Germany, Kriegsmarine. A Signed Postwar Letter From Großadmiral Karl Dönitz

(Nachkriegs-Brief). An interesting and extremely well-preserved signed postwar letter from Großadmiral Karl Dönitz. It is constructed of white paper with black ink, with Dönitz’s letterhead and a date of “4. JANUARY 1964” on the obverse. Typewritten, the letter is addressed to a “DR. KLINGELHOFER”, and addresses five questions forwarded to Dönitz by the former concerning his role during the latter stages of the Second World War. Topics include the freedom with which Dönitz was allowed to conduct the U-Boat campaign and the decisions he made in appointing Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and Erich von Manstein to political and military roles in the Flensburg Government. Notably, in answer to Klingelhofer’s first inquiry, Dönitz claims that he and Albert Speer discussed assassinating AH in the Führerbunker by pumping poison gas into the air supply, and that he dissuaded Speer from this course of action due to the presence of innocent personnel in the bunker. The letter closes with a handwritten signature and a postscript in which Dönitz recommends that Klingelhofer read an interview he recently gave to the Boston Sunday Globe (the interview occurred on 8 December 1963). The letter measures 209 mm (w) x 296 mm (h). Two folding creases are evident, but the letter is otherwise fully intact and in an extremely fine condition.

Footnote: Karl Dönitz (16 September 1891 – 24 December 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 Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) and replaced Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine). On 30 April 1945, after the death of AH and in accordance with his 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. Grossadmiral Dönitz remained as head of the Flensburg Government, as the post AH regime was known, until it was dissolved by the Allied powers on 23 May. 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, occasionally corresponding with historians and journalists, until his death in 1980.