The document obligated German military personnel to cease resistance, surrender personnel and transfer equipment armed forces to the enemy, which actually meant Germany's exit from the war. The Soviet leadership did not arrange such a signing, therefore, at the request of the USSR government and personally Comrade Stalin on May 8 ( May 9, USSR time) the Act of Surrender of Germany was signed for the second time, but in Berlin, and the day of the official announcement of its signing ( May 8 in Europe and America, May 9 in the USSR) began to be celebrated as Victory Day.

Act of unconditional surrender of the German armed forces. (wikipedia.org)

The idea of ​​Germany's unconditional surrender was first announced by President Roosevelt on January 13, 1943 at a conference in Casablanca and has since become the official position of the United Nations.

Representatives of the German command approach the table to sign the surrender. (pinterest.ru)

The general capitulation of Germany was preceded by a series of partial capitulations of the largest formations remaining with the Third Reich: On April 29, 1945, the act of surrender of Army Group C (in Italy) was signed in Caserta by its commander, Colonel General G. Fitingof-Scheel.

On May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison under the command of Helmut Weidling capitulated to the Red Army.

On May 4, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Fleet Admiral Hans-Georg Friedeburg, signed the act of surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and North-West Germany to the 21st Army Group of Field Marshal B. Montgomery.

On May 5, Infantry General F. Schultz, who commanded Army Group G, operating in Bavaria and Western Austria, capitulated to the American General D. Devers.

The leadership of the USSR was dissatisfied with the signing of the German surrender in Reims, which was not agreed upon with the USSR and relegated the country that made the greatest contribution to the Victory to the background. At Stalin's suggestion, the allies agreed to consider the procedure in Reims a preliminary surrender. Although a group of 17 journalists attended the surrender signing ceremony, the US and Britain agreed to delay the public announcement of the surrender so that the Soviet Union could prepare a second surrender ceremony in Berlin, which took place on 8 May.

Signing of the surrender in Reims. (pinterest.ru)

The Soviet representative, General Susloparov, signed the act in Reims at his own peril and risk, since instructions from the Kremlin had not yet arrived at the time appointed for signing. He decided to put his signature with a reservation (Article 4) that this act should not exclude the possibility of signing another act at the request of one of the allied countries. Soon after signing the act, Susloparov received a telegram from Stalin with a categorical ban on signing the surrender.

After signing the act of surrender. (wikipedia.org)

For his part, Stalin said: “ The treaty signed in Reims cannot be canceled, but it cannot be recognized either. Surrender must be carried out as the most important historical act and accepted not on the territory of the victors, but where the fascist aggression came from - in Berlin, and not unilaterally, but necessarily by the high command of all countries anti-Hitler coalition ».

The Soviet delegation before signing the act. (pinterest.ru)

The building in the suburbs of Berlin where the signing ceremony was held. (pinterest.ru)

Zhukov reads out the act of surrender. (pinterest.ru)

On May 8 at 22:43 Central European time (at 00:43, May 9 Moscow) in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, in the building of the former canteen of the military engineering school, the final Act of the unconditional surrender of Germany was signed.

Keitel signs the surrender. (pinterest.ru)

The changes in the text of the act were as follows:

In the English text, the expression Soviet High Command was replaced by a more accurate translation of the Soviet term: Supreme High Command of the Red Army.

The part of Article 2, which deals with the obligation of the Germans to hand over military equipment intact, has been expanded and detailed.

The indication of the act of May 7 was withdrawn: “Only this text on English is authoritative" and Article 6 was inserted, which read: "This act is drawn up in Russian, English and German languages. Only Russian and English text s are authentic."

After signing the act of unconditional surrender. (wikipedia.org)

By agreement between the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, an agreement was reached to consider the procedure in Reims preliminary. This is exactly how it was interpreted in the USSR, where the significance of the act of May 7 was belittled in every possible way, and the act itself was hushed up, while in the West it is regarded as the actual signing of capitulation, and the act in Karlshorst as its ratification.

