How many successors Hitler changed throughout the war?

Question

Any background information on these men will help :)

Answer 1

Well Hitler never intended for anyone to succeed him, he fully expected to hold onto power for a thousand years so the reverses of the mid 1940's and the whole incident with the bunker was a bit of a shock.
No one was ever officially designated as heir apparent though Rudolf Hess was deemed Deputy Fuhrer untl his defection and then the title passed along to Martin Borman. Herman Goring liked to think he was Hitler's designated heir gut bungled badly during the war and was mostly out of favr from 1944 onward and he damaged his relationship with Hitler beyond repair during the last days by fleeing to Bavaria and then sending a letter asking, "if you are incapaciated should I take over," or words to that effect, that wrecked Hitler's mood and he ordered Herman arrested and spent the rest of his life imagining Goring's corpulent corpse dangling from a strand of piano wire.

Heinrich Himmler was never heir apparent but it was apparent that he was in a position to seize power and may have had plans to do so. Himmler was also accussed of betrayal during the final days.

In the final days it came down to Admiral Karl Doenitz (doughnuts). A fanactical Nazi he was nown to fawn over Hitler which was why it was so amusing hearing Doenitz testify that he never liked the Nazis or Hitler. Hitler designated Doenitz his successor with the faint hope that Doenitz would fight to the Death. Hitler was like an angry child, breaking all his toys, he wanted every last German to die fighting, the ground scorched not a building left standing. Hitler woul have been dismayed how quickly Doenitz surrendered..


Links and snippets

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/biographies/hess-bio.htm

"""In brief: Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), Deputy Führer and considered to be the number 3 man in Hitler's Germany after Göring. Hess was a somewhat neurotic member of Hitler's inner circle best known for his surprise flight to Scotland on May 10, 1941 in which he intended to negotiate peace with the British, but which resulted in his capture and long term imprisonment.""

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWgoring.htm
""In February, 1938, Goering became head of Germany's armed forces,. The following year he officially became Hitler's deputy and legal heir. He obtained a vast income from his various official posts and converted an old Berlin palace into his official residence. Goering also made money from his own newspaper, Essener National Zeitung and from stock in the aircraft industry."""

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhimmler.htm
"""In 1944 Himmler was put in charge of the German Army facing the advancing United States Army. In January, 1945, he was switched to face the Red Army in the east. Unable to halt the decline in fortunes of the German forces, Himmler became convinced that Germany needed to seek peace with Britain and the United States. When Adolf Hitler discovered on 28th April that Himmler had been attempting to make contacting with the Allies, he ordered his arrest.
Himmler now took the name and documents of a dead village policeman. Although in heavy disguise, Himmler was arrested by a British army officer in Bremen on 22nd May. Before he could he interrogated, Himmler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule""

http://www.thirdreich.net/Bormann_Bio.html
""In addition to administering Hitler's personal finances, buying the Berghof at Berchtesgaden and running it as well as the whole complex of properties on the Obersalzberg, Bormann acquired the power to control the living standards of Gauleiters and Reichsleiters, not to speak of members of the Fuhrer's intimate circle. Bormann's brutality, coarseness, lack of culture and his apparent insignificance led the Nazi Old Guard to underestimate his silent persistence and ability to make himself indispensable. Rudolf Hess's flight to Britain opened the way for the 'Brown Eminence' to step into his shoes on 12 May 1941 as head of the Parteikanzlei and to gather the reins of the Party into his own hands and steadily undermine all his rivals for power. Until the end of the war, the short, squat Bormann, working in the anonymity of his seemingly unimportant office, proved himself a master of intrigue, manipulation and political in-fighting. Always the 'narrow Party man' and a fierce guardian of Nazi orthodoxy (he was an arch-fanatic when it came to racial policy, anti-semitism and the Kirchenkampf [war between the churches]), Bormann strengthened the position of the Party against the Wehrmacht and the SS, and increased his grip on domestic policy.""

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERdoenitz.htm
""Adolf Hitler selected Doenitz to become head of state after his suicide on 30th April, 1945. After forming a new government he negotiated Germany's surrender on 8th May.

At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial Doenitz was found guilty of war crimes and was sentenced to ten years in prison. After his release in October, 1956, he wrote his autobiography, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days (1959). Karl Doenitz died on 24th December, 1980.""



HAD HITLER lived to a ripe old age he more than likely would have picked Borman or Albert Speer to be his successor but fate intervened and a thousand years ended quiclky...

Peace

Answer 2

Everything that I have ever read on the subject, which is a lot, puts Goering as his successor until the end in the bunker when Goering sent word to Hitler asking if he could start to negotiate peace. Hitler then sent him packing and named Doenitz to be his successor. "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer talks about it and is a really good book. Hitler seems to have thought that Goering was the only one who could succeed him even though he personally thought that Goering was a pig.

Answer 3

In general, dictators rarely nominate a successor. Partly this is due to folie de grandeur, i.e they think they are immortal, or don't want to consider their mortality as it would detract from their perceived omnipotence. Secondly, and more practically. they don't trust anyone. So if they nominate a successor they constantly fear some kind of 'palace coup'. Truly it was said 'uneasy lies the head that wears the crown' - particularly when that head is that of an absolute ruler.

Answer 4

I'd like to help you out, but what is your question?