Cabinet of Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk The Flensburg Government
Cabinet of Germany
1945
Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
Date formed
2 May 1945 (1945-05-02)
Date dissolved
23 May 1945 (1945-05-23)[a](de facto) 5 June 1945 (1945-06-05)(de jure)
People and organisations
Head of state
Karl Dönitz
Head of government
Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
Member party
Nazi Party
Opposition party
None
History
Predecessor
Goebbels cabinet
Successor
Allied Control Council First Adenauer cabinet (from 20 September 1949) Council of Ministers of East Germany (from November 1950)
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 the suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin. It was headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as the Reichspräsident and Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the Leading Minister. The administration was referred to as the "Flensburg Government" because Dönitz's headquarters had been relocated to Flensburg in northern Germany on 3 May 1945.[1]
At the time of its formation, forces loyal to the Nazi regime still held control of most of Austria and the Sudetenland, which had been annexed by Germany in 1938. They also still controlled most of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which had been 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, 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 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 the American advance to join with Soviet forces at Torgau on the Elbe.
Upon the capitulation of all German armed 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, 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 the Allied Control Council to co-ordinate the civil administration of Allied-occupied Germany.[2]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Jones 2015, p. 88.
^Jones 2015, p. 323.
and 21 Related for: Flensburg Government information
The FlensburgGovernment (German: Flensburger Regierung), also known as the Flensburg Cabinet (Flensburger Kabinett), the Dönitz Government (Regierung...
Flensburg (German: [ˈflɛnsbʊʁk] ; Danish and Low Saxon: Flensborg; South Jutlandic: Flensborre; North Frisian: Flansborj) is an independent town (kreisfreie...
Goebbels, he also served as "Leading Minister" of the short-lived Flensburggovernment of President Karl Dönitz. Schwerin von Krosigk also held the essentially...
killed himself along with his family on 1 May. His government was followed by the FlensburgGovernment under Dönitz. Retaining some members from the previous...
establishment of the Fourth Republic. Democratic Government of Albania (1944–46). FlensburgGovernment (1945), established following the suicides of Adolf...
in the west and continue fighting in the east. Germany under the FlensburgGovernment led by the head of state, Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz, also accepted...
After Hitler's death, Speer offered his services to the so-called FlensburgGovernment, headed by Hitler's successor, Karl Dönitz. He took a role in that...
him as Chief of OKW. Jodl was arrested, along with the rest of the FlensburgGovernment of Dönitz, by British troops on 23 May 1945 and transferred to Camp...
also served as Reichsminister of the Interior in the short-lived Flensburggovernment at the end of the Second World War. Stuckart was born in Wiesbaden...
on as a member of the short-lived FlensburgGovernment under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. Upon arriving in Flensburg, Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments...
Dönitz government ordered dissolved by Eisenhower: Karl Dönitz continued to act as if he were the German head of state, but his FlensburgGovernment (so...
von Krosigk, Reichsminister of Finance and Chief Minister of the Flensburggovernment Richard Walther Darré, Reichsminister of Food and Agriculture and...
Reichspräsident or to recognise the legitimacy of his FlensburgGovernment (so-called because it was based at Flensburg and controlled only a small area around the...
Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the FlensburgGovernment. The act of military surrender was first signed at 02:41 on 7 May...
Schwerin von Krosigk to form a new cabinet. This became known as the Flensburggovernment and it did not contain a Ministry of Propaganda. On 1 May 1945, Naumann...
died the same night trying to escape from the Führerbunker. In the FlensburgGovernment of Hitler's appointed successor as Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz, the...
University Press. pp. 41–44. ISBN 0-7006-1015-4. "After the Battle: The FlensburgGovernment" (PDF). Battle of Britain International Ltd. 2005. p. 11. Retrieved...
kept Speer on as Reichsminister of Industry and Production in the Flensburggovernment. From May 1945 Saur was in American custody. In 1948 he became a...
German leader. But Germany lasted only seven days longer under the "Flensburggovernment" of Dönitz. He surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on 8 May...
in Nazi Germany. p. 177. ISBN 0192802917. "After the Battle: The FlensburgGovernment" (PDF). Battle of Britain International Ltd. 2005. p. 8. Retrieved...
Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany, in the FlensburgGovernment. Troops of the Yugoslav 4th Army, together with the Slovene 9th Corpus...