Lunch in honor of the Victory after signing the terms of unconditional surrender.

Having accepted the surrender, the Soviet Union did not sign peace with Germany, that is, formally remained in a state of war. The decree to end the state of war was adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR only on January 25, 1955.

The German command signed the act of surrender late at night on May 7 in Reims. Moreover, the Act was supposed to come into force at 23:01 on May 8. But Soviet General Ivan Susloparov, who signed it, acted at his own peril and risk. Immediately after this, Susloparov received a telegram from Moscow with a categorical ban on signing the Act. But the deed had already been done, and the Soviet government immediately contacted the allies, protesting against the signing of the document not by the top leadership of the German armed forces, but by minor figures. The Allies found the USSR's arguments convincing and agreed to a repeat ceremony the next day, but with a more representative composition and with minor changes to the text.

On May 8 at 22:43 Central European time in the suburbs of Berlin, the commanders of the German military branches signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany - in the presence of representatives of the command of the anti-Hitler coalition troops. The start date of the Act did not change, so the surrender announced the day before on German radio began virtually immediately after the signing of the document. Due to the time difference (in Moscow at the time of signing it was already 00:43 on May 9), the end date of the war in former USSR, Europe and the USA are considered differently. Here it is May 9, in the West it is May 8.

Immediately after receiving news of the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender, on the same night, the Soviet government issued a decree to celebrate Victory Day on May 9 as the first peaceful day after the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War.

Only a year later a similar holiday appeared in other states. Naturally, with the date of celebration on May 8th. In England, France and the USA it is called Victory Day in Europe. And May 9 Western Europe celebrates Europe Day. But it is dedicated to a completely different event: it was on this day in 1950 that French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, from which the European Union later grew...

The situation that developed in March-April 1945, when the Red Army stood only 60 kilometers from Berlin, greatly worried England. Such successful Soviet offensives jeopardized British plans for a post-war world order, in which London assigned itself a dominant position in Europe. Despite the fact that the vast majority of German troops fought on Eastern Front, while not offering the strongest resistance to the Anglo-French-American troops, the Allies did not move forward as quickly as they wanted on the shores of Albion. And, although the borders of the occupation of Germany were approved back in Yalta, the British were eager to be the first to enter Berlin, which would diminish the role of the USSR in the victory and, on the contrary, elevate their role.

Recently declassified English archives have revealed the most unsightly page of the activities of the British of those days. In April 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the development of an operation plan that would “impose the will of the United States and the British Empire on the Russians.” The operation was called "Operation Unthinkable". It must be said that the name most accurately characterizes the idea of ​​the British.

British planners, no less, planned for July 1, 1945, an Anglo-American-German military strike against Soviet troops. 47 British and American divisions supported by carefully preserved and armed British 10-12 German divisions without declaring war they were supposed to strike at the positions of the Red Army.
“They are rejoicing... They think the war is over. But the real war is just beginning,” Kennan, adviser to the American Embassy in Moscow, wrote in his diary on May 9.

The war was really planned to be serious. It was planned to overthrow those who had relaxed after the Victory with a strike in northern Germany Soviet troops and drive them away to Poland by September. After this, Poles, Hungarians, as well as other states that had recently been allies of Germany were supposed to join the fighting. Using the overwhelming advantage in aviation, massive air raids were to turn the most important Soviet centers into ruins, like Dresden: Leningrad, Moscow, Murmansk. The multiple advantage of the British at sea guaranteed the safety of supply lines, and the deterioration of Soviet equipment (as it seemed to the planners) guaranteed a quick victory in the war, which was planned to end on the Arkhangelsk-Stalingrad line.

