THE GERMAN SURRENDER IN MAY 1945

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, 2/3 May 1945. Photo: Ivan Shagin, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

THE END OF THE WAR

The Second World War in Europe ended with the surrender of the German armed forces in May 1945, marking the final defeat of the National Socialist dictatorship. The complete military and political defeat of the “Third Reich” had been the supreme objective of Germany’s Allied opponents since early 1943.

In the summer of 1944, Germany’s military defeat accelerated rapidly. On 22 June the Red Army launched a major offensive from which the German army on the Eastern Front never recovered. Two weeks earlier, on 6 June, Allied forces had landed in Normandy in a gigantic operation. Germany was now caught between two fronts. From October 1944 onward, fighting took place on German territory. On 25 April 1945, American and Soviet troops met near Torgau on the Elbe.

Berlin was captured by the Red Army. The assault on Berlin began in mid-April. After fierce street fighting, with heavy losses on both sides, the German capital surrendered on 2 May 1945.

White “flags” made from sheets, towels and similar materials as signs of surrender, Berlin, April/May 1945. Photo: Arkady Shaikhet, private archive of Maria Shotikova.
 

Group photograph at the Victory Column: Soviet soldiers in front of their tanks after the surrender of Berlin, Berlin-Tiergarten, early May 1945. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

THE END OF THE WAR IN BERLIN

On 21 April Soviet units entered Berlin from the east and gradually penetrated to the very center of the city. At the inner ring road they met fierce resistance. Ten days of urban fighting caused heavy casualties. About 80,000 Red Army soldiers were killed. On the German side, about 20,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians died.

On 24 April Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin was appointed the first Soviet city commandant of Berlin. He initially established his headquarters in the officers’ mess of the military engineering school in Karlshorst. At the beginning of May he and his staff moved to Friedrichsfelde.

Berzarin immediately set about organizing emergency food supplies and restoring infrastructure. He also ensured that a new city administration and cultural life were established. He issued orders intended to prevent assaults, looting and rape by Soviet soldiers.

Military commandants appointed in the various districts were supported by communist exiles brought from Moscow under the name “Ulbricht Group.” At the beginning of July the four victorious powers took control of their respective occupation sectors in Berlin.

Wounded people outside the Hotel Adlon, 2 May 1945. The hotel housed an emergency hospital. When it caught fire during an incursion by Soviet soldiers, Soviet and German medical personnel evacuated the wounded into the street. Photo: Ivan Shagin, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Soviet city commandant Colonel General Berzarin leaving the commandant’s office, Alt-Friedrichsfelde 1, Berlin, May 1945. Photo: Yevgeny Khaldei, bpk Bildagentur, Berlin.

THE FIRST SIGNING OF THE SURRENDER IN REIMS

Adolf Hitler committed suicide in Berlin on 30 April 1945. He had previously named Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Because the military situation was hopeless, Dönitz tried to negotiate a partial surrender to Great Britain and the United States. He sent General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, to the headquarters of the Western Allies in Reims, France.

American General Dwight D. Eisenhower regarded this as an attempt to split the alliance. He continued to demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of all German forces. Dönitz had to yield, and early on 7 May an agreement on the unconditional surrender of the entire German armed forces was reached in Reims.

In supplementary protocols all participants agreed that the surrender should be ratified in a second act by Germany’s highest-ranking military officers. To ensure an immediate end to the fighting, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the surrender the next day. It took effect on all fronts at 23:01 Central European Time on 8 May 1945.

Signing of the German surrender, Reims, 7 May 1945. German General Alfred Jodl (center foreground), Allied Chief of Staff General Walter Bedell Smith (at the rear table, third from left), Soviet liaison officer Major General Ivan Susloparov (fifth from left), and French representative Major General François Sevez (second from left). Photo: unknown, bpk Bildagentur, Berlin.
 

Undertaking to sign the Act of Military Surrender. Federal Archives–Military Archives, Freiburg im Breisgau.

THE SECOND SIGNING IN BERLIN

The second act of surrender was the most formally important stage of Germany’s complete capitulation. At Reims, the German signatories were not the commanders who bore actual operational responsibility for the German armed forces. The British in particular feared that German military leaders might later be tempted to shift responsibility for defeat, as had happened after the First World War.

