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Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signs the Act of Military Surrender at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, in the night of 8 to 9 May 1945. US Army photograph by Lt. Moore, in Adam Cuerden’s restoration.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (NARA 111-SC-206292), restored by Adam Cuerden. Public domain.

Reims · Karlshorst · 7 May – 9 May 1945

Germany surrendered twice. The second paper says 8 May. In Moscow it was already 9 May.

The Wehrmacht signed its unconditional surrender at Reims in the small hours of 7 May 1945, and again, a night later, in a Berlin officers’ mess, before the same four Allies. The second document is dated 8 May. Exactly when it was signed is disputed by two hours, but on Moscow’s clocks every account falls on 9 May.

02:41local
Reims, 7 May: the time written on the first act
23:01CET
8 May: the ceasefire both acts set
22:43–00:45CET
the Berlin signatures, by the Soviet and the museum accounts
44–47hours
between the first and the second signature

01The first signature

At Reims, a Soviet general signed too

The first surrender was signed in a converted school in Reims, Eisenhower’s headquarters. Colonel General Alfred Jodl, for the German High Command put his name to it; Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, for the Supreme Commander and Major General Ivan Susloparov, for the Soviet High Command signed beneath, with Major General François Sevez, French witness. It was not a Western surrender with a Soviet onlooker: both acts were signed before representatives of all the Allies.

Why sign a second time, then? Jodl was chief of staff, not a commander. At Reims the Germans also signed a protocol promising a ratification by the commanders of the Wehrmacht and its three services. The British in particular insisted on it. The two archives that tell the story read it differently:

Museum Berlin-Karlshorst“The surrender at Reims was legally effective. The Soviet Union saw it so too, though this was kept quiet in the Cold War.” It calls the story that Stalin’s protest forced a second ceremony a legend.
US National Archives“The Soviet command refused to accept the Act of Military Surrender, and demanded a second ceremony on German soil.”
Three German officers sit at a long table in a map-lined room, one of them signing; Allied officers and photographers stand around them.
Jodl signs at Reims, 7 May 1945; Admiral von Friedeburg sits at his left, Major Wilhelm Oxenius at his right.Photographer not recorded, 1945. NARA 195338, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
A typed page with the handwritten words Rheims France, 0241 and 7th, and four signatures beneath.
The signature page of the Reims act: “Signed at Rheims France at 0241 on the 7th day of May, 1945”, by Jodl; beneath, Smith and Susloparov for the Allied commands, and Sevez as witness.Act of Military Surrender, Reims, 7 May 1945. U.S. National Archives, NAID 1747981. Public domain.
Smiling Allied officers in a row in front of flags, one holding two fountain pens in a V.
Allied commanders at Reims shortly after the signing; Eisenhower holds up the pens, Susloparov at far left, Tedder at right.US Army Signal Corps, 1945. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

02Two days on two clocks

The ceasefire came before the signatures, and Moscow’s midnight came before both

Both acts name one clock, Central European Time. The axis below runs on it, with Moscow, two hours ahead in the conversions of both the Soviet and the museum account, marked underneath. Where the sources disagree, the mark is a range.

Reims to Karlshorst, 7 May – 9 May, on Central European Time

A time axis from the night of the Reims signature to the early hours after the Berlin signature, on Central European Time, with Moscow time marked underneath, ahead of it. Marks show the Reims signature, the day the delegations flew into Berlin, the ceasefire written into both acts, and the Berlin signature as a range between the official Soviet time and the museum's time. Moscow's midnight falls before every reading of the Berlin signature.
German signaturesAlliedMoscow
A typed page with the handwritten words Rheims France, 0241 and 7th, and four signatures beneath.
The Reims act: “at 0241”.Act of Military Surrender, Reims, 7 May 1945. U.S. National Archives, NAID 1747981. Public domain.

7 May · Reims

The first signature

The act reads “at 0241” with no time zone. NARA calls it local time, and French clocks then ran an hour ahead of CET: so 01:41–02:41 CET.

A Soviet general signs a document at a table, flanked by an American and a British officer, a map on the wall behind.
Major General Ivan Susloparov signs at Reims for the Soviet High Command, with Carl Spaatz at his left.US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27463). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

7 May · Reims

Susloparov signs for Moscow

The Soviet liaison general signs for the Soviet High Command. With him, Germany is committed to stop fighting everywhere.

A British air officer walks past a line of Soviet soldiers presenting arms on an airfield.
Tedder inspects a Soviet guard of honour on landing at Tempelhof, 8 May 1945.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27417). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

8 May · Tempelhof

The delegations fly in

Vyshinsky lands in the morning, Tedder and Spaatz at midday, de Lattre in the afternoon. The Germans are flown in from Flensburg in an American aircraft. President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill announce the surrender.

A typed page headed Act of Military Surrender with two numbered clauses.
Clause 2: “2301 hours Central European time”.Act of Military Surrender, Berlin, 8 May 1945, page 1. U.S. National Archives, NAID 6943512. Public domain.

8 May · 23:01 CET

The guns stop first

Both acts set the ceasefire for 23:01 CET, already 01:01 on 9 May in Moscow. In Karlshorst the hall is not ready: a Russian text has to be agreed by radio, and a French flag sewn from scraps.

A crowded hall with long tables; photographers lean over a seated German officer.
The hall during the signing, 8/9 May 1945: photographers crowd round Keitel at the German table.Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0422-0600-002 / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Night of 8 May – 9 May

A two-hour dispute

The official Soviet time is 22:43 CET, 00:43 in Moscow. The museum says about 00:45 on 9 May, 02:45 in Moscow. The ceremony took about 45 minutes.

