1945 in Germany

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Decades: 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s See also: Other events of 1945 List of years in Germany

Events in the year 1945 in Germany.

Contents 1 Incumbents 1.1 National level 2 Events 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 References

Incumbents

National level

Head of State:

• Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Karl Dönitz (President) (Nazi Party) to 23 May, then none

Chancellor

• Adolf Hitler (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Joseph Goebbels (Nazi Party) until 1 May, then from 2 May Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (leading minister) (non-partisan conservative)to 23 May, then none

Events

• January — American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium.
• 12 January — WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
• 20 January — WWII: The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw.
• 20 January — The Holocaust: The evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp begins.
• 27 January — The Holocaust: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.
• 30 January — The Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in the Gdansk Bay, is sunk by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; up to 9,400 are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in war action in history.
• 9 February — WWII: "Black Friday": A force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack on German destroyer Z33 and escorting vessels sheltering in Førde Fjord, Norway.
• 10 February — WWII: The SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13.
• 13 February — WWII: Soviet forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
• 13 February — WWII: Royal Air Force bombing of Dresden, Germany.
• 21 February — The last V-2-rocket is launched from Peenemünde.
• March — Anne Frank, dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lower Saxony, Germany, of typhus.
• 2 March — The Bachem Ba 349 Natter is launched from Stetten am kalten Markt. The Natter is the first manned rocket, developed as anti-aircraft weapon. The launch fails and the pilot dies.^[1]
• 3 March — WWII: A possible experimental atomic test blast occurs at the Nazis' Ohrdruf military testing area.
• 7 March — WWII: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
• 19 March — WWII: Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
• 24 March — WWII: Operation Varsity: Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance.
• 4 April — WWII: American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
• 6 April — WWII: Sarajevo is liberated from the Nazi Germany and Nazi Croatia (German puppet state) by the Yugoslav Partisans.
• 7 April — WWII: The only flight of the German ramming unit known as the Sonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
• 10 April — WWII: The Allied Forces liberate the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald.
• 15 April — The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• 22 April — Heinrich Himmler, through Count Bernadotte, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
• 24 April — Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historical Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.
• 25 April — WWII: Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.
• 26 April — Battle of Bautzen (World War II): The last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city recaptured.
• 27 April — The Western Allies flatly reject any offer of surrender by Germany other than unconditional on all fronts.
• 29 April — Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistress Eva Braun in a closed civil ceremony in the Berlin Führerbunker.
• 30 April — Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as the Red Army approaches the Führerbunker in Berlin. Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany; Joseph Goebbels succeeds Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.
• 1 May — WWII: Hamburg Radio announces that Hitler has died in battle, "fighting up to his last breath against Bolshevism."
• 1 May — Joseph Goebbels and his wife commit suicide after killing their six children. Karl Dönitz appoints Count Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany.
• 1 May — Mass suicide in Demmin.
• 2 May — WWII: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. Soviet soldiers hoist the Red flag over the Reich Chancellery.
• 3 May — WWII: The prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland are sunk by the RAF in Lübeck Bay.
• 3 May — Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later going on to help to start the U.S. space program).
• 3 May — German Protestant theologian Gerhard Kittel is arrested by the French forces in Tübingen, Germany.
• 4 May — WWII: The concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
• 4 May — WWII: The North German army surrenders to Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
• 4 May — WWII: Holland is liberated by British and Canadian troops. German forces officially surrender one day later.
• 5 May — WWII: Denmark is liberated. German forces officially surrender one day later.
• 5 May — WWII: Prague rises up against the Nazis.
• 5 May — WWII: The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.
• 5 May — WWII: Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.
• 5 May — WWII: Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.
• 7 May — WWII: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
• 8 May — WWII: V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of WWII in Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.
• 9 May — WWII: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
• 9 May — WWII: General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
• 9 May — WWII: The German occupation of the Channel Islands ends with the liberation by British troops.
• 9 May — WWII: Alderney, an annex of the concentration camp Neuengamme, is liberated.
• 23 May — President of Germany Karl Dönitz and Chancellor of Germany Count Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British forces at Flensburg. They are respectively the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
• 23 May — Heinrich Himmler, former head of the Nazi SS, commits suicide in British custody.
• 29 May — German communists, led by Walther Ulbricht, arrive in Berlin.
• 5 June — The Allied Control Council, military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
• 1 July — WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.
• 16 July — WWII: A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.

• 16 November — Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
• 20 November — The Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of WWII start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

Births

• 8 March — Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• 7 April — Werner Schroeter, German film director (d. 2010)
• 21 May — Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
• 31 May — Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German film director (d. 1982)
• 9 June — Nike Wagner, German woman of the theater
• 14 June — Jörg Immendorff, German painter (d. 2007)
• 15 July — Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (d. 2003)
• 14 August — Wim Wenders, German film director and producer
• 11 September — Franz Beckenbauer, German footballer and coach
• 3 November — Gerd Müller, German footballer

Deaths

• 21 February — Adolf Brand, German writer (b. 1874)
• 3 February — Roland Freisler, Nazi German judge (b. 1893)
• March — Anne Frank, German-born Jewish diarist (typhus) (b. 1929)
• March — Margot Frank, Anne Frank's old sister (b. 1926)
• 16 March — Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
• 19 March — Friedrich Fromm, German Nazi official (b. 1888)
• 31 March — Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• April — Auguste van Pels, German-Jewish housemate of Anne Frank (b. 1900)
• 9 April — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (hanged by Nazis) (b. 1906)
• 9 April — Wilhelm Canaris, head of the German Abwehr (hanged by Nazis) (b. 1887)
• 22 April — Käthe Kollwitz, German artist (b. 1867)
• 24 April — Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German Reichsphysician (S.S. and Police) in the Third Reich (b. 1899)
• 30 April — Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German Nazi dictator (suicide) (b. 1889)
• 30 April — Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (suicide) (b. 1912)
• 1 May — Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi propagandist (suicide) (b. 1897)
• 1 May — Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels (suicide) (b. 1901)
• 2 May — Martin Bormann, German Nazi leader (b. 1900)
• 5 May — Peter van Pels, German-Jewish love interest of diarist Anne Frank (b. 1926)
• 8 May — Ernst-Günther Baade, German general (gangrene) (b. 1897)
• 8 May — Wilhelm Rediess, SS and Police Leader of Nazi-occupied Norway (suicide) (b. 1900)
• 8 May — Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of Nazi-occupied Norway (suicide) (b. 1898)
• 8 May — Bernhard Rust, Education Minister of Nazi Germany (suicide) (b. 1883)
• 19 May — Philipp Bouhler, German Nazi leader (suicide) (b. 1899)
• 20 May — Otto von Feldmann, Army officer (b. 1873)
• 23 May — Heinrich Himmler, German head of the SS (suicide) (b. 1900)
• 20 September — Eduard Wirths, German doctor, chief SS doctor at Auschwitz concentration camp (suicide) (b. 1909)
• 25 October — Robert Ley, German Nazi politician (suicide) (b. 1890)
• 8 November — August von Mackensen, German field marshal (b. 1849)

References

Years in Germany (1871–present) 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

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