An Important 1945 Letter From Gross Admiral Karl Dönitz To Generaloberst Jodl Authorizing A Ceasefire

Black typewriter face on a cream-coloured linen stock, inscribed "Hauptquartier, den 6. Mai 1945 / Ich bevollmächtige Generaloberst Jodl, Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, zum Abschluss eines Waffenstillstandsabkommens mit dem Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower. / Grossadmiral" (Headquarters, May 6, 1945 / I authorize General Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command, to conclude a ceasefire agreement with the headquarters of General Eisenhower. / Grand Admiral), signed in blue ink "Dönitz" (Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz of the Kreigsmarine) and dated "3. 4. 65" (April 3, 1965) at the lower left, 213 mm x 261 mm, one central horizontal fold line, extremely fine.

Footnote: Karl Dönitz (September 16, 1891 – December 24, 1980) was a German Admiral who played a major role in the Naval history of the Second World War. He began his career in the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) before the First World War. In 1918, while he was in command of UB-68, the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner. While in a prisoner of war camp, he formulated what he later called Rudeltaktik ("pack tactic", commonly called "wolfpack"). At the start of the Second World War, he was the senior submarine officer in the Kriegsmarine. In January 1943, Dönitz achieved the rank of Grossdmiral (Grand Admiral) and replaced Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine). On April 30, 1945, after the death of Adolf Hitler and in accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Dönitz was named Hitler's successor as Staatsoberhaupt (Head of State), with the title of Reichspräsident (President) and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (May 10, 1890 – October 16, 1946) was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) during the Second World War, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. On May 7, 1945, Grossadmiral Dönitz ordered Generaloberst Alfred Jodl to sign the German instruments of unconditional surrender in Rheims, France. Grossadmiral Dönitz remained as head of the Flensburg Government, as it became known, until it was dissolved by the Allied powers on May 23rd. At the Nuremberg trials, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. After his release, he lived quietly in a village near Hamburg until his death in 1980. At those same Nuremburg trials, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl was sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal.