Flensburg Government - Dissolution

Dissolution

Former armaments minister Albert Speer suggested that after the surrender the Flensburg government should dissolve itself. Instead Dönitz and his ministers chose to continue in hope of presiding over post-War Germany as a provisional government.

The speech by Winston Churchill announcing victory to the British people is evidence of de facto recognition of the Flensburg Government's authority, at least up to the moment of the unconditional surrender, since Churchill specified that the surrender had been authorised by "Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated Head of the German State". However, after the unconditional surrender, the Flensburg government was not recognised by the Allies.

On 20 May, the Soviet government made it clear what it thought about the Flensburg government. It attacked the Dönitz Administration, calling it the "Dönitz Gang" and harshly criticised any idea of allowing it to retain any power. Pravda said:

Discussions of the status of the Fascist gang around Dönitz continue. Several prominent Allied circles will deem it necessary to make use of the "services" of Dönitz and his collaborators. In the British Parliament, this gang has been described as the 'Dönitz Administration'... A reporter of the reactionary Hearst press has called the enlistment of Dönitz "an act of political sagacity." Thus a Fascist scribbler has seen fit to make common cause with Hitler's marauding disciple. At the same time, the Fascist press on both sides of the Atlantic has put it abroad that conditions in Germany in 1918, when German Rightists produced similar fairy-tales of impending chaos. Then, the intact German Army units were used for new adventures in the East, immediately after capitulation. The present campaign has similar objectives. Many reactionary circles around the Allies are opposed to the creation of a new Europe on the basis of the Crimea Conference. These circles consider the preservation of Fascist states and breeding grounds as a means of thwarting the democratic aspirations of all freedom-loving nations...

On 12 May, American Major General Lowell W. Rooks and his British deputy, Brigadier E. J. Foord arrived in Flensburg and established their quarters in the passenger ship Patria, docked in Flensburg harbour. Their mission was to liaise with the Dönitz "acting government" and to impose the will of the victorious Allied Powers on the German High Command. After several contacts between the Allied liaison officers and the Dönitz acting government, on 19 May a decision regarding the dissolution of that Government and the arrest of its members as POWs was made by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), in agreement with the Soviet High Command, and 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, Von Friedeburg and Jodl were then taken aboard the Patria, where Maj. Gen. Rooks informed them of the dissolution of the Government and their arrest.

The communication regarding 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 Von Friedeburg sat on one side, with Major General Rooks, British Navy Captain Mund and Soviet General Trusov on the other. Brigadier Foord remained standing, next to Maj. Gen. Rooks, and an official interpreter was also present at the proceedings. By the time Dönitz emerged from the ship, the town's main street was filled with British tanks and troops rounding up the Germans. Von Friedeburg succeeded in committing suicide, while Dönitz, Speer, Jodl and other members of the dissolved Flensburg Government were taken prisoner.

With the arrest of the Flensburg Government on 23 May 1945, the German High Command also ceased to exist, and no central authority was kept in place to govern Germany, or even to assume responsibility for complying with the demands and instructions of the victorious nations. The power vacuum that ensued following the arrest of the Flensburg Government and the dissolution of the Third Reich was terminated on 5 June 1945, when the representatives of the Allies signed the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers. By means of that declaration the Four Powers assumed direct control of the administration of Germany, with absolute powers.

The said declaration, issued in Berlin at 18:00 hours on 5 June 1945, and signed by General Eisenhower on behalf of the United States of America, by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, by Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgiy Zhukov on behalf of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and by General Jean de Lattre 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 the powers possessed by the German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not affect the annexation of Germany.

Therefore, on 5 June 1945, the German state ceased to exist, and full authority was assumed by the Allied Military Occupation Government. However, Germany continued to exist as a nation.

During the initial stage of the occupation of Germany, supreme authority was discharged by the Four Powers jointly for all occupation zones via the Allied Control Council, so that this Council was the immediate successor of the Dönitz Administration in the Government of Germany.