Karl Doenitz

Dönitz, Karl

 or Karl Doenitz

(born Sept. 16, 1891, Grünau-bei-Berlin, Ger.—died Dec. 22, 1980, Aumühle, W.Ger.) German admiral. After serving as a submarine officer in World War I, he oversaw the creation of the German U-boat fleet in the 1930s, thus violating the Treaty of Versailles. As the fleet's commander, he conducted the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, then served as commander in chief of the navy (1943–45). He succeeded Adolf Hitler as Germany's leader in the last few days of the war and executed Germany's surrender to the Allies. Convicted of war crimes at the Nürnberg trials, he served 10 years in prison.

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Doenitz, Karl 

Born Sept. 16, 1891, in Griinau, near Berlin. Military naval leader of fascist Germany. Grand admiral (1943).

From 1936 to 1943, Doenitz was commander of the submarine fleet, and beginning on Jan. 30, 1943, he was commander in chief of the entire navy. On May 1, 1945, in accordance with the will and testament of A. Hitler, he replaced the latter as reichschancellor and supreme commander in chief. From May 2 to May 5, Doenitz formed a new “imperial government” in Murwick-Flensburg, and by means of a partial surrender to the Western powers he attempted to preserve the remnants of the army, which was retreating from the Eastern Front. On May 23 he was arrested by the British authorities and in October 1946 was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg to ten years in prison as a war criminal. In 1956, Doenitz was freed; he engaged in profascist activity in the Federal Republic of Germany.