare in violation of international law suggests that Allied authorities did not accept his self-presentation as a non-political military officer who had simply done his duty.
The relatively light sentence compared to those imposed on other Nazi leaders reflected both Donitz’s lesser role in regime criminality and the prosecution’s difficulty in proving that his naval operations violated laws of war in ways that differed significantly from allied naval practices. The question of whether Donut’s government achieved anything beyond implementing the inevitable surrender that would have occurred regardless of who succeeded.
Hitler admits mixed answers. The evacuation operations that continued during the first days of May saved German lives by allowing refugees and retreating soldiers to escape immediate Soviet occupation. The maintenance of some organizational structure during the transition period may have reduced chaos and suffering compared to what might have occurred if German authority had simply dissolved without any successor government.
The implementation of coordinated surrender to all allied forces rather than peacemeal collapse of different German units probably simplified the practical end of combat operations and the transition to occupation administration. But these achievements were limited by the fundamental reality that Germany’s defeat was total, that Allied terms were non-negotiable, and that Donitz’s authority extended only as far as Allied forces allowed.
The Flynnburgg government had no real power, no ability to negotiate meaningful terms, and no possibility of affecting the fundamental post-war settlement that would divide Germany among the victors. Donuts’s 20 days as Reich president represented less a functional government than a transitional mechanism that Allied forces tolerated temporarily because it served their practical purposes in implementing surrender and that they dissolved once those purposes were fulfilled.
The comparison between Donitz’s role as Germany’s final leader and the roles of successor governments in other defeated nations reveals the unique circumstances of Nazi Germany’s complete collapse. Unlike Japan, where Emperor Hirohito remained as a symbol of national continuity and where Japanese governmental structures continued to function under Allied occupation, Germany experienced complete dissolution of governmental authority with the Third Reich’s end.
Unlike Italy, where the monarchy and traditional governmental institutions had survived Mussolini’s fall and could provide some continuity, Germany had no governmental structures independent of the Nazi regime that could assume authority when the regime collapsed. Donuts’s government represented an attempt to create transitional authority, but Allied determination to assume direct control and to prevent any suggestion of German governmental continuity meant that this attempt could succeed only briefly and within strict limits.
The legacy of Dunits’s 20-day government includes its demonstration that Nazi Germany’s final collapse was total, that no successor regime could claim continuity or legitimacy, that Germany would have to be rebuilt politically from the ground up under Allied occupation. The brief existence of the Fensburg government also illustrated the practical problems of implementing surrender of a nation that had ceased to exist as a functioning polity, where formal surrender documents needed to be signed by some German authority, but
where no such authority possessed real power or legitimacy. Donit served as a practical mechanism for addressing these problems. But his government was never more than a legal fiction that Allied forces maintained temporarily for their convenience. The story of Carl Donitz ruling Nazi Germany for 20 days is ultimately a story about the final collapse of the Third Reich, about the practical mechanics of implementing unconditional surrender of a regime that had fought until complete military defeat, and about how Allied determination to
prevent German governmental continuity shaped the postwar settlement in ways that differed from other defeated Axis powers. Donuts’s government existed in the strange liinal space between Nazi Germany’s end and Allied occupation’s beginning, exercising just enough authority to implement surrender while possessing too little power or legitimacy to affect anything beyond the immediate practical details of Germany’s capitulation.
The 20 days during which Dunitz held the title of Reich president represented not a functional period of German governance but rather the final administrative epilogue to 12 years of Nazi rule that ended in complete catastrophe.
