Matthias Erzberger, the new secretary of state, had signed the armistice of Compiègne, in which Germany unconditionally surrendered. In 1918, as the German Empire had teetered on the brink of defeat, it collapsed and was replaced by a parliamentary republic. Photograph by Reg Speller, Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty (Left) and Photograph by Picture Post, Hulton Archive/Getty (Right) Pat Burgess, left, waves a newspaper proclaiming Allied victory in hope that her husband would soon return from fighting in Germany. Londoners celebrate Germany's surrender on May 8, 1945-one day before Germany's second, and final, surrender in Berlin. Stalin opposed the location of the signing, too: Since Berlin had been the capital of the Third Reich, he argued, it should be the site of its surrender.īut Stalin’s third objection-that Jodl was not Germany’s most senior military official-would prove the most convincing to the rest of the Allies, all of whom remembered how the signing of the armistice that ended World War I had helped plant the seeds of the next world war. had sacrificed the most troops and civilians during the war, its most important military commander should accept Germany’s surrender rather than the Soviet officer who had witnessed the signing in Reims. When Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin heard that Germany had signed an unconditional surrender of all its troops in Reims, he was furious. On May 7, Jodl signed an unconditional “Act of Military Surrender” and a ceasefire that would go into effect at 11:01 p.m.
( Hear stories from the last living voices of WWII.) Eisenhower saw through the ruse, though, and insisted Jodl sign an instrument of surrender without negotiations. He also hoped to convince the United States, Britain, and France, all of whom distrusted the U.S.S.R., to turn against the Soviet Union so that Germany might continue its war on that front. Unauthorized use is prohibited.ĭönitz hoped negotiations would buy him time to get as many German people and troops as possible out of the path of the advancing Russians. He quickly deputized Alfred Jodl, chief of the operations staff of the Armed Forces High Command, to negotiate the surrender of all German forces with General Dwight D. Dönitz was doomed not to rule a new Germany, but rather to orchestrate its dissolution. Hitler had designated Karl Dönitz, a naval admiral and ardent Nazi, as his successor in the event of his death. But it was still unclear how the military or political surrender signing would be orchestrated by the time Adolf Hitler died by suicide in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, and his dictatorship reached a bloody end. Due to warring ideologies, tussles between the Soviet Union and its allies, and the legacy of the First World War, Germany actually surrendered twice.Īs an Allied victory looked more and more certain in 19, the United States, U.S.S.R., France, and the United Kingdom bounced around ideas on the terms of a German surrender. Or did it happen on May 9 in Berlin instead?īoth are true. On May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II and the Third Reich.