The date of the attack was not chosen by chance. Even in Yalta, Stalin announced that the USSR would enter the war with Japan on August 8, 1945, and already in June the transfer of our troops from Germany to Far East. But the “Unthinkable” went unforeseen: at the end of June, Marshal Zhukov unexpectedly regrouped the Soviet troops located in Germany, which confused all the cards for the British. The power of Soviet technology that stormed Berlin and the “accidental” salvo from Katyusha rockets at Allied positions on the eve of the end of the war raised doubts about the success of the operation in the hearts of many Allied generals.
The American military, who feared excessive losses in the war with Japan without Soviet support, was categorically against the attack on the USSR, supported by the new American President Harry Truman. As a result, the plan for the treacherous attack was sent to a secret storage facility, from where it was only released into the public domain a few years ago. State Archive UK.

On May 8, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst at 22:43 Central European time (May 9 at 0:43 Moscow time), the final Act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and its armed forces was signed. But historically, the Berlin act of surrender was not the first.

When Soviet troops surrounded Berlin, the military leadership of the Third Reich was faced with the question of preserving the remnants of Germany. This was possible only by avoiding unconditional surrender. Then it was decided to capitulate only to the Anglo-American troops, but to continue fighting against the Red Army.

The Germans sent representatives to the Allies to formally confirm the surrender. On the night of May 7, in the French city of Reims, the act of surrender of Germany was concluded, according to which, from 11 p.m. on May 8, hostilities ceased on all fronts. The protocol stipulated that it was not a comprehensive agreement on the surrender of Germany and its armed forces.

However, the Soviet Union put forward a demand for unconditional surrender as the only condition for ending the war. Stalin considered the signing of the act in Reims only a preliminary protocol and was dissatisfied that the act of Germany’s surrender was signed in France, and not in the capital of the aggressor state. Moreover, the fighting on the Soviet-German front was still ongoing.

At the insistence of the leadership of the USSR, representatives of the Allies reconvened in Berlin and, together with the Soviet side, signed another Act of Surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. The parties agreed that the first act will be called preliminary, and the second - final.

The final Act of unconditional surrender of Germany and its armed forces was signed on behalf of the German Wehrmacht by Field Marshal W. Keitel, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Von Friedeburg, and Colonel General of Aviation G. Stumpf. The USSR was represented by the Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Soviet Union G. Zhukov, allies - British Air Chief Marshal A. Tedder. U.S. Army General Spaatz and French Army Commander-in-Chief General Tassigny were present as witnesses.

The ceremonial signing of the act took place under the chairmanship of Marshal Zhukov, and the signing ceremony itself took place in the building of the military engineering school, where a special hall was prepared, decorated with the state flags of the USSR, USA, England and France. At the main table were representatives of the Allied powers. Present in the hall Soviet generals, whose troops took Berlin, as well as journalists from many countries.

After the unconditional surrender of Germany, the Wehrmacht government was dissolved, and German troops on the Soviet-German front began to lay down their arms. In total, from May 9 to May 17, the Red Army captured about 1.5 million enemy soldiers and officers and 101 generals based on the act of surrender. This is how the Great Patriotic War ended Soviet people.

In the USSR, the surrender of Germany was announced on the night of May 9, 1945, and by order of I. Stalin, a grandiose salute of a thousand guns was given in Moscow on that day. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in commemoration of the victorious completion of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders and the historical victories of the Red Army, May 9 was declared Victory Day.

73 years ago, on May 8, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlhorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Armed Forces was signed.

In April 1945, Soviet troops closed the ring around Berlin, and the fascist German military leadership was faced with the question of preserving the integrity of Germany. However, the generals of the German army wanted to capitulate only to the Anglo-American troops and continue the war with the USSR.

On May 7, 1945, in Reims (France), the first act of surrender of Germany was signed at the headquarters of the commander of the Western Allies, US Army General Dwight Eisenhower. The document was signed on behalf of the German High Command by the Chief of Operations Staff of the High Command of the German Armed Forces, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, on behalf of the Anglo-American side - Lieutenant General of the US Army, Chief of the General Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Walter Bedell Smith, on behalf of the USSR - a representative Headquarters of the Supreme High Command under the Allied Command, Major General Ivan Susloparov. As a witness, the Act was signed by the Deputy Chief of the French National Defense Staff, Brigadier General Francois Sevez. The surrender of Nazi Germany took effect on May 8 at 23:01 Central European Time. The document stipulated that it was not a comprehensive agreement on the surrender of Germany and its armed forces.

