We bring you a detailed list of people whom Hitler appointed to top positions in the German Reich in his last will and testament.
On this day, near the end of World War II, Adolf Hitler dictated his will. At the time he was located in the Berlin bunker (Führerbunker), and Soviet troops were already in the vicinity of Berlin. On the same day, Hitler also married with his longtime partner, Eva Braun.
Hitler dictated his will to his secretary Traudl Junge. She was the youngest of his personal secretaries (only 25 years old), and is known from the movie “Downfall” (Der Untergang) in which she is the main female character.
In Hitler’s political testament, it is particularly interesting to note the people who were appointed to various posts after his death. The former leading men of the Reich – Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler – were expelled from the Nazi Party and removed from all previous positions and functions. Hitler did it because the two of them reportedly betrayed him (Himmler tried to negotiate with the Allies and Goering suggested that he should take over the Third Reich even though Hitler was still alive).
Instead, this is how Adolf Hitler appointed functions:
President of the Reich (Reichspräsident): Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz
Chancellor of the Reich (Reichskanzler): Dr. Joseph Goebbels
Party Minister (Parteiminister): Martin Bormann
Foreign Minister (Aussenminister): Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Interior Minister (Innenminister): Paul Giesler
Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres): Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force (Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe): Field Marshal Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim
Reichsführer-SS and Chief of Police (Reichsführer-SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei): Gauleiter Karl Hanke
Minister of Economy (Wirtschaft) Walter Funk
Minister of Agriculture (Landwirtschaft): Herbert Backe
Minister of Justice (Justiz): Otto Thierack
Minister of Culture (Kultur): Dr. Gustav Adolf Scheel
Minister of Propaganda (Propaganda): Dr Werner Naumann
Minister of Finance (Finanzen): Count Johann Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk
Minister of Labor (Arbeit): Dr. Theo Hupfauer
Minister of Munitions (Rüstung): Karl-Otto Saur
Director of the German Labour Front and member of the Cabinet (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront und Mitglied des Reichskabinetts): Dr. Robert Ley
