Flensburg Government
Backe was retained as "Reichsminister" of Food and Agriculture in Hitler's will and he remained in this position until 23 May 1945 in the short-lived Flensburg Government led by "Grossadmiral" Karl Dönitz. After the German Instrument of Surrender, Backe was ordered by the allies, together with Dorpmüller, to fly to Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims. He was surprised to be arrested; he thought the Americans would need him as an expert to avoid hunger problems. Backe prepared himself for an expected conversation with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a letter to his wife on 31 January 1946, he defended national socialism as one of the "greatest ideas of all times", which "found its strongest blow in the national socialist agricultural policy".