Hans Krebs

Germany state institutions Counter-revolution 1898–1945 ✕ Suicide

The last Army Chief of Staff, who told Chuikov of Hitler's death

Arriving under a white flag shortly before 4 a.m. on 1 May 1945, Krebs told Chuikov in Russian that Hitler and his wife Eva Braun had killed themselves in the Führerbunker.

Born in Helmstedt, Krebs volunteered for the army in 1914 and stayed on as a career officer. He learned Russian and served in the military attaché's office in Moscow until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. During the war he was chief of staff of the Ninth Army, Army Group Centre and, on the Western Front, Army Group B. When Hitler removed Heinz Guderian at the end of March 1945, Krebs took over the duties of Chief of the Army General Staff, and on 29 April he signed Hitler's political testament as a witness. Early on 1 May he carried a letter from Joseph Goebbels to Vasily Chuikov proposing a ceasefire; the Soviet side would accept nothing but unconditional surrender. Back in the bunker, he and Wilhelm Burgdorf shot themselves on the night of 1 to 2 May.

Also known as: Hans Otto Wilhelm Eugen Krebs