On the afternoon of 30 April 1945, with Berlin engulfed in flames and besieged by the Russians, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Nazi Germany, took his own life in his cement bunker beneath the complex of the Reich Chancellery in the heart of the city. At the eleventh-hour of World War II, in announcing Hitler's demise and his appointment as Hitler's successor as Führer and President of the Third Reich, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (born 16 September 1891- died 24 December 1980) stated to the German people: Fully conscious of the responsibility, I take over the leadership of the German people at this fateful hour."
Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz had inherited possibly the least promising promotion in either military or political history - an unwinnable situation in a moribund Germany. However, the appointment of Dönitz as Führer is indicative of the influential role that he played during the war, especially in the conduct of submarine warfare against the Allies, and also of his outstanding abilities as both a commander and leader of men.
The aim of this paper is to examine the events leading up to the accession of Admiral Dönitz as President of Germany, the formation of his government, and the surrender of Nazi Germany to the victorious Allied Powers by his government. Before that, however, it will also attempt to examine the command and leadership abilities of Dönitz and assess the extent to which he was an effective leader - as the Head of the Submarine Service of the German Navy, as the Commander-in- Chief of the Navy, and eventually the last President of the Third Reich.

Accession of Dönitz to the German Leadership in May 1945
For a few brief weeks during late April and May of 1945, another leader of Europe came to power, an honourable man, respected even within the military councils of the Allies. That man was Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander-in-chief of the German Navy, in overall command of German military forces in the north, and at that tense moment engaged in arranging sea and other transportation for the masses of refugees fleeing from the eastern areas. To his overwhelming