Hans-georg Von Friedeburg

A prominent German naval officer of the post- WWI period, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg was appointed Deputy Commander of the German U-boat fleet in September 1941 . Overseeing German U-Boat training and deployment of the U-boat bases in France, he would later organize U-boat picket lines in the mid-Atlantic to find and attack Allied Convoy s. Promoted to Rear Admiral in 1942 , Friedeburg assumed command of the German U-boat fleet in February of the following year. He was awarded the Knight's Cross on 17 January 1945 . He succeeded Admiral Karl Dönitz as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine when Dönitz became Reichs Chancellor upon Hitler's suicide (and per Hitler's last will), and was promoted to Generaladmiral on 1 May 1945.

In early May 1945, Friedeburg was ordered by Dönitz to negotiate a truce with the Allied forces. Arriving at General Bernard Montgomery 's headquarters in Lüneburg , Germany on May 2 , Friedeburg officially signed, on behalf of the German Navy, the document declaring the official surrender of the German high command in Northern Europe, including Germany, taking effect at midnight of 8/9 May 1945. Two weeks later, on 23 May 1945, he committed suicide.

His son Ludwig Von Friedeburg ist a well-known sociologist and served between 1969 and 1974 as minister for culture in the state of Hesse .

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Hans-georg Von Friedeburg