Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann announcement of Hamburg’s surrender - 3 May 1945

3 Video Views·Dec 8, 2023

Karl Kaufmann (1900-1969) was a politican of the NSDAP and Gauleiter (regional governor) of Hamburg, one of Germanys biggest city, located in the North of the country.
Born in Krefeld in Western Germany, he joined the NSDAP in 1921, as one of its earliest members, and helped found the party in the Ruhr area. He became Gauleiter of the Gau Rhineland-North in July 1925, and was appointed Gauleiter of Hamburg in April 1929, a position he retained untill the end of the war. In addition, he was also named Reich Commisioner for Merchant Shipping in May 1942 and Defense Commisioner for the German Bight in August 1942.

In the ending months of WWII, the British approached Hamburg at the end of April 1945. Knowing that a military defense of the city was hopeless, both Kaufmann and the military commander of the city, Air Force General Alwin Wolz (1897-1978), agreed that it would be better to hand the city over to the British forces to avoid its destruction.
On May 2nd, Karl Dönitz, Hitlers succesor, was made aware of these plans and agreed to handing the city over to the British. The surrender was signed on May 3rd in the morning, and the British entered the city in the late afternoon.
Kaufmann announced this to the people over Radio Hamburg in this short broadcast from May 3rd.
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Subtitles made by me.