At Zero Hour: the Government of Karl Dönitz, with Reflections As Seen in German Literature
AT ZERO HOUR: THE GOVERNMENT OF KARL DÖNITZ, WITH REFLECTIONS AS SEEN IN GERMAN LITERATURE Jonathan Edward Klein A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2006 Committee: Beth Griech-Polelle, Advisor, History Theodore Rippey, Advisor, German Douglas Forsyth Kristie Foell ii ABSTRACT Drs. Beth Griech-Polelle and Theodore Rippey, Advisors With the suicide of Adolf Hitler at the end of April 1945, leadership of the Third Reich was passed, as per Hitler’s Testament, to Karl Dönitz. Dönitz had, up to that point, served as head of the U-boat or submarine fleet, and then as Grand Admiral of the entire German Navy, or Kriegsmarine. Very little analysis has been offered in current literature regarding the impact of the Dönitz government. Indeed, history texts rarely mention it. This thesis set out to do just that, using both historically oriented works and insights as provided by German literature of the period such as Heimkehrerliteratur and Trümmerliteratur. By investigating the works of Dönitz himself and those of various other personalities associated with his government, primary documents of the period, and secondary works on the period as well as the aforementioned literature genres, several conclusions were reached. The activities of the Dönitz government can be broken up into pre-surrender and post- surrender activities. Pre-surrender activities included the negotiations of surrender itself, which insofar as it was conducted in several stages, was not unconditional, as is often claimed. The other major pre-surrender activity was the decision to continue the war in the East while seeking peace with the West to allow evacuation of Germans from East Prussia.
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