Adolf Hitler was the man who led the Nazi party to power in Germany and created the Third Reich. He was Germany’s first Nazi dictator, but he was not its last. That ignominious distinction belongs to Admiral Karl Dönitz, Hitler’s handpicked successor. Karl Dönitz was an unusual choice to succeed Hitler. He was a gifted naval officer and a devoted Nazi, but he had come up through the ranks of the military, not the Nazi party, unlike other prominent leaders of the Third Reich.
Dönitz was born in 1891 in Grünau, Germany. The son of middle class parents, Dönitz began his military career in 1910 when he enlisted in the German Imperial Navy. He received a commission in 1913 and requested a transfer to the burgeoning German submarine force in 1916. Dönitz took command of U-boat UB-68 in 1918. His time as a submarine captain did not last long, however. While operating in the Mediterranean, his submarine suffered technical malfunctions that forced it to the surface. Rather than let the U-boat fall into enemy hands, Dönitz scuttled the vessel and surrendered to the British. He spent the rest of the war in a British POW camp.
