Konrad Adenauer, Oberbuergermeister of Cologne

Chapter 16 XVI Germany in Defeat

The Nazi Party," 12th Army Group G-5 reported in the third week of June, "seems almost to have vanished from the earth." This was almost literally true. The Army security services were arresting the most prominent and dangerous Nazis by the thousands. At the end of June, 50,000 were in jails and camps. The arrests of the Doenitz government and of Goering and other prominent Nazis in southern Bavaria filled up the detention center known as ASHCAN, which had moved from Spa to Mondorf Les Bains in Luxembourg. Military government, working to bring new people to the fore, installed its appointees with much ceremony and all the trappings of office. Its star was Dr. Konrad Adenauer who, after he openly assumed office as Oberbuergermeister of Cologne, quickly became the most prominent and most popular political figure in the Rhineland. On 31 May, military government permitted Corpus Christi Day celebrations and parades in Catholic communities; and the local officials attended, something the people had not seen in the twelve years of Nazi rule.