Setting the Record Straight: Politically, National Socialist Germany Did Not Surrender at the End of World War II

by Martin Kerr

GERMANY AND ITS ALLIES suffered a total, crushing military defeat at the end of World War II, and its armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Western powers and the Soviet Union. But although its armed forces capitulated, its government never did so: National Socialist Germany, as a legally-constituted political entity, did not surrender.

Consequently, (1) the Second World War is not officially over; and (2) both the current Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD), as well as the now-defunct German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR — that is “East Germany”), were illegally established by the occupying powers (the US, the UK, the USSR and France) and were politically and legally illegitimate.

As the Second World War neared its tragic end, German military forces began to surrender piecemeal to the Allies. On April 29, 1945, the German forces in Italy capitulated. On May 4, German troops in Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern Germany surrendered to the Allies.

These partial military surrenders of the Germans greatly alarmed the Soviet Union. The Soviets were afraid that the German Army intended to surrender only to the Allies in the west, and to keep on fighting against the Red Army in the east. If that were to happen, it could lead to the ultimate nightmare scenario for the Soviets, in which the Americans and British joined with the Germans to pursue a fresh war against the USSR. Certainly, there were some American commanders, such as Gen. George S. Patton, who would have welcomed a joint Allied-German campaign against the Reds.

It is true that the Soviets had decisively defeated the Germans — but only barely. The Red Army had been bled white by the final offensive against NS Germany. Its frontline units were exhausted and understrength, its troop and tank reserves had been depleted, it was out of ammunition, and its supply lines were near to breaking. The thought of a new war against the Allies terrified Stalin.

But the Red dictator need not have worried: an alliance with the “Nazis” was the last thing on the minds of the Western powers.

On May 7, the German military signed an unconditional surrender in Reims, France. A Soviet general was present and accepted the surrender on the part of his government.

But the Soviets, themselves of deceptive frame of mind, still suspected a trick on the part of the Allies, and insisted on a second surrender the next day, in Berlin, overseen by themselves.

On both occasions, the May 7 surrender in France and the May 8 surrender in Berlin, the Germans signed a document entitled “Act of Military Surrender.” There was no political surrender by the German government, which had been headed by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (pictured) since the freewill death of Adolf Hitler on April 30.

In Germany Surrenders 1945: World War II Surrender Documents published by the National Archives (Washington, D.C., 1976), it is noted:

As a means of bringing about an orderly transition of power in Germany, the Allies allowed the government of Grand Adm. Doenitz to remain in power for 16 days. On May 23, 1945, however, the principal members of government were taken into custody for trial as war criminals [sic].

On June 5, the Allied commander in chief issued the Declaration on Germany, which represented the official assumption of political control by the four occupying powers — the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. This instrument was to replace for years the broader political surrender that had been anticipated by the Reims and Berlin surrender documents. (p. 37)

But the “broader political surrender that had been anticipated” never took place. In other words, the government of National Socialist Germany never surrendered. The so-called “Declaration on Germany” that supposedly provided the basis for establishment of puppet regimes in East and West Germany had no legitimate standing. Grand Admiral Doenitz, legally appointed as Reich’s Chancellor by the preceding President Reich’s President and Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was the last politically and legally legitimate German head of state. All of the rest since then, down to and including Angela Merkel, have been illegal and illegitimate — and the War never officially ended. [And as I said last year: Since the war never ended, we can still win it. — K.A.S.]

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Source: New Order