The surrender was therefore ratified at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin. Marshal Georgy Zhukov, representing the Soviet Supreme Command, had established his headquarters in Karlshorst, a district east of the city, in the undamaged former engineering school of the German army. He invited representatives of the victorious Allied powers, now including France. The commanders-in-chief of the different branches of the German armed forces were summoned to Berlin.

Former officers’ mess of Wehrmacht Engineering School No. 1 and the site of Germany’s unconditional surrender in Berlin-Karlshorst, 8 May 1945. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

ARRIVAL AT TEMPELHOF

On 8 May 1945 all of the signatories to the surrender arrived at Tempelhof Airport. On the Allied side, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Vyshinsky landed in the morning. At noon he was joined by British Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder and U.S. Army Air Forces General Carl Spaatz. In the afternoon the commander-in-chief of the French Army, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, also arrived.

The German delegation flew from Flensburg aboard an American aircraft. The last government of the German Reich under Grand Admiral Dönitz had operated from there in early May.

Soviet soldiers received all of the guests at Tempelhof and drove them through the devastated city center to the largely intact residential district of Karlshorst.

The senior command of the German Wehrmacht after arrival at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, 8 May 1945. Photo: Ivan Shagin, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Oberbaum Bridge and warehouses, Berlin, 30 April 1945. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Reconstructed route taken by the delegations between Tempelhof and Karlshorst. Illustration: Christine Kitta.

PREPARING THE SIGNING

The large hall of the former officers’ mess of the engineering school was prepared at the last moment. In addition to the principal participants, numerous journalists, members of Allied military staffs, interpreters and assistants assembled there.

The ceremony was delayed for several hours. A Russian version of the document, which until then had existed only in English, had to be prepared. Stylistic adjustments were required, but the content of the document signed the previous day in Reims remained unchanged. Radio consultations prolonged the process.

There was also still no French flag at the rear of the hall. Only the Soviet, British and American flags had been installed, so the French flag had to be improvised from available pieces of fabric. In the end, all preparations were completed only around midnight.

View of the surrender hall, Berlin-Karlshorst, 8 May 1945. Photo: unknown, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

The delegation of the German High Command is led to the building where the surrender will be signed, Berlin-Karlshorst, 8 May 1945.

THE ACT OF SURRENDER

Only at midnight were all participants finally able to assemble for the long-awaited signing. At about 00:45 on 9 May, the commanders-in-chief of Germany’s land, naval and air forces — Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg and Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, representing Luftwaffe commander Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim — signed the Act of Military Surrender dated 8 May. Keitel was also head of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW).

The document was then signed by Air Chief Marshal Tedder for the Supreme Allied Command and Marshal Zhukov for the Soviet Supreme Command. U.S. Air Force General Spaatz and French General de Lattre de Tassigny signed as witnesses.

The ceremony lasted roughly three quarters of an hour. There were no political declarations; the act consisted solely of the signing. After the German delegation left the hall, Zhukov delivered a short speech. The banquet that followed continued until the early morning.

The German delegation enters the hall, Berlin-Karlshorst, 9 May 1945. Field Marshal Keitel salutes with his marshal’s baton. Photo: Ivan Shagin, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Commanders of the Wehrmacht. Seated from left: Colonel General Stumpff, Field Marshal Keitel, Admiral von Friedeburg. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Air Chief Marshal Tedder and Marshal Zhukov sign the Act of Surrender. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

During the banquet. Seated from left: Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Marshal Zhukov, General Spaatz. Photo: unknown, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

THE ACT OF SURRENDER

Copies of the Act of Surrender in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst. The original documents are preserved in the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau.

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.
 

Act of Surrender. Copies in English, Russian and German were signed at Karlshorst.

SOUVENIRS

“The photographers and cameramen have forgotten all restraint. They jump onto the tables, press their stomachs against the generals’ shoulders and fire away at them without stopping like machine guns… One of our cameramen strikes the head of an American admiral with his camera. The admiral, apparently accustomed to reporters’ excitement, chuckles and makes a dismissive gesture: ‘All right!’ But members of our security service, unfamiliar with these habits, would probably have thrown the poor fellow out.”

