7-8 May: Capitulation of the German Wehrmacht Armed Forces

Germany has been beaten on all fronts. The Wehrmacht can only hold small parts of the former ‘Greater German Reich’. On May 7, General Alfred Jodl signs the instruments of unconditional surrender at the Allied Headquarters in Reims, as the representative of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, the successor to the Führer after Hitler’s suicide on 30 April. For protocol reasons, the ceremony is repeated on 8 May at the headquarters of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin-Karlshorst.