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167-645: The Flensburg Government ( German : Flensburger Regierung ), also known as the Flensburg Cabinet ( Flensburger Kabinett ), the Dönitz Government ( Regierung Dönitz ), or the Schwerin von Krosigk Cabinet ( Kabinett Schwerin von Krosigk ), was the rump government of Nazi Germany during a period of three weeks around the end of World War II in Europe. The government was formed following

334-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

501-541: A provisional government . Even though they could exercise no direct territorial authority, the cabinet still met daily at 10:00 a.m. Various papers on post-war reconstruction issues were proposed to be prepared, but the Western Allies showed no sign that they might receive them. Otherwise much time was devoted to discussion of how far the symbols, medals, and insignia of the Hitler regime should be retained within

668-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

835-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

1002-582: A "formal ratification" of the Act of Military Surrender, at a place and date to be specified. Some six hours after the signing, a response came from Antonov that the terms of surrender were unacceptable and that Susloparov could not sign it. Eisenhower promptly agreed and undertook to attend together with the rest of the SHAEF for the definitive signing in Berlin two days later. Antonov's response also noted that Friedeburg

1169-531: A device whereby Army Group Centre might be able to surrender to General George S. Patton 's American forces, who had been entering the Sudetenland areas of former Czechoslovakia from the west, and approaching Pilsen . Dönitz proposed that Frank should dissolve the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and resign in favour of a puppet Czech government, who would then declare Prague an open city and invite

1336-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

1503-439: A military leader. Prince August Wilhelm died the following year. He probably died of meningitis, but many contemporaries, including Prince August's brother Prince Henry, believed that August Wilhelm died because of Frederick's demeaning and humiliating treatment of his brother. On the obelisk, Prince Henry placed 28 medallions honoring a number of prussian generals for military victories that Frederick had falsely claimed as his. On

1670-647: A move to Prague , then the last major central European capital city in German hands, and closer to advancing American forces with whom he hoped to negotiate personally, but Dönitz refused to sanction any move outside the borders of Germany. Moreover, the political situation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was highly unstable. Dönitz decided instead to proceed to the Mürwik naval academy in Flensburg near

1837-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

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2004-453: A new Reich government. Schwerin von Krosigk's cabinet first met in Eutin , to which he and his ministerial staff were evacuated, on 2 May. Later on 2 May, and in view of the rapidly advancing British Second Army forces which were approaching Lübeck , Dönitz met Schwerin von Krosigk, Paul Wegener , Himmler, and Keitel to discuss the urgent necessity of a further relocation. Himmler argued for

2171-748: A nominal capacity, or to assume responsibility for complying with the demands and instructions of the victorious nations. This power vacuum continued for almost two weeks until 5 June 1945, when the representatives of the four Allied Powers signed the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers , also known as the Berlin Declaration . The declaration, issued in Berlin at 18:00 on 5 June 1945, and signed by Eisenhower on behalf of

2338-471: A nominated protecting power (usually Switzerland or Sweden ) under the terms of the Geneva Conventions . There were counterpart arrangements for the former embassies of Allied countries in Berlin. The United States Department of State had prepared for the diplomatic consequences of the war ending on the assumption that there would have been an explicit statement of unconditional surrender of

2505-625: A partial surrender of German forces in Norway. This mission was overtaken by the general capitulation of all German forces, and following 8 May all further approaches from the Flensburg Government to Sweden were ignored. 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

2672-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

2839-503: A possible function in the government. Once serious negotiations were underway for surrender to Eisenhower, Himmler and the SS apparatus had to be got out of the way. On 5 May 1945 Dönitz informed Himmler of his forthcoming dismissal, promising false papers and identities for him and his leading lieutenants if they removed themselves promptly. Himmler called his fellow SS leaders together for a last time that day, and advised them to 'dive down within

3006-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

3173-483: A source of personnel to support his government, otherwise they presented problems. In particular, the SS leadership had access to armed forces that were not under Dönitz's control, and remained firmly loyal to Himmler, whom Dönitz had surmised was personally unacceptable now to both the Western Allies and to the Wehrmacht . Dönitz handled the issue by stringing Himmler along for as long as he could with vague prospects of

3340-569: A unified command structure, and formed a single expeditionary force, the "Allied Expeditionary Force". US Army General Walter Bedell Smith (Eisenhower's chief of staff at SHAEF) signed on behalf of the Western Allies, and General Ivan Susloparov (the Soviet liaison officer at SHAEF) signed on behalf of the Soviets. French Major General François Sevez signed as the official witness. Although Eisenhower had sought to keep General Aleksei Antonov of

3507-686: A unilateral declaration with an extended explanatory preamble, that spelled out the Allied position that as a result of its complete defeat Germany was left without a government, a vacuum that the direct assumption of supreme authority by the Allies would replace. During 1944 and 1945 countries that had been neutral or allies of Germany had been joining the Allied Powers and declaring war on Germany. The German embassies to these countries had been closed down, and their property and archives held in trust by

