Karl Dönitz (1891 - 1980)

Karl Dönitz was the creator of Germany's World War Two U-boat fleet; he was also the naval officer who - briefly - succeeded Adolf Hitler as German head of  state at the end of the war.

Having served as a submarine officer in World War One, Dönitz was the perfect man to create a new U-boat fleet once Hitler had come to power. His work completed, he was appointed commander of the fleet and was able to turn the U-boats into a serious threat to Britain's survival. Under his guidance, by early 1941 the U-boat commanders were operating in 'wolfpack' formation, with groups of U-boats patrolling in long lines; when one of their number signalled a sighting of an Allied ships convoy, the others would join in to overwhelm the convoy by weight of numbers.

In January 1943, Dönitz replaced Admiral Raeder as commander-in-chief of the German Navy, where his loyalty and ability won him Hitler's trust. On 20th April 1945, facing the collapse of the Nazi regime, Hitler appointed him head of the northern military and civil command. Finally, Hitler named Dönitz as his successor as president of the Reich, minister of war and supreme commander of the armed forces.

Assuming the reins of government on 2nd May, after Hitler's suicide, Dönitz opened negotiations for surrender. He wanted to save as many German civilians and retreating soldiers from the Soviets as possible, believing (correctly) that the Russians would prove much less forgiving conquerors than the Western Allies. He hoped that a separate surrender to the British and Americans might allow the Reich to rescue something from the Soviets in the east. The Western Allies, however, fearful of provoking Stalin's paranoia, demanded that Germany surrender to all the Allies simultaneously.

Early in the morning of 7th May 1945, a German delegation, on the orders of Dönitz, came to General Eisenhower's headquarters in Rheims and signed the surrender documents. 
During the interval of surrender, 1.800.000 German troops - 55 per cent of the Army of the East - were transferred into the British-US area of control.

In 1946 Dönitz was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. He was released from prison in 1956, and retired on a government pension.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/ 

For a complete file on Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) Karl Dönitz 
visit: Uboat.net (new window).