The Battle Of Berlin: April 23rd 1945 – Stalin Changes The Plan

On April 23rd, the Berlin Defence Area was still officially without a commandant.

Two days earlier, General Hellmuth Reymann had been relieved of his command for defeatism. Concerned at the lack of attempt to evacuate the civilian population from Berlin, in contrast to the Nazi party officials – many of whom had made sure of their own departure (the so-called Flights of the Golden Pheasants) with special permits issued from Reymann’s headquarters – he was reassigned to command a unit in Potsdam to the south-west of the city.

The man who had been expected to take over from Reymann – Generalleutnant Ernst Kaether – had never actually assumed command.

In one of the strangest episodes to take place during the Battle of Berlin, the man who would actually oversee the defence of the city for the remainder of its time as the capital of Nazi Germany had – on April 23rd – been ordered to report to Adolf Hitler’s Führerbunker to answer to his own charges of defeatism.

After moving the headquarters of his LVI Panzer Corps across the river Spree and southern branch of the Teltow Canal, General Helmuth Weidling would receive an order on April 23rd to report to Hitler’s bunker at 6pm. Where he would be received by Generals Krebs and Burgsdorf before being allowed to make his case directly to the Führer.

Weidling was finally in touch with army command after more than 30 hours of silence.

Rumours of the General’s misconduct had spread far and wide – particularly the suspicion that his troops were relocating to Döberitz, near Potsdam. Far west of the city and away from the front.

Weidling would instead explain that he was moving his corps towards Königs Wusterhausen, in accordance with orders issued by the head of the 9th Army – at that time desperately fighting against the Soviet drive east of Berlin. With the misunderstanding corrected, the general was instead informed that, with immediate effect, he should take over the defense of the southeastern and southern defense sectors of Berlin – codenamed A to E – ordering units to disengage the enemy and redeploy to further prepare the city’s defenses.