The Fuhrer is dead

Beck makes a broadcast to the nation and denounces Hitler and the Nazi Regime. He announces decrees abolishing the Nazi Party and subsidiary bodies, and formerly repeals the Enabling Act of 1934 which brought the Nazi dictatorship into being. However, he states that the state of emergency is still in effect, and that for the time being he would rule using Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which had never been formerly abolished, merely suspended. Beck also announces Germany’s intention to enter into peace negotiations with the Allies. Both the Allies and the Soviets however make it clear that they will only accept unconditional surrender. Goerderler announces his government: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler - Chancellor Wilhelm Leuschner - Vice-Chancellor Paul Löbe - President of the Reichstag Julius Leber - Interior Minister Ulrich von Hassell - Foreign Minister Ewald Loeser - Finance Minister Friedrich Olbricht - War Minister Erwin von Witzleben - Commander in Chief of the Wehrmacht Hans Oster - President of the Reichskriegsgericht (military supreme court) Hans Koch - President of the Reichsgericht (supreme court) Bernhard Letterhaus - Reconstruction Minister Karl Blessing - President of the Reichsbank Paul Lejeune-Jung - Economics Minister Albert Speer - Production Minister Andreas Hermes - Agriculture Minister Josef Wirmer - Minister of Justice Theodor Haubach - Minister of Information Henning von Tresckow - Chief of Police

25th July 1944.
Beck orders all German forces in the occupied territories to withdraw to Germany’s 1938 borders. The Wehrmacht also retains control of western Poland, so that East Prussia shall not be cut off from the rest of Germany. This presents the Allies with a Germany defended by a virtually intact Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. They also had to contend the fact that these men would be highly motivated if they were defending their on soil. This persuades the British, Americans and Soviets to agree to enter peace talks with what has been provisionally titled the Free German Reich