 In late November 1918, Detzner received the news of the end of the war from a worker at the Sattelberg Mission Station. He wrote a letter to the Australian commander in Morobe in which he offered his capitulation. On 5 January 1919, he surrendered at the Finschhafen District headquarters, marching with his remaining German troops in a column, and wearing his carefully preserved full-dress uniform. He was brought to Rabaul, the Australian headquarters, and on 8 February 1919, was transferred to Sydney aboard the Melusia; after a brief internment in the prisoner of war camp at Holsworthy, he was repatriated to Germany.
