25T44 Berlin Karlshorst: the museum of complete capitulation

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E43, B38.

As Nazi Germany turned Europe to ruin and ash, fighting on two fronts became infeasible: it was only a matter of time. When Allied troops began converging onto Berlin by late-April to early-May of 1945, the German military would be given zero options: the Allies demanded unconditional surrender.

One signing took place in France’s Reims on 7 May 1945 in the presence . On the night of 8-9 May, a second signing took place in the presence of Soviet military leaders in Karlshorst, about 11 km southeast from Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building. Both signings meant total surrender by Germany, and hostilities on all fronts in Europe had come to an end, which is why 8 May is remembered annually as V-E day or Victory in Europe day.

Today, the modest officers’ club building for the occasion of the second signing is now the Museum Berlin Karlshorst, which has seen plenty of changes from war’s end to the partition of Germany, to East Germany’s political ties to the Soviet Union, and to subsequent reunification of the 2 Germanys in 1990.

In line with evolving educational needs for the 21st-century, the museum commemorates not only the building and its grand hall, but also aspects of the 2nd World War specific to the Soviet Union: the prelude to war, massive losses of both soldiers and civilians, actions and abuses by the Soviet Red Army, trauma on survivors lingering from years to decades.

The museum is free of charge, and open to the public Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm.

The 2nd signing for Germany’s unconditional surrender took place here on the night of 8 May 1945.
Similar view 80 years later, in 2025.
If symbols are key, flying the Ukraine flag today is definitely one of them.
This memorial plaque appears on the exterior front wall: “On 8-9 May 1945, Germany signed their unconditional surrender within this building.”
8 to 9 May 1945.
The building’s grand hall, where the Karlshorst signing for Germany’s unconditional surrender took place.
At the head table (background-centre) with the Allied nations, from left to right, respectively: United Kingdom, Soviet Union, United States of America, and France.
With the shell of the Reichstag in flame and ruin, Red Army soldiers (lower centre) carry the Soviet flag towards the Reichstag in a picture dated 2 May 1945. As a big prize in conquering and securing Berlin, the Red Army had already raised the Soviet flag on the Reichstag on 30 April 1945. Photo correspondent Ivan Shagin.
Raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag is a famous photograph, but this photograph had been restaged for political and military purposes on 2 May 1945. Photo correspondent Yevgeniy Khaldey, bpk/Voller Ernst, Berlin
Children’s shoes from Majdanek concentration camp near Poland’s Lublin, 1944. An estimated 170-thousand people were murdered at Majdanek between 1942 and 1944, before Soviet forces liberated the camp on 23 July 1944. Soviets also secured various pieces of physical evidence, including these shoes. (Military Medicine Museum, St. Petersburg)
Near the building’s front entrance are a memorial and ex-Soviet army tank T-34 with two words painted in white:
“за родину!” (for the homeland!)

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 20 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

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