Hans-Georg von Friedeburg

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg
Born 15 July 1895
Straßburg
Died 23 May 1945 (aged 49)
Flensburg
Allegiance  German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch  Kaiserliche Marine
 Reichsmarine
 Kriegsmarine
Years of service 1914–45
Rank Generaladmiral
Commands held
Awards Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (15 July 1895 in Straßburg – 23 May 1945 in Flensburg) was the deputy commander of the U-Boat Forces of Nazi Germany and the last Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.

Friedeburg (right) witnessing the instrument of surrender being signed at Reims, France 7 May 1945.
Friedeburg (right) witnessing the surrender being signed by Alfred Jodl (centre) with Major Wilhelm Oxenius to the left.
His grave next to that of Wolfgang Lüth.

Biography

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg was an ardent supporter of the Nazi regime. A prominent German naval officer of the post-World War I period, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the German U-boat fleet in September 1941. Overseeing German U-Boat training and deployment of the U-boat bases in France, he later organised U-boat picket lines in the mid-Atlantic to find and attack Allied convoys. Promoted to Rear Admiral in 1942, von Friedeburg assumed command of the German U-boat fleet in February of the following year. He was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Kriegsverdienstkreuzes mit Schwertern on 17 January 1945. He succeeded Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine when Dönitz became Reich President upon Hitler's suicide (and per Hitler's last will), and was promoted to Generaladmiral on 1 May 1945.

In early May 1945, von Friedeburg was ordered by Dönitz to negotiate the surrender to the Western Allied forces. Arriving at Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's headquarters in Lüneburg, Germany he was informed that an unconditional surrender to all Allied forces was necessary and not negotiable. Upon receiving permission from Dönitz, he signed an instrument of surrender of all German armed forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark on 4 May 1945.

Von Friedeburg was in Berlin on 8 May 1945, for the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender. Von Friedeburg signed on behalf of the Kriegsmarine, along with Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff for the Luftwaffe and Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel for the Heer and OKW. Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Air Chief Marshal Arthur William Tedder signed for the Soviet Union and SHAEF respectively. Two weeks later, on 23 May 1945, the day the members of the Flensburg government were arrested, von Friedeburg became a prisoner of war of the British in Plön. Unable to endure the defeat of his country, and having made up his mind in 1944 about this eventuality, he took poison the same day. He was interred in Adelby Cemetery near Flensburg.[1]

His son Ludwig von Friedeburg (1924–2010) was a well-known sociologist and politician (SPD) and served between 1969 and 1974 as minister for culture in the state of Hesse.

Awards

References

Citations
  1. ↑ Borgert, p. 331
  2. ↑ Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 541.
Bibliography
  • Borgert, Heinz-Ludwig (1998): Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitlers militärische Elite. 68 Lebensläufe. Frankfurt am Main: Primus Verlag, 2011 (second edition). ISBN 978-3-534-23980-1
  • Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.

External links

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