The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany to the Allies. It ended the Second World War in Europe. The signing took place at 22:43 Central European Time (CET) on 8 May 1945 and the Germany’s surrender took effect at 23:01 on the same day.
The document was signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in the Karlshorst quarter (Berlin, Germany) by representatives of the three German armed services of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and Allied Expeditionary Force together with the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Red Army, with further French and American representatives signing as the witnesses.
Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was the representative of Nazi Germany at the signing ceremony. Unlike the Empire of Japan, this surrender document led to the de facto fall of Nazi Germany, when the government of Nazi Germany lost the functioning of a government. The Allies were the actual representatives of Germany from this time, and legally existed from 5 June 1945.
There were three language versions of the surrender document — Russian, English, and German — with the Russian and English versions proclaimed in the document itself as the only authoritative ones.
Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the surrender document, 8 May 1945