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Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918
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Historical SummaryOn May 7, 1945 (V-E Day), in a little schoolhouse in Reims, an emissary of Hitler’s successor, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, surrendered unconditionally to the Western Allies. A second capitulation was signed with the Russians in Berlin on May 8, 1945 (May 9, Soviet Union time). The second ceremony was "to symbolize the unity of the Western Allies and the Soviets, to give notice to the Germans and to the world that the surrender was made to all, hot merely to the Western Allies." In a Soviet film of the Berlin ceremony there was no reference to the earlier German surrender at Reims.
World History 290.
The German Surrender, May 7–8/9, 194549
A
Only this text in English is authoritative.
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8 May and to remain in the positions occupied at that time. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Soviet High Command.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
Signed at Rheims at 0241 on the 7th day of May, 1945.
B
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain in the positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme High Command of the Red Army.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
6. This Act is drawn up in the English, Russian and German languages. The English and Russian are the only authentic texts.
Signed at Berlin on the 8th day of May, 1945.
49A. from United States, Department of State (Publication No. 2423), The Axis in Defeat. A Collection of Documents on American Policy toward Germany and Japan, Government Printing Office, Washington, n.d. [1945], pp. 23–24; B. from ibid., pp. 24–25.
50 The quotation and the film statement are from D. D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, Garden City, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948, pp. 427–428.
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Chicago: "The German Surrender, May 7– 8/9, 1945," Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan (Chicage: Lippincott, 1951), 989–991. Original Sources, accessed April 23, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=73ZBSBLP9ZNXJ3U.
MLA: . "The German Surrender, May 7– 8/9, 1945." Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, edited by Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan, Chicage, Lippincott, 1951, pp. 989–991. Original Sources. 23 Apr. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=73ZBSBLP9ZNXJ3U.
Harvard: , 'The German Surrender, May 7– 8/9, 1945' in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918. cited in 1951, Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. , Lippincott, Chicage, pp.989–991. Original Sources, retrieved 23 April 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=73ZBSBLP9ZNXJ3U.
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