When did Germany exactly surrender towards the end of WW2 in Europe?
Was it May 8?
Or May 9?
As they celebrate in Eastern Europe these days.
Well, did you know that the first German unconditional surrender occured here on May 4, 1945, but
it was a partial surrender.
Here on the Timeloberg on the Lüneburg Heath the German general Von Friedeburg partially
unconditionally surrendered to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
But why was this surrender only partial and what did it mean?
That's what you're gonna learn in this video, where you're gonna learn about the forgotten
German surrender on the Lüneburg Heath.
Keep watching!
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The main western Allied attack against Germany was launched in March 1945.
The Allies already got a foothold in Germany in October '44 when capturing Aachen.
In order to reach the Ruhr Dams the Americans had to cross through the Hürtgen Forest.
From September to December the Allies fought in a gruelling battle for this area and did
not prevail.
In February the Allies attacked once more and that month the Ruhr Dam was taken.
The Rhineland Offensive was a series of Allied offensive operations by 21st Army Group commanded
by Bernard Montgomery from February 1945 till March 1945.
Once the Allies crossed the Rhine there were no natural barriers.
They captured city after city.
Also the German armies across the river consisted of 60 divisions on paper but in reality they
prooved just half as strong.
Many Wehrmacht soldiers surrendered as soon as the Allies appeared.
SS units fought on more fanatical, but were hindered by the lack of supplies.
As the Allies advanced through Germany something happened way up north at the city of Flensburg.
There the Flensburg government was established.
Hitler had committed suicide on 30 April.
Officially Goebbels succeeded him but he killed himself shortly after.
In his last will Hitler had appointed a successor: Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.
Dönitz had proven loyal.
The new government went to the north of Germany to a small city named Flensburg near the Danish
border.
This city hadn't been bombed by the Allies and seemed therefore an ideal location for...
well, for what actually?
By the time Dönitz took over the military situation was simply terrible.
Berlin had fallen.
Germany was split in half by the Soviets and the western Allies.
Early May Dönitz laid out his goals:
“The only policy was to try to negotiate a series of partial surrenders in the west,
while continuing the fight in the east, at least until as many Germans as possible, soldiers
and civilians, could be rescued from the clutches of the Soviets.”
On 3 May Field Marshal Montgomery wrote to his son:
'I really think the German war is drawing to a close […] We have taken one million
prisoners in April, and the total since D-Day is now three million.
Now that Hitler is dead I think we can expect large-scale surrenders on all sides.'
At eight in the morning on that day a German delegation led by General Admiral von Friedeburg
crossed to British lines and were escorted to the Villa Möllering south east of Hamburg.
Von Friedeburg was a representative of General Keitel (head of the Army) and Admiral Dönitz
(now Head of State) and wished to surrender.
The delegation was brought to the Lüneburg Heath where Montgomery had his HQ.
When the delegation arrived Montgomery made them wait in the open under a British flag
that had been set up there.
Then Montgomery appeared from his caravan.
He said: ‘Who are you?
I’ve never heard of you.
What do you want?’
Von Friedeburg replied: 'I'm here to negotiate'.
Montgomery said: 'It's unconditional surrender or nothing'.
Von Friedeburg read a letter from Keitel offering to surrender all German troops in the north,
including those who had been fighting the Red Army.
Montgomery said the latter should surrender to the Soviets.
Surrender to the so-called “Russian savages,” was unthinkable according to Von Friedeburg.
Montgomery replied that the Germans should have thought of all these things before they
began the war and before they invaded the USSR in June, 1941.
Montgomery said he would only accept the unconditional surrender of all German forces in the Netherlands,
all of northwest Germany (including the Frisian Islands and Heligoland) together with Schleswig-Holstein
and Denmark.
“Friedeburg replied, and once again brought up the refugee problem.
Montgomery said he was “no monster” but refused to discuss the matter.
The Germans had to surrender unconditionally.
“If you refuse, I shall go on with the battle.”
The distraught Friedeburg got permission to return to Dönitz with Montgomery’s stipulations.”
Admiral von Friedeburg and Major Friedel were allowed to return to Dönitz's headquarters
in Flensburg.
They returned the following day.
In the evening the German delegates signed the Instrument of Surrender.
It would come into effect the next day.
Assembled here today to accept the surrender terms which have been made with the delegation
from the German Army.
And Major Friedel will sign last.
Now I will sign the instrument on behalf of the Supreme Allied Command of General Eisenhower.
On May 7, 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signed
the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in
northeastern France.
On May 8 the definitive surrender was signed in Berlin.
The actual signing was delayed until after midnight on 9 May, Central European Time.
Till the end of the war the northwest of Germany (Ost-Friesland, Schleswig-Holstein) weren't
taken by the Allies.
This Nazi rump government under the leadership of Karl Dönitz functioned till May 23.
On that day the Allies arrested the leaders of the last Nazi government and with that
the Third Reich came to its final end.
The last Germans would surrender in September, a few days after the Japenese surrender.
These Germans were stationed on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.
But that's the story for another time.