Excerpt from Konstantin M. Simonov, War Diaries, 2 vols., Berlin/GDR 1988, vol. II, p. 805.

“Keitel rose quickly, casting a hostile glance toward the presidium, then looked down, slowly picked up his marshal’s baton from the table and walked toward our table with an uncertain gait. His monocle fell and dangled from its cord; his face was covered with red blotches. … After signing, Keitel stood up, put on his right glove and again tried to assume the bearing of a dashing soldier. He did not succeed, and he silently returned to the table assigned to him.”

Excerpt from Georgy K. Zhukov, Memoirs and Reflections, 2 vols., Berlin/GDR 1983, vol. II, p. 363.

“And suddenly the tension that had been building breaks. It evaporates, as if they had all been holding their breath for a long time and now let it escape from their chests at the same moment. Everyone sighs with relief and exhaustion. The surrender is sealed; the war is over.”

Excerpt from Konstantin M. Simonov, War Diaries, vol. II, p. 807.

“An hour later we returned to the room where the surrender had been signed and found all the tables splendidly laid for a great banquet — enough food for at least six hours. Beside each table stood bottles: red wine, white wine, champagne, vodka and cognac, a quantity so lethal that it is hard to imagine. It was therefore not surprising that there were so many alcohol-related casualties. I was glad that not a single representative of Great Britain was among them.”

Excerpt from Arthur Tedder, With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, London 1966, p. 686.

“The banquet ended early in the morning with songs and dancing. In this the Soviet generals are incomparable. In the end I myself stopped resisting, felt younger, and successfully demonstrated a Russian folk dance.”

Excerpt from Georgy K. Zhukov, Memoirs and Reflections, vol. II, p. 364.

Photographers document Field Marshal Keitel’s signing of the surrender, Berlin-Karlshorst, 9 May 1945. Photo: Georgy Petrusov, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0422-0600-002.

REACTIONS

The surrender of the German armed forces in May 1945 brought only the war in Europe to an end. The Second World War itself ended only after Japan surrendered at the beginning of September 1945.

After Germany’s surrender was announced on 8 May, people around the world celebrated victory over German fascism. Spontaneous parades of jubilation took place in many cities — for example, in Moscow on 9 May, where the surrender was announced only after the signing in Berlin-Karlshorst.

Yet the official end of the war in Europe did not mean an end to suffering. Armed conflicts continued in Eastern Europe into the 1950s, particularly resistance to Soviet rule. The consequences of the war were immense across the continent. Many regions were devastated; hunger and hardship prevailed almost everywhere. The war caused about 60 million deaths. The Soviet Union alone lost more than 27 million people, including roughly 14 million civilians.

Although physical destruction was gradually repaired in the following years, the bodily and psychological consequences of the Second World War continue to affect people and societies to this day.

Improvised Victory Day celebration by Soviet soldiers in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery on the morning after the surrender was signed, Berlin, 9 May 1945. Photo: unknown, bpk Bildagentur, Berlin.
 

Crowds celebrating on Red Square in Moscow, 9 May 1945. Photo: Timofey Melnik, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Victory in Europe Day in London, 8 May 1945. Photo: unknown, bpk Bildagentur, Berlin.

“Yesterday morning the unforgettable happened. The Germans accepted complete and unconditional surrender. The newspapers reported it briefly, but solemnly.”

Thus wrote a Russian soldier in his diary on 10 May 1945. Excerpt from Vladimir Gelfand, Deutschland-Tagebuch 1945–1946. Aufzeichnungen eines Rotarmisten, Berlin 2005, p. 85.

“On 8 May we received the joyful news that the war was over and Germany had surrendered, exactly three years after the destruction of the Zhaludok ghetto. Everyone was very happy except us, the few refugees in the town. For us, and in our hearts, a tragedy was unfolding. We wandered aimlessly among the celebrating people. I was terribly anxious. Would I find anyone from my family alive? I had received not a single reply to the letters I had written, although four months had already passed since the liberation of my country. My fears grew with every minute.”