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3674-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and

3841-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

4008-559: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

4175-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

4342-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

4509-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

4676-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

4843-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

5010-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

5177-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

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5344-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

5511-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

5678-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

5845-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

6012-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

6179-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

6346-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

6513-804: The Allied Control Council to co-ordinate the civil administration of Allied-occupied Germany . Once it became apparent that Hitler intended to stay and die in the besieged city of Berlin, effective overall command of German armed forces was exercised through the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the German Military High Command, which had relocated to Rheinsberg . Anticipating that German-held territory would be split, separate military and civilian commands had provisionally been established on 15 April; under Field Marshal Albert Kesselring at Pullach for forces in

6680-521: The Armistice of 1918 would not be repeated in 1945. As Dönitz did not then intend any surrender to the Soviets or Poles and continued to identify "Jews and profiteers" as enemies of the German people, he had little compunction over including in his cabinet men who had participated in the killing of Slavs and Jews. For the first few days the post of Minister of the Interior, previously held by Himmler,

6847-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

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7014-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

7181-455: The Führer 's allegations against Himmler. A further complication to Dönitz's authority to replace Himmler was that Hitler's aforementioned testament had explicitly named a successor to Himmler, Paul Giesler , whom Dönitz detested at least as much as Himmler. Dönitz tacitly set Hitler's instructions aside and continued to see Himmler on a daily basis without according him any formal appointment. It

7348-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

7515-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

7682-818: The King's Shropshire Light Infantry . Some Flensburg Government POWs such as Speer were subsequently moved to the British POW camp Dustbin in Castle Kransberg , while others, including Dönitz, were transferred to the US-led Camp Ashcan . Later, all Camp Ashcan prisoners were moved to Nuremberg to stand trial. With the arrest of the Flensburg Government on 23 May 1945, the German High Command also ceased to exist, with no central authority having been kept in place to govern Germany even in

7849-601: The Mürwik naval academy was used as the government headquarters. The cabinet was not legitimised according to the Weimar Constitution, which was still formally in force. At the time of its formation, forces loyal to the Nazi regime still held control of most of Austria and the Sudetenland , which was annexed by Germany in 1938. They also still controlled most of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which

8016-809: The Nazi Party Chancellery under Martin Bormann; while the Luftwaffe High Command had relocated to Berchtesgaden, having been until his abrupt dismissal on 23 April the counterpart fiefdom of Göring. Himmler had retained his personal powerbase in the offices of the SS and security apparatus, which was established in Lübeck in the north and then relocated to Flensburg. Other government ministries and ministers were then variously located at Berchtesgaden and Dönitz's headquarters in Plön. With

8183-713: The Netherlands , the Atlantic pockets in France and the British Channel Islands . However, in addition to losing most of its wartime conquests by this point, German forces had already been driven out of the vast majority of Germany's post- Anschluss territory, in addition to Luxembourg as well as the Polish and French territories Germany had either annexed or placed under direct German administration in

8350-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

8517-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

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8684-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

8851-520: The Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) to negotiate with Eisenhower terms for a general surrender of all remaining German armies to the Western Allies. Since Friedeburg's meeting with Montgomery, Eisenhower's opposition to accepting a German surrender that excluded the Soviet Union was made clear to the German High Command, but Dönitz hoped to change his mind. On the next day, 5 May, Friedeburg arrived at General Eisenhower's headquarters at Reims, France, but learned that Eisenhower

9018-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

9185-406: The Wehrmacht '. By the next day they had fled. This came too late for the concentration camp prisoners within the area who were now within Dönitz's nominal authority, while under the actual control of the SS. These had numbered around 10,000 when Dönitz assumed the presidency; mainly former inmates of the Neuengamme camp outside Hamburg, which had been shut down in preparation for the surrender of

9352-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

9519-401: The suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin . It was headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident and Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the Leading Minister. The administration was referred to as the "Flensburg Government" because Dönitz's command relocated to Flensburg in northern Germany near the Danish border on 3 May 1945. The sports school at

9686-540: 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,

9853-496: The 4 May signing. Montgomery had supplied Friedeburg with a prepared German text of the surrender documents, however, because both this and the English text had explicitly stated that only the English version was to be considered authentic, Montgomery apparently deemed it unnecessary to issue the German text to the press. Dönitz and Krosigk quickly realised this oversight and promptly broadcast their own, doctored, German version which differed significantly from that signed - specifically,

10020-490: The Allies were taken prisoner by the Allies. Notably, Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima and his legation were among those taken into custody. Despite Ōshima's objections, he and his staff had been ordered by Hitler to leave Berlin for Bad Gastein in Austria, which resulted in them being captured by the US Army. Had they been permitted to remain in Berlin, any surviving Japanese diplomats would presumably have been quickly repatriated to Japan since they were not yet at war with

