Why didn't Germany surrender a year earlier?

[swing_voter]

Germany surrendered in 1945. Surely it was obvious that Germany was going to lose in 1944.

So why didn't they surrender. It would've saved lives.

 

[Jredbaron96]

Hitler didn't want to, and the rest of Nazi leadership didn't challenge him on that.

A few officers did try to to kill Hitler in the summer of 1944, but they were largely without popular support, or indeed even the support of most of the German officer corps.

 

[NewfieMom]

Hitler didn't want to, and the rest of Nazi leadership didn't challenge him on that.

This photo of Hitler was taken a day before his suicide. He sat staring at a model of Linz, which he considered his home town in Austria, as he wanted it to be. The Red Army was at his door. People were dying above his head, but all he wanted to do was to dream of the glory that could have been, the magnificent tomb he had envisioned for his parents, the huge art museum that would house many pieces he had looted from all over Europe and which would outdo the museums of Vienna. Hitler was in charge and Hitler didn't care about saving lives.

 

[swing_voter]

I think Soviet atrocities committed on German towns as the Soviets invaded persuaded a lot of Germans to fight on.

If the Soviets were going to rape everything in the country, they thought, they were going to pay for it.