Jobst C. KniggeDie letzte deutsche Illusion im Zweiten Weltkrieg

About this book deutschenglish

Hopes and illusions during the Second World War led the Germans to fight to the total defeat despite the lack of chances of victory. They relied on „miracle weapons“, on the disintegration of the enemy coalition and on the expectation that the Western Allies would not allow Germany to be overrun by the Red Army. Finally, many believed in the possibility that the Americans and the British, together with the Wehrmacht, could take action against the Russians. Various generals, but also the military resistance, had plans to lay down their arms in the West, and then to transfer the forces that were released to the Eastern Front. In order to find common ground with the Western Allies, the fear was repeatedly stirred up that Bolshevism could spread all over Europe. The Reich was the last bulwark against the Red Army, propaganda minister Goebbels repeatedly warned. Efforts to make contact with the West reached up to the highest ranks of the Nazi regime. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler went especially far. He was the one with the greatest loss of reality and in his illusions, as he believed that he could play a role even after the war and that National Socialism could continue to exist in a reformed version. While London and Washington rejected or ignored all advances and adhered strictly to the formula of „unconditional surrender“, the resistance found understanding and concession at least with the representative of the American secret service Allen Dulles. It was only in the absolute final phase of the war that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill began to rethink his position when he realized that Stalin was disregarding all agreements concerning a democratic order in Eastern Europe. The first signs of the Cold War became apparent. As early as May 1945 there were British contingency plans for a war against the Soviet Union involving German soldiers. However, it was to take another ten years before the Federal Republic and its army were incorporated into a Western anti-Soviet alliance.

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