10187-452: The American advance to join with Soviet forces at Torgau on the Elbe . Upon the capitulation of all German forces on 8 May, the administration headed by Dönitz and Krosigk ceased to meaningfully function as a national government. For about two weeks after the surrender, it was for most practical purposes ignored by the Western Allies as well as neutral states and Japan . In the absence of direct military intervention within Flensburg itself,

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10354-411: The Americans in. Patton's virulent anti-communist views were well known to the German leadership, who reckoned that with Patton in Prague it would become much easier for Army Group Centre to negotiate surrender terms with him while maintaining their resistance to the Soviets, if possible dragging the US and Soviet armies into direct confrontation. Frank had hopes that "we can engineer a disagreement between

10521-445: The Armed Forces High Command also located in the north – although many OKW personnel had gone south – there was, in consequence, no semblance any longer of a German central government, and most of the members of the cabinet lacked any support staff from their nominal ministries. Dönitz's initial priority was to open communication with the commanders of German armies, and to establish with them their acknowledgement of his new authority as

10688-408: The Armed Forces, and designated Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels head of government as Chancellor . Appointing Dönitz as president had no legal basis, even under Nazi law. The chancellor was an appointed official, but the president was elected. Although the Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler the right to pass laws that were contrary to the Weimar Constitution , its Article 2 stated explicitly that

10855-423: The British and Americans, rather than the Soviets. Realising this, Eisenhower determined that no further partial capitulations would be negotiated. The capitulations at Luneberg and Haar could do nothing, however, for the bulk of the German forces in Army Group Centre , fighting the Soviets in Bohemia and Saxony . On 4 May Dönitz, together with Karl Frank the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, conceived of

11022-502: The British view for a short period, but issued a clarifying statement that the continuation of the Dönitz government did not constitute his being recognised as a head of state "but only and temporarily under the instructions of the Allied Commanders to carry out duties concerning the feeding, disarming and medical care of the German Armed Forces." On 12 May, US Major General Lowell Ward Rooks and his British deputy, Brigadier E. J. Foord, arrived in Flensburg and established their quarters in

11189-617: The Danish border. The cabinet met in the sports school of the naval academy; while administrative offices and accommodation for the various ministries were established on the liner Patria  [ de ] , moored in Flensburg harbour. The German High Command, which moved from Rheinsberg to Neustadt in Holstein two days before, then also relocated to Flensburg, while the SS leadership had been gathering at Flensburg since 28 April. Three ministries were abolished outright ( Air Ministry , Occupied Eastern Territories , and Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ). While retaining some members from

11356-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

11523-400: The Flensburg headquarters. Some acknowledgement of Nazi war crimes became unavoidable. The departure of the SS leadership from Flensburg opened the way for the Dönitz government to offer its own version of how the murder squads, concentration camps, and killing facilities had come into being. Their response was that all these atrocities had been undertaken in secret, and entirely by Himmler and

11690-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

11857-426: The German armed forces and to the German people. Residual ministers of the Hitler cabinet , who had fled from the fall of Berlin to join Dönitz at the Wehrmacht barracks near Plön in Holstein , resigned the next day. Suspecting that Bormann might also have escaped from Berlin and be intending to seize power, Dönitz met with Hitler's former Finance Minister Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk and asked him to constitute

12024-483: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

12191-457: The German military had effected the complete termination of Nazi Germany. The protecting powers complied fully with the Allied demands: Sweden, Switzerland, and Ireland announced the breaking off of relations; consequently the German state ceased as a diplomatic entity on 8 May 1945. The diplomatic staffs of neutral countries still in Germany were thus recalled, while those of countries at war with

12358-896: The German national territories. Pursuant to the Potsdam Agreement , after 2 August 1945 the Allied Control Council limited its jurisdiction to the pre-war German territory west of the Oder-Neisse Line (i.e. the lands corresponding to Germany's present-day borders) thus implementing the Four Powers' decision to place Germany's pre-war territory east of the Oder-Neisse Line under direct Polish and Soviet administration. Notes Bibliography German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )

12525-646: The German state in accordance with the terms of a draft surrender text jointly agreed by the Allied powers in 1944. In the final days of April 1945, the State Department had notified the protecting powers, and all other remaining neutral governments (such as Ireland ), that following the forthcoming German surrender the continued identity of the German state would rest solely in the four Allied Powers. The Allied Powers would immediately recall all German diplomatic staff, take ownership of all German state property, extinguish all protecting power functions, and require

12692-451: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

12859-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

13026-460: The Germans were stalling, Eisenhower threatened to close the western front to all surrendering Germans from the east. Had this happened, German soldiers attempting to cross the line to surrender would be fired on and all subsequent surrenders would have to be to the Soviets. When Dönitz learned this, he radioed Jodl full powers to sign the unconditional German Instrument of Surrender at 1:30 am on

13193-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

13360-813: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

13527-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

13694-542: The Netherlands, Denmark, and Northwestern Germany. This was accepted by Montgomery on behalf of Eisenhower. This 4 May surrender would become effective at 8:00 am on 5 May; so Dönitz ordered all ships involved in Operation Hannibal to undertake a covert final evacuation voyage, while also unilaterally ordering all U-boat actions to cease. One crew in the evacuation fleet refused to set sail; so Dönitz ordered