Moshe Beirach, account of a Jewish partisan, From the Ghetto into the Forests: Report of a Jewish Partisan 1939–1945, Frankfurt am Main, p. 184 ff.

“A few days after our return we heard shooting in the evening, like in the worst times. I began to tremble like a leaf. During the war I had behaved bravely, always remained calm, taking only what was essential when we went down to the cellar. And now, I thought, the front has returned. The Germans are coming back. And here we are again. I stuffed everything into a backpack. I cannot describe the state I was in. Someone shouted in the courtyard: ‘The Russians are setting off fireworks!’ They were firing everything they had into the air — fireworks, peaceful fireworks.”

Recollection of a woman from Prenzlauer Berg, quoted in Antonia Meiners, Berlin 1945: A Chronicle in Photographs, Berlin 2005, p. 70.

Victory celebrations in France, 8 May 1945. Photo: unknown, akg images, Berlin.
 

Victory in Europe Day in New York, 8 May 1945. Photo: unknown, akg images, Berlin.

LEGENDS AND FACTS

After 1945, the Cold War influenced interpretations of the two surrender ceremonies — in Reims and in Berlin-Karlshorst. Each side developed its own view of history. Some false claims and legends have persisted stubbornly to the present day.

Legend: The German armed forces surrendered on 7 May in Reims to the Western Allies and on 8 May in Karlshorst to the Soviet forces.
Fact: Both acts of surrender were signed in the presence of representatives of all the Allies — British, American and Soviet forces; French representatives were admitted as witnesses.

Legend: No surrender act was signed in Reims, only a preliminary protocol; the “real” act was signed only on 8 May in Karlshorst.
Fact: The surrender in Reims was legally valid. The Soviet Union also recognized it, although this was played down during the Cold War.

Legend: Stalin’s refusal to recognize the Reims surrender and his protests forced a second Karlshorst ceremony for public-relations reasons.
Fact: In Reims the German delegation had already signed a supplementary protocol providing for ratification by the commander-in-chief of the German armed forces and the commanders of the individual services. The British in particular insisted that Jodl’s signature — as a staff officer without direct operational command — be confirmed by officers who actually possessed operational authority.

Legend: Disagreements among the Allies over the wording of the act caused the signing to be delayed until after midnight.
Fact: The shift from the afternoon of 8 May to around midnight was caused by technical matters. At Reims only an English-language document had been signed; the Russian translation could be transmitted only in part. The signing took place at about 00:45 Central European Summer Time, 23:45 Western European Time; in Moscow it was already 02:45. The official announcement in Moscow on 9 May made that date the official day of the war’s end there.

KARLSHORST: BIRTHPLACE OF THE MUSEUM

In 1967 a museum opened at the historic site where the surrender had been signed. After 1945 the Soviet Army continued to use the former officers’ club. The building, known as the “Museum of the Surrender,” was created for Soviet servicemen stationed in the GDR, but it was also open to the general public.

With the withdrawal of Soviet/Russian forces, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Russian Federation jointly decided in 1994 to preserve the museum building. The exhibition, however, was to be fundamentally reconceived.

The new museum opened in May 1995 under the auspices of an association initially comprising German and Russian institutions. In the following years, museums concerned with the history of Ukraine and Belarus during the Second World War joined the partnership.

Since 24 February 2022, when Russia dramatically expanded its war against Ukraine in violation of international law, the museum has faced fundamental questions: What should a durable institutional foundation look like in the future? What conceptual and substantive changes are necessary? These questions are currently the subject of active reflection.

Museum foyer in 1967, 1995 and 2013. Photos: Jürgen Querbach (1991/92), Margot Blank (1995/96), Thomas Bruns (2013), Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
 

Museum foyer in 1967, 1995 and 2013.
 

Museum foyer in 1967, 1995 and 2013.
 

View of the museum building, May 2022. Photo: Harry Schnitger, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

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Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
Director: Dr. Jörg Morré
Concept: Dr. Babette Quinkert
Curators: Margot Blank, Dr. Jörg Morré, Dr. Babette Quinkert
Exhibition design: Christine Kitta
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