Partial capitulation by the Wehrmacht for Northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands

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Signing of the declaration of surrender on May 4, 1945 in a tent on the Timeloberg, at table v. l. No. Rear Admiral Gerhard Wagner , General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General Eberhard Kinzel

The partial surrender of the Wehrmacht for northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War was signed after negotiations on May 4, 1945 at 6 p.m. on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern near Lüneburg . It came into effect on May 5th at 8 a.m. The partial surrender of the Wehrmacht was unconditional and contained the promise to end the fighting against the Allied forces in the areas mentioned. The document of surrender was signed by a German delegation led by Admiral General Hans-Georg von Friedeburgto the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . The partial surrender was followed by the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, which came into force on May 8, 1945 .

prehistory

After Lüneburg was taken by British troops on April 18, 1945, the commander-in-chief of the 21st Army Group, Bernard Montgomery, initially set up his headquarters on a farm in Oedeme . On April 30th he moved it to the Villa Möllering in Häcklingen , which was also occupied by the commander of the 2nd British Army , Miles Dempsey . On May 1, Montgomery and his close staff set up a "tactical headquarters" on the 79 meter high Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern, where he lived in a caravan. The hill towers over the surrounding area by about 30 meters and was located in an area that the Lüneburg garrison had used as a military training area for decades .

course

Preliminary negotiations

On May 3, 1945, the British Field Marshal Montgomery received the German negotiating delegation on the Timeloberg under the flag of the Union Jack

On May 3, 1945, a German negotiating delegation arrived in vehicles at Villa Möllering. After a brief consultation with General Dempsey, she was transferred to Field Marshal Montgomery's quarters on the Timeloberg. The Germans were received by Montgomery under the Union Jack flag . The delegation was chaired by the new Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg. You belonged to General Eberhard Kinzel , Rear Admiral Gerhard Wagner and Major i. G. Jochen Friedel. The delegation had been entrusted with armistice negotiations by the last Reich President Karl Dönitz , who had left the last Reich Government in Flensburg - Mürwik .

The head of the delegation from Friedeburg read out a letter from Field Marshal Keitel , who offered the surrender of the Army Group of about 500,000 men, which was operating north of Berlin and was being disbanded . Montgomery turned down the German offer because the Army Group was in an area that was to become the Soviet occupation zone . Instead, he demanded the unconditional surrender of all German troops on the western and northern flanks of the area conquered by the British. These were north-west Germany , Denmark and the Netherlands . He only responded to the demand that the British take German soldiers into British custody as prisoners of war . Since von Friedeburg had no power of attorney to surrender to a large extent, he returned to Flensburg on May 3 to obtain the approval of the Dönitz government. He was given until the evening of May 4th to do this. Montgomery ensured the delegation's safe return journey by prohibiting Allied air forces from attacking road targets.

signing

Field Marshal Montgomery signs the document of surrender, General Eberhard Kinzel on the right

On May 4, 1945, the German negotiating delegation with Colonel i. G. Fritz Poleck back to the Timeloberg as an additional person. Earlier, Montgomery held a press conference at 5 p.m. to brief journalists about the upcoming event. The German delegation arrived at 6 p.m. and went to the prepared army tent. Montgomery read the English version of the deed of surrender, adding that the struggle would continue unless the document was immediately signed without objection. Then the German representatives and Montgomery signed it last. The signing was documented by filming a British camera team. Sound recordings for the radio were made by the BBC .

According to a statement made by the OKW on May 5, 1945 to the troops, the German side laid down their arms in northwest Germany, Denmark and Holland with the signing of the capitulation, “because the fight against the Western powers has lost its meaning. In the east, however, the struggle continues to save as many German people as possible from Bolshevization and enslavement . "

Text of the deed of surrender

The deed of surrender was written in English and a German translation. The German text is:

The original English document of surrender signed by everyone involved

Surrender document of the entire German armed forces in Holland, in northwest Germany including all islands, and in Denmark.