13861-485: The Netherlands, and Denmark, including naval forces and warships in those areas. Friedeburg asked for 48 hours to consider this; Montgomery allowed him 24. The proposed inclusion of Denmark, and the German warships operating there, initially alarmed Dönitz, who wished at all costs to maintain Operation Hannibal, evacuating German troops across the Baltic to Danish ports; but on consideration, he reckoned he might secretly evade

14028-738: The Representatives of the Allied Supreme Command"; which had the effect of requiring German troops facing Soviet forces to hand over their weapons, disband and give themselves up as prisoners. Otherwise neither the Reims nor Berlin surrender instruments provided explicitly for the surrender of the German State, because the draft surrender document prepared by the European Advisory Commission (EAC)

14195-524: The SS and others who were closely involved in formulating and prosecuting the genocidal policies of the former regime. Herbert Backe was the author of the Hunger Plan of 1941, a deliberate strategy for mass elimination by starvation of Soviet prisoners of war and 'surplus' Soviet urban populations. Speer's deputy in the Economics and Production Ministry was Otto Ohlendorf , who had personally directed

14362-532: The SS. Dönitz and Jodl issued a joint public statement "that neither the German Wehrmacht nor the German people had knowledge of these things." While it had been agreed amongst the Allies that the Flensburg government should be accorded no official recognition, Winston Churchill proved reluctant to toe the line. In his speech announcing victory to the British people on 8 May, Churchill specified that

14529-676: The Soviet High Command fully informed of the progress of the surrender negotiations, no confirmation was received from the Soviets that the text of the Act of Military Surrender was acceptable to them, or that Susloparov was empowered to sign it. Accordingly, Eisenhower extracted from Jodl an additional signed undertaking that the Chief of the OKW and the Commanders in Chief of all three German armed services would attend in person and sign

14696-535: The Soviet Union. The Empire of Japan , which after the German surrender was effectively the only remaining Axis belligerent, promptly denounced the German surrender and the Flensburg government and seized the German embassy in Tokyo and seven U-boats. Henceforward, although the Flensburg government had a nominated Minister for Foreign Affairs, it had no access to the diplomatic assets of the former German state and

14863-414: The Soviet position (if not the reasoning behind it), suspecting that Dönitz and his cabinet could be a front, while the real German leadership, perhaps including Himmler, Bormann, and Hitler himself (whose remains were not then known to have been identified), remained operating behind the scenes, or otherwise plotting for their concealment and escape. With ill-disguised reluctance Eisenhower agreed to defer to

15030-491: The Soviets; and on 3 May, issued orders to the besieged defenders of Courland and Breslau to maintain their resistance. On 3 May Dönitz sent Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, his successor as naval commander in chief, to the headquarters of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at Lüneburg , with an offer to surrender the German forces in northwest Germany, together with the remaining elements of Army Group Vistula . Montgomery informed Friedeburg that he could not accept

15197-790: The United States, Montgomery on behalf of the United Kingdom, Zhukov on behalf of the Soviet Union, and by de Tassigny on behalf of the Provisional Government of the French Republic , contained the following statement: 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

15364-496: The West (which they had rejected), to which Hitler reacted by dismissing Himmler from all posts and ordering his arrest for treason. Telegrams sent by Martin Bormann on 29 and 30 April informed Dönitz of these developments and of Dönitz's own appointment as Hitler's successor. With both Göring and Himmler removed from the succession, Hitler in his political testament had named Dönitz his successor as President and Supreme Commander of

15531-511: The Western Allies and the Soviet Union even more serious than that of Poland". The ploy was proposed as being put into effect on 5 May, but was overtaken by the outbreak of the Prague uprising on that date; and over the succeeding three days, far from surrendering Prague as an open city, SS forces launched a savage response to the insurgents, with brutal reprisals against Czech civilians and widespread destruction in central Prague. Orders to fire-bomb

15698-476: The Western Allies could present opportunities to split the British and Americans from the Soviets. Thereon he assumed direction of further German surrender initiatives, exploring opportunities for partial surrender in the West. In the East, however, he continued to order German armies to fight on. On 2 May, he tried unsuccessfully to countermand the decisions of the German commander in Berlin to surrender their forces to

15865-420: The Western Allies. The capitulation was negotiated without Hitler's knowledge or consent, and signed at Caserta on 29 April, but it did not come into effect for three days. While Hitler was still alive, Dönitz followed absolutely his commands to fight on to the last on all fronts. However, he now realized that the Wehrmacht 's position in the West was untenable. He believed that surrendering German forces only to

16032-402: The chair as the acknowledged deputy Führer and, since the disgrace and dismissal of Hermann Göring , Hitler's expected successor. As they were leaving Rheinsberg on 28 April, Himmler asked Dönitz to confirm that he would be willing to serve in a successor government that Himmler might form. That day however, the British and Americans published Himmler's secret proposals for a separate peace in