For its part, the Soviet Union believed that the only condition for ending the war was the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Joseph Stalin was unhappy that the Act of Surrender was signed in France and not in the German capital, and considered the signing of the document in Reims only a preliminary protocol.

At the insistence of the leadership of the USSR, representatives of the Allies reconvened in the suburbs of Berlin and on May 8, 1945 signed another Act of Surrender of Germany

The solemn ceremony of its signing took place in the building of the military engineering school in a special hall, which was decorated with the state flags of the USSR, USA, England and France.

The act of unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed by: Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov; Chief of the Wehrmacht Supreme Command, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Luftwaffe representative Colonel General Hans Stumpf and Kriegsmarine (Navy) representative Admiral Hans von Friedeburg; Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Marshal Arthur Tedder (Great Britain). General Karl Spaats (USA) and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France) put their signatures on the document as witnesses.

The procedure for signing the unconditional surrender ended on May 8 at 22:43 Central European time (May 9 at 0:43 Moscow time). After the signing, the Nazi government was dissolved and the troops completely laid down their arms.

The date of the official announcement of the signing of surrender is May 8 - in Europe and America, May 9 - in Russia, is celebrated as Victory Day.

In the last months of the existence of the fascist regime in Germany, Hitler's elite intensified numerous attempts to save Nazism by concluding a separate peace with the Western powers. German generals wanted to capitulate to the Anglo-American troops, continuing the war with the USSR. To sign the surrender in Reims (France), where the headquarters of the commander of the Western Allies, US Army General Dwight Eisenhower, was located, the German command sent a special group that tried to achieve a separate surrender on Western Front, but the allied governments did not consider it possible to enter into such negotiations. Under these conditions, the German envoy Alfred Jodl agreed to the final signing of the act of surrender, having previously received permission from the German leadership, but the authority given to Jodl retained the wording to conclude a “truce agreement with General Eisenhower’s headquarters.”

On May 7, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed for the first time in Reims. On behalf of the German High Command it was signed by the Chief of Operations Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, on the Anglo-American side by Lieutenant General of the US Army, Chief of the General Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Walter Bedell Smith, on behalf of the USSR - by a representative of the Supreme High Command Headquarters at Allied command, Major General Ivan Susloparov. The Act was also signed by the Deputy Chief of the French National Defense Staff, Brigadier General Francois Sevez, as a witness. The surrender of Nazi Germany came into force on May 8 at 23.01 Central European Time (May 9 at 01.01 Moscow Time). The document was drawn up in English, and only the English text was recognized as official.

The Soviet representative, General Susloparov, who by this time had not received instructions from the Supreme High Command, signed the act with the caveat that this document should not exclude the possibility of signing another act at the request of one of the allied countries.

The text of the act of surrender signed in Reims differed from the document long ago developed and agreed upon between the allies. The document, entitled "Unconditional Surrender of Germany", was approved by the US government on August 9, 1944, by the USSR government on August 21, 1944, and by the British government on September 21, 1944, and was an extensive text of fourteen clearly worded articles in which, in addition to the military terms of surrender, it was also said that the USSR, USA and England “will have supreme power in relation to Germany” and will present additional political, administrative, economic, financial, military and other demands. In contrast, the text signed at Reims was brief, containing only five articles and dealing exclusively with the issue of surrender. German armies on the battlefield.