1. The High Command of the German Wehrmacht declares its consent to the handover of all German armed forces in Holland, in Northwest Germany including the Frisian Islands and Heligoland and all other islands, in Schleswig-Holstein and in Denmark to the Commander-in-Chief of the 21st Army Group . This includes all ships in these zones.

These armed forces have to lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally.

2. All combat operations on land, at sea and in the air by German armed forces in the aforementioned areas are to be stopped at 8 a.m. double British summer time on Saturday, May 5th, 1945.

3. The German command posts concerned must immediately and without objection or comment carry out all further orders which are issued by the Allied Powers in any matter.

4. Disobedience to orders or failure to carry them out will be considered a breach of these Surrender Conditions and will be treated by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

5. These handover conditions are independent of, without reservation and will be superseded by any general handover conditions which are made by or on behalf of the Allied Powers with regard to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.

6. The wording of this surrender document is in English and German.

The English text is authoritative.

7. Should any doubts or disputes arise regarding the interpretation or interpretation of the terms of surrender, the decision of the Allied Powers will be final.

background

At the end of the Second World War, in early May 1945, there was no longer a front . Much of the territory of the German Reich was already occupied by the Allies. In areas that were as yet unoccupied, German troops were distributed over isolated areas surrounded by the Allies. After Adolf Hitler's suicide on April 30th, who had refused any kind of surrender, his successor, Karl Dönitz , intended to negotiate regional partial surrenders with the Western powers. Doenitz and his cabinet hoped that the alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union would collapse. The Donitz government also wanted to gain time by offering partial surrenders in the west and maintain the combat strength of the Wehrmacht against the Red Army in the east. German soldiers should be able to get into western captivity in order to spare them a Soviet one. Likewise, the fleeing civilian population should be allowed through the British lines.

It is estimated that 1.6 to 2 million German soldiers laid down their arms as a result of the partial surrender.

Montgomery is said to have set up his quarters on the Timeloberg because, as a general hill, it gave him a view of the British battles for the Artlenburger bridgehead and the American advance on Mecklenburg at the bridgehead near Bleckede . He chose the hill, which was still largely unwooded at that time, as the location for the surrender ceremony because it offered a good view of the Hanseatic city of Lüneburg, which was around five kilometers away and occupied by the British.

The surrender event on the Timeloberg has received little attention in the German culture of remembrance for a long time. In the Netherlands, May 5th, on which the German surrender came into force, is a public holiday with Bevrijdingsdag .

Commemoration

First memory

The British Field Marshal Montgomery renamed the Timeloberg “Victory Hill” and had a wooden plaque set up on it in 1945 to commemorate the surrender. After the plaque had been stolen several times, it was replaced by a stone memorial. It was a three-part memorial stone made of granite with a bronze plaque attached. It had an inscription in English that read:

"Here, on 4th May 1945 a delegation from the German High Command surrendered unconditionally to Field Marshal Montgomery all land, sea and air forces in North-West Germany, Denmark and Holland"
View from the Kreisstraße to the Timeloberg, the memorial stone from 1995 is in the middle of the picture
(Translation: "Here on May 4, 1945, there was an unconditional delegation of the High Command of the German Wehrmacht to Field Marshal Montgomery with all land, sea and air forces in Northwest Germany, Denmark and Holland")

Since the British considered the protection inadequate, German civilians had to keep watch on the Timeloberg. There was also a sentry box next to the monument. In 1955 strangers stole the bronze plaque. When visiting Montgomery in Lüneburg in 1958, he decided the monument to Britain translocate to leave. For the removal, two of the largest cranes in the British Army of the Rhine were used to load the nine-ton memorial stone. He was taken to the grounds of the Sandhurst Military Academy , where Montgomery's military career began. It is still there today.