16199-480: The city to the British. Between 16 and 28 April, the prisoners were moved eastwards and concealed by the SS in a flotilla of unseaworthy ships anchored in the Bay of Lübeck , where they then remained without food or medical attention. At the time, this action was opposed by Rear Admiral Conrad Engelhardt  [ de ] on Dönitz's staff, but when the Flensburg government came into being, Dönitz made no attempt to free

16366-585: The company of minor philosophers and musicians, and the writing of several works of political theory, including the Anti-Machiavel . Crown Prince Frederick lived in the castle in Rheinsberg with his wife until he became King of Prussia in 1740 upon the death of his father, Frederick William I . He immediately banished his wife to Schönhausen Castle in the district of Berlin that is today called Pankow . King Frederick never visited his Queen and she

16533-490: The continued existence of Germany as a national territory and thus implied the continued existence of a German nation inhabiting that territory. 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 . Therefore, this council was the immediate successor of the Dönitz Administration in governing

16700-533: The death of Frederick the Great in 1786, Prince Henry erected a large obelisk at his castle in Rheinsberg. The obelisk was erected in honor of Prince Henry's younger brother, Prince August Wilhelm . In 1757 King Frederick dismissed his brother Prince August Wilhelm from the army in disgrace after Frederick's humiliating defeat at Kolin in Bohemia. Frederick unjustly blamed his brother of being a coward and incompetens as

16867-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

17034-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

17201-475: The dissolution of the acting government and the arrest of its members was made in a formal manner, around a table on Patria ' s deck: Dönitz, Jodl, and Friedeburg sat on one side, with Rooks, British Navy Captain Mund and Soviet General Trusov on the other. Foord remained standing, next to Rooks and an official interpreter was also present at the proceedings, that were photographed. By the time Dönitz emerged from

17368-481: The early stages of the war. Due to the rapid Allied advance, the Flensburg government's nominal civil jurisdiction at its formation was essentially limited to those parts of Austria and the Sudetenland its forces still controlled as well as a narrow wedge of German territory running from the pre-1938 Austrian and Czechoslovak borders through Berlin to the Danish border. From 25 April 1945, these lands were cut in two by

17535-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

17702-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

17869-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

18036-545: 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 as a means of thwarting the democratic aspirations of all freedom-loving nations.... Eisenhower tended rather to agree with

18203-508: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Rheinsberg Frederick the Great , while still Crown Prince, designed and moved into a restored chateau in Rheinsberg shortly after his 1733 marriage to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern . Here he experienced his "Rheinsberg Period", an era marked by regular correspondence with Voltaire, boisterous celebration in

18370-473: The liaison mission arranged meetings with members of the Flensburg government, these only confirmed that neither Dönitz nor his ministers had been able to establish any degree of civil authority. Churchill withdrew his protection once it became clear that the Soviet High Command would otherwise have to be represented in the liaison mission. On 21 May the SHAEF acceded to Soviet proposals that the Flensburg Government be dissolved and its members arrested as POWs. This

18537-499: The maritime evacuation of units trapped on the Baltic coast. At Dönitz's urging, Keitel and Jodl attempted to direct what was left of the Wehrmacht towards these goals. On 2 May, Dönitz obtained pledges of allegiance from the commanders of German armies in Norway, Courland, East Prussia, and Bohemia; these pledges were made to him personally as Supreme Commander, and not as Head of State in a forthcoming government. Otherwise, however, Dönitz's policies chiefly demonstrated continuity with

18704-448: The ministers and their personal staff were ordered to make their way southwards; but as by then the roads had been cut and there were insufficient transport aircraft available, several ministers (like Schwerin von Krosigk) had perforce headed north instead. Thus the government of Germany was, at the death of Hitler, split over six centres. The Propaganda Ministry, the personal fiefdom of Joseph Goebbels, had remained with him in Berlin, as had

18871-468: The ministry there continued to regularly meet and conduct what business it could. Finally, due to factors including pressure from the Soviet Union , on 23 May British troops arrested the entire cabinet as prisoners of war and thus effectively dissolved the last surviving legal remnants of the Nazi regime. This dissolution was formalised by the four Allied Powers on 5 June 1945, who at that time formed

19038-409: The morning of 7 May. Just over an hour later, Jodl signed the documents. The surrender documents included the phrase, "The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 23:01 hours Central European time on 8 May and to remain in the positions occupied at that time." The Western Allies had

19205-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

19372-548: The murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Communists in occupied Soviet territory. Wilhelm Stuckart was a participant at the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, when the administrative responsibilities for the " Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" were agreed upon. Otto Ohlendorf had transferred across directly from directing Himmler's office as Reichsführer-SS ; and overall, of 350 staff working in

19539-776: The necessary full powers, and accordingly the second Act of Military Surrender was signed by Keitel as Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces and as acting Commander in Chief of the Army; by Friedeburg as the Commander in Chief of the Kriegsmarine , by General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as Deputy Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe , as Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim, the Luftwaffe commander, had been injured. At

19706-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

19873-519: The obelisk, Frederick the Great is not mentioned with one single word. In private correspondence, Prince Henry made no secret of the fact that the obelisk was a criticism of his brother. The obelisk in Rheinsberg can be seen to this day. In 1870, the painter Eduard Gaertner and his family decided to leave the hectic atmosphere of Berlin and settle in Flecken Zechlin, a suburb of Rheinsberg - where he lived until his death in 1877. Rheinsberg

20040-559: The obligation to surrender these ships if they were at sea on the date the surrender came into effect. Furthermore, as it was unlikely that Montgomery would promptly be able to deploy British forces to the Danish islands under German occupation, especially Bornholm in the central Baltic, there was every possibility that the evacuation proceeding there could continue in total disregard of the agreed surrender terms. Consequently, authorised by Dönitz, Friedeburg returned on 4 May and signed an instrument of surrender for all German troops and ships in

20207-433: The offices of the Flensburg government, 230 had been members of the SS or other security services. Dönitz's cabinet picks were clearly circumscribed by who was available. Otherwise, and in spite of his subsequent claim that his government was 'unpolitical', the most consistent characteristic of those chosen was a virulent opposition to Bolshevism, and a determination to ensure that the revolutionary events in Germany attending

20374-530: The official witnesses. The Allies had demanded that representatives of the German Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the High Command of the Armed Forces, sign the ratification of unconditional surrender, and that they should present full powers authorising them to do so on behalf of the German High Command. Complying with that demand, Dönitz issued a telegraphed communication from his "Supreme Commander Headquarters" ( Der Oberste Befehlshaber Hauptquartier ) granting

20541-547: The passenger ship Patria , docked in Flensburg harbour, displacing the administrative offices of the Flensburg government that had been housed there. Their mission was to liaise with the Dönitz "acting government" (as it was then referred to by the SHAEF) and to impose the will of the victorious Allied Powers on the OKW. On 13 May, the British authorities arrested Keitel for war crimes. Dönitz appointed Jodl as his replacement. Although

20708-484: 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 effect the annexation of Germany. In effect, the declaration on 5 June 1945 gave legal recognition to the state of affairs that had existed for all practical purposes from 23 May at the latest, which

20875-639: The president of the Reichsgericht (High Court of Justice), not the chancellor, acting president pending new elections. Nonetheless, the Enabling Act did not specify any recourse that could be taken if the chancellor violated Article 2, and no legal challenge was ever mounted. Goebbels committed suicide in the Führerbunker on 1 May. The same day Dönitz accepted the offices of Supreme Commander and Head of State in separate broadcast addresses to

21042-519: The president's powers were to remain "undisturbed", which has long been interpreted to forbid any attempt to tamper with the presidency. After the death of president Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler appropriated the president’s powers for himself in accordance with a Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich passed the previous day. However, in 1932 the constitution was amended to make

21209-473: The previous Hitler cabinet and Goebbels cabinet , Dönitz dismissed three ministers ( Bernhard Rust , Alfred Rosenberg , and Otto Georg Thierack ). Other former ministers, such as Walther Funk (Economics) and Wilhelm Ohnesorge (Postal Affairs) also found themselves without new positions. The new government consisted of the following people: Dönitz avoided including prominent Nazi leaders in his cabinet other than Speer, but included several serving officers in

21376-419: The previous regime: the Nazi party was neither banned nor dissolved; Dönitz kept a bust of Hitler in his office; and the uniforms, insignia, and protocol of Nazi Germany were maintained, initially including even the ' Heil Hitler ' greeting. Following a plea from Speer, on 2 May Dönitz rescinded the infamous ' Nero Decree ' ordering scorched earth destruction of German infrastructure and industrial plants; but it

21543-584: The prisoners, and his government avoided any subsequent acknowledgement that they had known they were there. On 3 May 1945, the prison flotilla was sunk by the Royal Air Force in the mistaken belief that the ships were being prepared to evacuate leading SS personnel. Over 7,000 prisoners drowned, mainly on the former liner Cap Arcona . On 2 May, while still at Plön, Dönitz was surprised to learn that German forces in Italy had surrendered unconditionally to

21710-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

21877-515: The ringleaders to be arrested for mutiny, tried by summary court martial, and shot. Also, on 5 May 1945, all German forces in Bavaria and South West Germany signed an act of surrender to the Americans at Haar , outside Munich, coming into effect on 6 May. Montgomery, always seeking to boost his own public standing at the expense of other Allied commanders, had arranged extensive media coverage of

22044-507: The same was not true of any other arm of government. Starting in March 1945, the staff of the various ministries were evacuated to resort hotels in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps – chiefly in the region of Berchtesgaden , leaving only the ministers themselves in Berlin. On 13 April, the remaining foreign embassies and the diplomatic corps were evacuated to Bad Gastein . Finally on 20 April all

22211-505: The ship, the town's main street was filled with British tanks and troops rounding up the Germans. Faced with the prospect of being strip-searched, Friedeburg committed suicide, while Dönitz, Schwerin von Krosigk, Speer, Jodl, and other members of the dissolved Flensburg Government were taken prisoner, under the responsibility of the RAF Regiment task force commanded by Squadron Leader Mark Hobden. The prisoners were later handed over to

22378-456: The sole Supreme Commander of all German forces. He also sought their agreement with his overall policy of negotiating successive partial surrenders with the Western Allies, while maintaining the war against Soviet forces in the east. Key to this was sidelining Himmler, Joachim von Ribbentrop , Alfred Rosenberg, and other former Nazi grandees who had fled to Flensburg, but whose continued participation in government would preclude any negotiation with

22545-474: The south and west, and under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz at Plön for forces in the north and east; but then Hitler had stalled on transferring executive military authority to them. On 27 April Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl , of the Army High Command, met at Rheinsberg with Dönitz and Heinrich Himmler to discuss the war situation now that the fall of Berlin could not be averted. Himmler took

22712-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

22879-528: The surrender had been authorised by "Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated Head of the German State". Equally, following the unconditional surrender, Churchill was instrumental in urging that the Flensburg Government should not immediately be closed down, saying that he could see "great advantages in letting things slide for a while". Churchill's attitude in this was conditioned by his concern that Soviet forces might seek to establish themselves in Denmark; and he saw

23046-564: The surrender of forces fighting on the Eastern Front and that consequently Army Group Vistula would have to surrender to the Soviets, although British forces would accept the surrender of any German soldiers fleeing westwards. He proposed instead, following discussions between Eisenhower and the British government, that he would accept the surrender of all German military forces in Northwestern Germany, Schleswig-Holstein ,

23213-400: The temporary continuation of the Flensburg government in territory under British control as establishing a bargaining counter for the British in any negotiations regarding Soviet intentions in the western Baltic, while also facilitating the disbanding of German forces. Conversely, Soviet statements consistently characterised the Flensburg government as an anti-Soviet clique, pursuing a truce in

23380-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

23547-510: The time specified, World War II in Europe ended. On 9 May, Dönitz issued orders to the German Armed Forces regarding the military surrender. The text of the definitive surrender document signed in Berlin differed from that previously signed at Reims, chiefly in that, to the second article was added the words "..and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by

23714-406: The transfer of all archives and records to one or another of the embassies of the Western Allies. On 8 May 1945, these arrangements were put into effect in full, notwithstanding that the only German parties to the signed surrender document had been the German High Command. The western Allies maintained that a functioning German state had already ceased to exist, and that consequently the surrender of

23881-525: The unconditional surrender was only settled later, when on 23 May the Allies decided to dissolve the Flensburg Government and on 5 June issued the Berlin declaration, proclaiming the direct assumption of the supreme governmental authority in Germany by the Allied Powers. The text of the Berlin Declaration was widely based on the EAC's draft instrument of surrender of Germany. The draft was reworked into

24048-462: The warships in the Baltic were not included nor was the territory in Schleswig around Flensburg itself; and especially, the surrender was described as a 'truce', not a capitulation. As was Dönitz's intention, this broadcast exacerbated Joseph Stalin 's suspicions of the partial capitulations, especially as the greater parts of the 3rd Panzer Army and 21st Army had indeed been able to surrender to

24215-573: The west only to maintain resistance against Soviet forces in the east. On 20 May, the government of the USSR 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

24382-405: The western Allies. Dönitz's intentions in this were, if possible, to split the Allies, and to offer German military units as components of a common anti-Bolshevik front. Failing that, he sought to save as many German soldiers as possible from Soviet captivity by ordering units in the east to retreat westwards and surrender to the British, Canadians, or Americans and by redoubling Operation Hannibal ,

24549-586: The whole of the Old Town were only averted due to lack of fuel for Luftwaffe bombing units. Alerted to the German machinations through intercepted Ultra signals, Eisenhower ordered Patton to stand still in Pilsen in spite of ever more desperate calls for help from the insurgents. Prague was finally relieved by Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev 's forces on 9 May 1945. Following the success of the two partial surrenders of 4 and 5 May, Dönitz instructed Friedeburg to go to

24716-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

24883-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

25050-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

25217-533: Was accordingly signed at Karlshorst , Berlin, on 8 May shortly before midnight. Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed for the Soviet High Command, and British Marshal of the Royal Air Force A. W. Tedder signed on behalf of the Western Allies (Tedder acted as Eisenhower's representative at the Berlin ceremony, and signed "on behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force", in his capacity as Deputy Supreme Commander). French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and US Army Air Forces General Carl Spaatz signed as

25384-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

25551-482: Was appointed to succeed Dönitz as Commander of the Kriegsmarine and was promoted by Dönitz to the rank of Generaladmiral on 1 May. The Air Force had largely been destroyed or grounded due to lack of fuel, so no new appointment was made. Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim remained as Commander of the Luftwaffe . In spite of its repeated relocations, the Armed Forces High Command continued to function, its organisation and structures having been maintained. But