A young man in glasses reads from papers into microphones at a desk in a wood-panelled studio.
The radio announcer Yuri Levitan reads the Act of Surrender to the Soviet Union, 9 May 1945.Fyodor Kislov, 1945. Moscow Main Archive / mos.ru, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

9 May · Moscow

Already the next day in Moscow

Moscow’s midnight had passed before either reading. Moscow announced the surrender only after Karlshorst, and 9 May counts there as the war’s official end.

03The paper

Seven signatures, and a date nobody corrected

This is the American copy of the Berlin act, kept by the US National Archives. English, Russian and German; the English and Russian the only authentic texts. The date was written in by hand.

The Berlin act, signature page (US copy)

Act of Military Surrender, Berlin, 8 May 1945. U.S. National Archives, NAID 6943512. Public domain.

The date

“the 8 day of May”

“Signed at Berlin on the 8 day of May, 1945”: the day was filled in by hand. By the museum’s account, the ink went on after midnight.

Two German officers stand at the table, one holding up a baton; Soviet officers behind them.
Stumpff and Keitel stand up after signing; von Friedeburg behind them. Keitel raises his marshal’s baton.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27437). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

For the German High Command

Keitel

Wilhelm Keitel, Field Marshal, chief of the OKW, for the army. Zhukov watched him walk up: “His monocle fell and dangled on its cord; red blotches spread over his face.”

A German admiral in a dark uniform with broad sleeve stripes signs at the table, an officer leaning over to hold the paper.
General-Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signs for the navy.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27430). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

For the German High Command

Friedeburg

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, General-Admiral, for the navy. He had signed the surrender at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May and sat beside Jodl at Reims.

A German Luftwaffe general signs at the table while Soviet and German officers watch closely.
Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff signs for the Luftwaffe.US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27431). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

For the German High Command

Stumpff

Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, Colonel-General, for the Luftwaffe, standing in for its commander von Greim.

A British air marshal and a Soviet marshal sit side by side at a table, the Soviet marshal reading a sheet.
Tedder and Zhukov at the head table in Karlshorst with the act before them.US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27436). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

In the presence of

Tedder

Arthur Tedder, Air Chief Marshal, for the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force: Eisenhower’s deputy.

A Soviet marshal with rows of medals signs at the table, an officer standing beside him.
Marshal Georgy Zhukov signs for the Supreme High Command of the Red Army.US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27435). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

In the presence of

Zhukov

Georgy Zhukov, Marshal, for the Supreme High Command of the Red Army. On this American copy his signature has all but faded.

Three generals in different uniforms talk in front of a building.
Spaatz, de Lattre de Tassigny and Susloparov at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin before the signing.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27425). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Witnesses

De Lattre and Spaatz

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, General, First French Army, witness; Carl Spaatz, General, US Strategic Air Forces, witness. France now sat among the victors.

04Three tables, five days

Three men were in the room at Reims and again at Karlshorst

Friedeburg sat at all three German surrenders of that week. Spaatz and Susloparov were at the table at Reims and again in Berlin. Each mark sits at its true time on one scale; the two signings are drawn across the hours their sources allow.

Who was at which table, 4 May – 9 May

signedsigned as witnesspresentGermanWestern AlliedSoviet

Reims and Karlshorst are drawn across the range of their documented times; Lüneburg Heath is known by its date only. Presence is taken from the US Army captions and the acts.

A British air officer walks past a line of Soviet soldiers presenting arms on an airfield.
Tedder inspects a Soviet guard of honour on landing at Tempelhof, 8 May 1945.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27417). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Three generals in different uniforms talk in front of a building.
Spaatz, de Lattre de Tassigny and Susloparov at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin before the signing.Lt. Moore, US Army Signal Corps, 1945 (SC-111-27425). National Museum of the U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

05The house

The officers’ mess where the war ended is now a museum with free entry

The building went up in 1936/38 as the officers’ casino of the Wehrmacht’s Pionierschule I. Its hall survived the war intact; it is still there, and it is the heart of the museum. From 1945 to 1949 it was the seat of the head of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.

The Soviet army opened its own museum here in 1967, the “Museum der bedingungslosen Kapitulation des faschistischen Deutschlands im Großen Vaterländischen Krieg 1941–1945”. After the troops left, a German–Russian association refounded it; it opened on 10 May 1995. Since 24 February 2022 only the Ukrainian flag flies outside, and the words “German-Russian” have gone from its name. Entry is free.

A plain two-storey building with a pillared porch, flagpoles in front.
The former officers’ casino, today the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, in 2013. The flags of the four member countries flew outside until 24 February 2022.Anagoria, 2013. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.

The house, year by year

Bars on one year scale. The casino was built 1936/38; the museum was founded in 1994 and has been run since 1997/98 by an association that also includes Ukrainian and Belarusian museums.

A crowded hall with long tables; photographers lean over a seated German officer.
The hall during the signing, 8/9 May 1945: photographers crowd round Keitel at the German table.Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0422-0600-002 / CC BY-SA 3.0 de
A high hall with long green-covered tables and red chairs, four national flags on the end wall under a chandelier.
The same hall in 2010, with the tables and the four flags restored.Grahamdubya, 2010. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.

The surrender signed in Karlshorst says 8 May, the day London, Paris and New York celebrated. Moscow heard the news on 9 May, and keeps its Victory Day then.

“The surrender is sealed, the war is over.” — Konstantin Simonov, in the hall that night

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Berlinfographics (2026). “Two surrenders, one date in dispute”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/karlshorst-surrender/

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{{cite web |title=Two surrenders, one date in dispute |url=https://berlinfographics.com/karlshorst-surrender/ |website=Berlinfographics |publisher=Berlin Experiences |date=2026-11-09 |access-date=2026-11-09}}