After this, the West considered the war to be over. On this basis, the United States and Great Britain proposed that on May 8 the leaders of the three powers officially declare victory over Germany. The Soviet government did not agree and demanded the signing of an official act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, since fighting on the Soviet-German front was still ongoing. The German side, forced to sign the Reims Act, immediately violated it. German Chancellor Admiral Karl Doenitz ordered German troops on the Eastern Front to retreat to the west as quickly as possible, and, if necessary, fight their way there.

Stalin said that the Act must be solemnly signed in Berlin: “The agreement signed in Reims cannot be canceled, but it cannot be recognized either. Surrender must be carried out as the most important historical act and accepted not on the territory of the victors, but where fascist aggression came from , - in Berlin, and not unilaterally, but necessarily by the high command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition." After this statement, the Allies agreed to hold a ceremony for the second signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany and its armed forces in Berlin.

Since it was not easy to find a whole building in the destroyed Berlin, they decided to carry out the procedure for signing the act in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst in the building where the club of the fortification school of sappers of the German Wehrmacht used to be located. There was a hall prepared for this purpose.

The acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from the Soviet side was entrusted to the Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov. Under the protection of British officers, a German delegation was brought to Karlshorst, which had the authority to sign an act of unconditional surrender.

On May 8, at exactly 22:00 Central European time (24:00 Moscow time), representatives of the Soviet Supreme High Command, as well as the Allied High Command, entered the hall decorated with the national flags of the Soviet Union, the USA, England and France. Present in the hall were Soviet generals, whose troops took part in the legendary storming of Berlin, as well as Soviet and foreign journalists. The ceremony of signing the act was opened by Marshal Zhukov, who welcomed representatives of the allied armies to the busy Soviet Army Berlin.

After this, on his orders, the German delegation was brought into the hall. At the suggestion of the Soviet representative, the head of the German delegation presented a document on his powers, signed by Doenitz. The German delegation was then asked whether it had the Act of Unconditional Surrender in its hands and whether it had studied it. After an affirmative answer, representatives of the German armed forces, at the sign of Marshal Zhukov, signed an act drawn up in nine copies (three copies each in Russian, English and German). Then representatives of the allied forces put their signatures. On behalf of the German side, the act was signed by: the head of the Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the representative of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) Colonel General Hans Stumpf and the representative of the Kriegsmarine (Naval Forces) Admiral Hans von Friedeburg. The unconditional surrender was accepted by Marshal Georgy Zhukov (from the Soviet side) and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Marshal Arthur Tedder (Great Britain). General Karl Spaats (USA) and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France) put their signatures as witnesses. The document stipulated that only English and Russian texts were authentic. One copy of the act was immediately handed to Keitel. Another original copy of the act on the morning of May 9 was delivered by plane to the Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the Red Army.

The procedure for signing the surrender ended on May 8 at 22.43 Central European time (May 9 at 0.43 Moscow time). Finally, in the same building, a large reception was held for representatives of the Allies and guests, which lasted until the morning.

After the signing of the act, the German government was dissolved, and the defeated German troops completely laid down their arms.

The date of the official announcement of the signing of surrender (May 8 in Europe and America, May 9 in the USSR) began to be celebrated as Victory Day in Europe and the USSR, respectively.

A complete copy (i.e. in three languages) of the Instrument of Military Surrender of Germany, as well as original document with the signature of Doenitz, certifying the powers of Keitel, Friedeburg and Stumpf, are stored in the fund of international treaty acts of the Archive foreign policy Russian Federation. Another original copy of the act is located in Washington in the US National Archives.

The document signed in Berlin is, with the exception of unimportant details, a repetition of the text signed in Reims, but it was important that the German command surrendered in Berlin itself.

The act also contained an article that provided for the replacement of the signed text with “another general document of surrender.” Such a document, called the “Declaration of the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Power by the Governments of the Four Allied Powers,” was signed on June 5, 1945 in Berlin by the four Allied Commanders-in-Chief. It almost entirely reproduced the text of the document on unconditional surrender, developed in London by the European Advisory Commission and approved by the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain in 1944.

Now, where the signing of the act took place, the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst is located.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources