Cabinet Schwerin von Krosigk

The leading minister, Count Schwerin von Krosigk, alongside his predecessor Joseph Goebbels .

The Cabinet von Krosigk (also: Doenitz Cabinet or Flensburg Cabinet ) formed after the suicides of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels and the fall of Berlin , a not internationally recognized executive Reich government .

As stipulated in Adolf Hitler's political testament on the basis of the 1934 law on the successor to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Karl Dönitz took over the office of Reich President on May 1, 1945, and the Dönitz government began its activities . On the following day, Dönitz commissioned the longest- serving finance minister to date, Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, as leading Reich minister to form a government. The post of Reich Chancellor was not planned. In order to emphasize the transitional character of the government, Dönitz decided to form an executive government in consultation with Krosigk.

From May 3, 1945, the Reich Government had its seat in Flensburg - Mürwik . On the evening of May 5th the actual formation of the new Reich government took place with the allocation of the new cabinet posts.

In an undated letter from May 1945, Chief Minister Schwerin von Krosigk informed General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Soviet High Command about the formation of the government. Krosigk stated that the government's goal was "to liquidate the war". He also listed the Reich ministers who had left with the new formation.

The cabinet was in office beyond the surrender of the Wehrmacht in the special area Mürwik until the arrest of the cabinet members on May 23, 1945, but in fact had little real significance. On June 5, 1945, the victorious powers also formally took over the supreme power of government in Germany through the Allied Control Council ( Berlin declaration ), whereby the term of office of Schwerin von Krosigk ended at this point at the latest.

composition

Schwerin von Krosigk Cabinet (May 2 to May 23, 1945)
Office	minister		Political party
Senior Minister		Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk from May 2, 1945		NSDAP
Ministry of Foreign Affairs		Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
Finances		Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk already in Hitler's cabinet		NSDAP
Interior		Wilhelm Stuckart from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
Judiciary		Herbert Klemm from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
economy		Albert Speer from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
Food and Agriculture		Herbert Backe from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
job		Franz Seldte was already in the Hitler cabinet		NSDAP
Commander in Chief of the Navy		Hans-Georg von Friedeburg from May 1945		NSDAP
post Office		Julius Dorpmüller from May 5, 1945		NSDAP
traffic		Julius Dorpmüller already in the Hitler cabinet		NSDAP
Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command		Wilhelm Keitel from Hitler's cabinet until his arrest on May 13, 1945; then Alfred Jodl as head of the OKW		NSDAP