25718-408: Was carried out on 23 May. On that day, a British officer went to Dönitz's headquarters and asked to speak to the members of the government. Dönitz, Friedeburg, and Jodl were then taken aboard the Patria , where Rooks informed them of the dissolution of the government; placing them under arrest, and ordered that they be stripped and searched for concealed phials of poison. The communication regarding

25885-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

26052-463: Was kept in the post; and in this capacity Keitel signed the act of surrender for the German High Command in Berlin on 8 May. A further factor favouring the continuation of Keitel as Commander in Chief was the support for him of General Alfred Jodl, the Chief of Operations Staff of the Wehrmacht , whose retention Dönitz recognised as essential. Jodl was to represent Dönitz in negotiations with the Allies in Reims , France. Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg

26219-432: Was kept vacant. Himmler had been condemned as a traitor, dismissed from all functions and ordered to be arrested in Hitler's political testament. Dönitz did not want Himmler's name associated with his new government. However, Dönitz feared that any move against Himmler would alienate the SS, a force that was personally loyal to its commanding officer. Following Hitler's suicide, the SS remained armed, powerful, and skeptical of

26386-432: Was not accorded diplomatic recognition by any of the former protecting powers, the other remaining neutral countries or any of its erstwhile allies in the Far East (i.e. the Japanese Empire and the puppet regimes still functioning under its control). On 5 May Schwerin von Krosigk had dispatched Walter Schellenberg to Sweden as a personal emissary via Folke Bernadotte , hoping to establish diplomatic relations and to expedite

26553-448: Was not allowed to visit him. She lived alone in her castle in Pankow until her death in 1797. In June 1744, Frederick the Great gave his castle in Rheinsberg to his younger brother, Prince Henry of Prussia . Frederick also gave Prince Henry the great castle on Unter den Linden, which is today Humboldt University . Prince Henry often said that his older brother improperly took credit for a series of military victories. Four years after

26720-474: Was not until 6 May that counterpart destruction orders were rescinded for those territories remaining under German occupation, such as Norway. Moreover, neither summary courts for civil punishment, nor military discipline by summary courts martial were abolished, with military executions for insulting the memory of Hitler being confirmed even after the final capitulation on 8 May. While the presence of SS leaders and their staffs in Flensburg had provided Dönitz with

26887-402: Was not used. Instead, a simplified, military-only version was produced by the SHAEF, based largely on the wording of the partial surrender instrument of German forces in Italy that was signed at Caserta. This definition of the surrender as an act of military capitulation side-stepped any Allied recognition of the German Government, or of Dönitz as Head of State. The question of the civil effects of

27054-528: Was only on 6 May 1945, while final negotiations were in prospect for a capitulation to US General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the west, that Dönitz dismissed Himmler from all his posts, and appointed Stuckart in his place. Dönitz had hoped to be able to appoint Field Marshal Erich von Manstein as Commander in Chief of the Army and Chief of the OKW, to which the Army High Command ( Oberkommando des Heeres ) had been subject since 28 April 1945, but he could not be contacted on 2 May, and so Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel

27221-414: Was partially annexed in 1939 when the remainder of Czechoslovakia was occupied, although after Hitler's death those Czech lands still occupied were effectively controlled by the SS with little meaningful oversight from Flensburg. Furthermore, the German military continued to occupy other non-German-speaking territories in disparate and isolated locations across Europe, such as Denmark , Norway , parts of

27388-455: Was referring matters back to Dönitz over the radio; and that Dönitz, in direct breach of the signed surrender terms, had still not issued orders for German forces in the east to remain in their positions, but was instead instructing them to continue their resistance and flee westwards. Antonov stated that, while the internal discussions of the German military in no way obligated the Allied Powers, Jodl's signature could not be accepted as valid if he

27555-456: Was resolute that only a total surrender on all fronts to all the Allies could be discussed. Jodl arrived a day later, ostensibly to sign such a general surrender. Dönitz had instructed him to draw out the negotiations for as long as possible so that German troops and refugees could move west to surrender to the Western Powers. Eisenhower made it clear that the Allies demanded immediate unconditional surrender on all fronts. When it became obvious that

27722-437: Was signing as Dönitz's representative, since Dönitz himself was clearly acting in bad faith. He proposed that the definitive act of surrender should make it clear that the Commanders in Chief of each of the German armed services were, in signing it, surrendering their forces on the authority of the German High Command - and not as delegated by Dönitz or the purported Flensburg government. A second, amended, instrument of surrender

27889-413: Was that Germany did not possess a native government. Consequentially, complete authority and sovereignty was thereafter assumed by the Allied Military Occupation Government. The contention of the Allied Powers that the German state ceased to exist as of 5 June 1945 was then generally accepted, but came subsequently to be challenged in legal and political debate. In any event, the Berlin Declaration recognized

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