Recent commemoration

In 1995 a memorial stone for the surrender at the foot of the Timeloberges
Information boards set up in 2019 at the Timeloberg memorial site

Today the former site of the monument and the place where the surrender was signed are in the restricted military area of the Wendisch Evern training area of ​​the Bundeswehr , which is not open to the public. In 1995, 50 years after the signing of the capitulation, a memorial stone was erected at the foot of the Timeloberg in the presence of the then Lower Saxony Minister of Culture, Rolf Wernstedt . The stone bears the inscription "Surrender on the Timeloberg, 1945, May 4th, 1995, never again war". Shortly after it was erected, it was knocked over by strangers and in 2002 strangers destroyed its inscription. The memorial stone is outside the restricted military area, just under 400 meters north of the place of surrender and the location of the earlier memorial. The only remnants of what is now the young forest are the monument's concrete foundation, which is covered by the forest floor. and remains of the foundations of the sentry box.

Since 1995, larger commemorative events have been held at the memorial stone every 10 years. In 2005 the sons of Montgomery and von Friedeburg took part, in 2015 there were grandchildren. On the 70th anniversary in 2015, the former Lower Saxony Minister of Culture Rolf Wernstedt gave the keynote address. The commemoration event planned for the 75th anniversary in 2020 has been postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

Since 2006, takes place annually on Timeloberg fun run entitled "Timeless run" instead, reminiscent of the partial surrender and has a peace policy intention.

The research and upgrading of the historical site to a memorial site took place from 2018 onwards by a project group in which the "Timeloberg Initiative", the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge , the Lüneburg Wilhelm Raabe School , the Wendisch Evern community and the Ostheide community participated. In 2019 an information board was set up on the passing district road and three information boards next to the memorial stone at the foot of the Timeloberges.

literature

  • Erich Hessing : The Victory Hill by Wendisch Evern in: Monuments, people and history in the district of Lüneburg , pp. 71–72 ( online , pdf).
  • Uwe Plath: Welcome to Häcklingen in: Bürgerbrief. Announcements of the Bürgererverein Lüneburg eV number 75 from May 2015, pp. 11–13 ( online , pdf).
  • Flyer on the Timeloberg memorial site of the "Timeloberg Initiative" ( online , pdf)

Web links

Commons : Partial surrender of the Wehrmacht for Northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hard targets on the Wendisch-Evern training site at hartziel.de
  2. ↑ The Surrender on the Lüneburger Heide at militaryhistories.co.uk
  3. ↑ a b The surrender on the Timeloberg at Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge eV - District Association Lüneburg / Stade, (PDF; 455 kB)
  4. ^ Document of surrender
  5. ^ The German surrender in 1945 at the Federal Archives
  6. ↑ a b Irene Lange: Surrender on the Timeloberg at quadratlueneburg.de
  7. ↑ a b Interview on the end of the war, surrender and liberation in Northern Germany with the historian Wolfgang Kopitzsch from April 1, 2020
  8. ↑ Timeloberg memorial near the Wendisch Evern community
  9. ↑ End of the war on the Timeloberg
  10. ↑ a b Michael Grube: May 4, 1945 - Surrender on the Timeloberg near Lüneburg at geschichtsspuren.de
  11. ↑ Erich Hessing: Der Victory Hill by Wendisch Evern , pp. 71-72.
  12. ^ The Lüneburg Heath Memorial at Monuments & Memorials walk at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
  13. ↑ a b c d Timeloberg, a place of history and memory (pdf)
  14. ^ Speech by Professor Rolf Wernstedt on the commemoration of 70 years of Timeloberg on Sunday, May 3, 2015 in Deutsch Evern , pdf
  15. ↑ Commemoration of 70 years of peace in the state newspaper for the Lüneburg Heath on May 5, 2015
  16. ↑ Joachim Zießler: Anchoring the Timeloberg in the head in the state newspaper for the Lüneburg Heath on May 1, 2020
  17. ↑ Timeloberg history and remembrance board (pdf)
  18. ↑ Ingo Petersen: Freeing from oblivion in the state newspaper for the Lüneburg Heath on May 6, 2019

Coordinates: 53 ° 12 ′ 14 "  N , 10 ° 27 ′ 50"  E