Editing Helmuth Weidling (section)

===Commander of the Berlin Defence Area===
On 22 April, Hitler ordered for Weidling to be executed by [[firing squad]] on receiving a report that he had retreated in the face of advancing Soviet Army forces, which was in defiance of standing orders to the contrary. Weidling had not actually retreated, and the sentence was called off after he appeared at the ''Führerbunker'' to clear up the misunderstanding.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=286}}

On 23 April, Hitler appointed Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area. Weidling replaced Lieutenant General (''Generalleutnant'') [[Helmuth Reymann]], Colonel (''Oberst'') [[Ernst Kaether]], and Hitler himself. Reymann had held the position only since March.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=176, 177, 268, 286}}

The forces available to Weidling for the city's defence included roughly 45,000 soldiers in several severely-depleted German Army and [[Waffen-SS]] divisions.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=287}} These divisions were supplemented by the [[Berlin Police|police]] force, [[child soldier|boys]] in the compulsory [[Hitler Youth]], and 40,000 men of the ''[[Volkssturm]]'' (militia).{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=287}} The commander of the central government district was SS-''[[Brigadeführer]]'' [[Wilhelm Mohnke]]. Mohnke had been appointed to his position by Hitler and had over 2,000 men under his direct command.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=287}} His core group were the 800 men of the ''Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler'' (LSSAH) SS battalion (assigned to guard Hitler).{{sfn|Fischer|2008|pp=42–43}} The Soviet command later estimated the number of defenders in Berlin at 180,000, but that was based on the number of German prisoners that they captured. The prisoners included many unarmed men in uniform, such as railway officials and members of the Reich Labour Service (''[[Reichsarbeitsdienst]]'').{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=287}}

Weidling organised the defences into eight sectors designated "A" through to "H". Each sector was commanded by a colonel or a general, but most of the colonels and generals had no combat experience.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=287}} To the west of the city was the [[German 20th Motorized Infantry Division|''20th Panzergrenadier'' Division]]. To the north was the [[9th Parachute Division (Germany)|''9th Fallschirmjäger'' Division]], to the north-east the [[Panzer Division Müncheberg|Panzer Division ''Müncheberg'']].{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=223}} To the south-east of the city and to the east of [[Tempelhof Airport]] was the [[11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland|SS-''Nordland Panzergrenadier'' Division]] composed mainly of foreign volunteers.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=243}} Weidling's reserve, the [[18th Panzergrenadier Division (Wehrmacht)|''18th Panzergrenadier'' Division]] was in Berlin's central district.{{sfn|Ziemke|1969|p=93}}

====Bendlerblock headquarters====
Sometime around 26 April, Weidling chose as his base of operations the old army headquarters on the Bendlerstrasse, the [[Bendlerblock]]. The location had well-equipped air-raid shelters and was close to the [[Reich Chancellery]]. In the depths of the Bendlerblock, Weidling's staff did not know whether it was day or night.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=320}}

Around noon on 26 April, Weidling relieved Colonel [[Hans-Oscar Wöhlermann]] of command, and Major General [[Werner Mummert]] was reinstated as commander of the ''Müncheberg'' Panzer Division. Later that evening, Weidling presented Hitler with a detailed proposal for a breakout from Berlin. When Weidling finished, Hitler shook his head and said: "Your proposal is perfectly all right. But what is the point of it all? I have no intentions of wandering around in the woods. I am staying here and I will fall at the head of my troops. You, for your part, will carry on with your defence."{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=320}}

By the end of the day on 27 April, the encirclement of Berlin had been completed. The [[Soviet Information Bureau]] announced that Soviet troops of the [[1st Belorussian Front]] had broken through strong German defences around Berlin and, approaching from the east and from the south, had linked up in Berlin and northwest of Potsdam and that the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front took Gartenstadt, Siemenstadt and the Goerlitzer Railway Station in eastern Berlin.{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=233}} 

When Weidling discovered that a major part of the last line of the German defences in Berlin were manned by [[Hitler Youth]], he ordered Artur Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth combat formations in the city. However, in the confusion, his order was never carried out.{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=}}

====Soviet advance====
On 29 April, the Soviet Information Bureau announced that troops of the [[1st Belorussian Front]] continued to clear the streets of Berlin, occupied the northwest sector of [[Charlottenburg]] as far as Bismarck Street, the west half of [[Moabit]], and the eastern part of Schoeneberg. Soviet troops of the [[1st Ukrainian Front]] occupied [[Friedenau]] and [[Grunewald (locality)|Grunewald]] in north and west Berlin.{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=238}}

During the evening of 29 April, Weidling's headquarters in the Bendlerblock was now within metres of the front line. Weidling discussed with his divisional commanders the possibility of breaking out to the southwest to link up with General [[Walther Wenck]]'s 12th Army. Wenck's spearhead had reached the village of Ferch on the banks of the [[Schwielowsee]] near Potsdam. The breakout was planned to start the next night at 22:00.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=352}}

On 30 April, the Soviet Information Bureau announced that Soviet troops of the 1st Belorussian Front had captured Moabit, Anhalter Railway Station, [[Joachimsthal, Brandenburg|Joachimsthal]] to the north of Berlin, and [[Neukölln]], [[Marienwerder]] and [[Liebenwalde]]. Troops of the [[1st Ukrainian Front]] occupied the southern part of [[Wilmersdorf]], Hohenzollerndamm and Halensee Railway Station.{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=238}}

====The ''Führerbunker''====
{{main article|Death of Adolf Hitler|Führerbunker}}
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:19450420 Hitler 65bd awards HJ Iron Cross.jpg|thumb|left|One of the last photos of [[Hitler]], in Berlin, just days before his suicide]] -->
Late in the morning of 30 April, with the Soviets less than 500 m from the bunker, Hitler had a meeting with Weidling, who informed him that the Berlin garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night. Weidling asked Hitler for permission to break out, a request that he had earlier made unsuccessfully. Hitler did not answer at first, and Weidling went back to his headquarters in the Bendlerblock, where at about 13:00, he received Hitler's permission to try a breakout that night.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=358}}

After Hitler and Braun's suicides, Weidling reached the ''Führerbunker'' and was met by [[Joseph Goebbels]], ''Reichsleiter'' [[Martin Bormann]] and General [[Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)|Hans Krebs]]. They took him to Hitler's room, where the couple had committed suicide. They told him that their bodies had been burned and buried in a shell crater in the [[Reich Chancellery]] garden above.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=956}} Weidling was forced to swear that he would not repeat this news to anybody. The only person in the outside world who was to be informed was [[Joseph Stalin]]. An attempt would be made that night to arrange an armistice, and General Krebs would inform the Soviet commander so that he could inform the [[Kremlin]].{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=364}}

Weidling soon rang Colonel [[Hans Refior]], his civil chief-of-staff, in the Bendlerblock headquarters soon afterward. Weidling said that he could not tell him what had happened, but he needed various members of his staff to join him immediately, including Colonel [[Theodor von Dufving]], his military chief-of-staff.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=364}}

The meeting on 1 May between Krebs, who had been sent by Goebbels, and Soviet Lieutenant General [[Vasily Chuikov]] ended with no agreement.{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=239}} According to Hitler's personal secretary [[Traudl Junge]], Krebs returned to the bunker complex looking "worn out, exhausted". The surrender of Berlin was thus delayed until Goebbels committed suicide,{{sfn|Dollinger|1997|p=239}} after which it was then left up to Weidling to negotiate with the Soviets.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=406}}