Operation Clausewitz () was the code word initiating the defence of Berlin by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

during the final stage of the

European Theatre of World War II The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II, taking place from September 1939 to May 1945. The Allied powers (including the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and Franc ...

. Clausewitz was established in the 9 March 1945 document, ''Basic Order for the Preparations for the Defense of the Reich Capital'' (), a 33-page document containing 24 separate points. The second point of the document, in full (translated) is: "The Reich capital will be defended to the last man and to the last bullet." It has been referred to as the Nazis'

last stand A last stand, or final stand, is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are d ...

against the Soviets. The document divided the city of Berlin into nine operational defense zones (A to H, as slices of the outer city of Berlin and Z, its center, corresponding to the government district). It further divided the region into four

concentric In geometry, two or more objects are said to be ''concentric'' when they share the same center. Any pair of (possibly unalike) objects with well-defined centers can be concentric, including circles, spheres, regular polygons, regular polyh ...

rings: an outer exclusion zone, extending well past Berlin's city limits; an outer defense zone extending roughly to the city limits; an inner defense zone extending out to the Berlin Ringbahn; and the Citadel (), again, zone Z. In addition to the establishment of defense zones, this document also described the overall mechanism by which Berlin would be converted to a front line city. This included: * The evacuation of all ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' and SS offices in Berlin * Evacuation of the central command post of the capital from General Command on Hohenzollern to L-Tower of the Zoo bunker no more than six hours after the issuance of Clausewitz * The imposition of

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

for the civilian populace, and offences under which the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

was authorized The document also outlined the destruction of thousands of documents that were deemed "essential" to the Nazi war machine, this including documents pertaining to military and civilian logistics and installations, medical research, and other technological research.

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

ordered the execution of on 20 April 1945. This set into motion preparations according to the ''Basic Order'' plan, and would have been followed later by the code word ', meaning full preparations should have been completed and the battle would have started. Ziemke, Earl. ''The Battle for Berlin: End of the Third Reich'', p. 40

Notes

Clausewitz Eastern Front (World War II) Clausewitz Clausewitz Battle of Berlin 1945 in Germany {{Nazi-stub

See also

Notes