The Surrender Pens of World War II: The Berlin Surrender and Berlin Declaration Pens

The German surrender document from May 9, 1945, ended World War II in Europe, and the Berlin Declaration documents tackled the war's aftermath.

- BY RICHARD BINDER

The Pens of the Berlin Surrender

In the dark hours just after midnight on Monday, May 7, 1945, at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in the red brick building of the Collège Moderne et Technique de Reims, in Rheims, France, high-ranking officers of the United States, British, French, Soviet, and German armed forces gathered to sign an Act of Military Surrender, ending World War Il in Europe, but the Soviet High Command refused to accept the surrender. German troops in the east were still fighting against the Red Army in an attempt to withdraw to the west, and Soviet Chief of Staff General Alexei Antonov contended that this continued action in the east made the Rheims surrender look like a separate peace and pointed out that the Act of Military Surrender at Rheims did not adhere to the wording that had been set out by the European Advisory Commission (EAC); and that the signing should take place in a unique, historical ceremony.

U.S. General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, wanting to avoid a potentially bloody postwar conflict with the Soviets over Berlin, kept his own counsel and agreed with the Soviet position. A formal surrender ceremony to ratify the Rheims surrender of the previous day was arranged for late in the evening of Tuesday, May 8, at the Soviet High Command headquarters, in the hall that had formerly been the officers’ mess of the Wehrmacht's Heer pioneer school, in Karlshorst, a suburb of Berlin.

A new Instrument of Surrender was written, adhering to the form set out by the EAC, and typed up in English, Russian, and German, stipulating that the English and Russian versions were the only authoritative texts. The Allied signatories gathered at the appointed time, and that was when things started to go wrong.