page_title: Legal status of Germany
section_title: Surrender of the Wehrmacht
hierarchical_section_title: Legal status of Germany / Surrender of the Wehrmacht
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Генерал-фельдмаршал Вильгельм Кейтель подписывает акт о безоговорочной капитуляции германского вермахта в штабе 5-й ударной армии в Карлсхорсте, Берлин. Български: Генерал-фелдмаршал Вилхелм Кайтел подписва безусловната капитулация на въоръжените сили на Нацистка Германия в Съветската щабквартира - Карлсхорст, Берлин. Čeština: Wilhelm Keitel podepisuje kapitulaci nacistického Německa. Deutsch: Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel unterzeichnet die bedingungslose Kapitulation der Wehrmacht im Hauptquartier der Roten Armee in Berlin-Karlshorst. English: Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel signing the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, Berlin. Español: El mariscal de campo Wilhelm Keitel firmando la rendición incondicional de la Wehrmacht en el cuartel general de la Unión Soviética en Karlhorst, Berlín. Français&#160;: Marshall en chef Wilhelm Keitel signant la capitulation sans condition de la Wehrmacht au quartier général de l'Union Sovietique à Karlshorst, Berlin. Magyar: Wilhelm Keitel aláírja a német csapatok fegyverletételét. Italiano: Il Feldmaresciallo Wilhelm Keitel firma la resa incondizionata della Wehrmacht al quartier generale sovietico a Karlshorst, Berlino. Nederlands: Veldmaarschalk Wilhelm Keitel ondertekent de onvoorwaardelijke capitulatie van de Wehrmacht in het hoofdkwartier van het Rode Leger te Berlijn-Karlshorst.
context_page_description: The legal status of Germany concerns the question of the extinction, or otherwise continuation, of the German nation state following the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany, and constitutional hiatus of the military occupation of Germany by the four Allied powers from 1945 to 1949. It became current once again when the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.
context_section_description: After the Machtergreifung of the Nazi Party in 1933, state power had been personified more and more within Reich Chancellor (Reichskanzler) Adolf Hitler, who upon the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934 simultaneously served as head of government and as head of state (styled Führer and Reichskanzler). Furthermore, by the final months of the war, governmental functions at all levels within Nazi Germany had been assimilated into the apparatus of the Nazi Party. Following Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, the successor regime appointed in his political testament resigned during the cabinet's May 2 session. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, appointed Reich President in Hitler's testament, gave the task of forming a political administration to Leading Minister Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk; however, the consequent Flensburg Government did not possess any de facto central governmental authority within Germany, nor was it recognised by any Axis, Allied or neutral government.
  These incidents preceded the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht), signed by nominated representatives of the three German armed services and of the military High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) on May 8 in Berlin-Karlshorst; from which, as it was a purely military capitulation, no direct consequences for the legal status of the civil authority of the German Reich could arise. Nevertheless, as all civilian central authority and power within Germany had already been extinguished de facto at the death of Adolf Hitler and as the perpetuation of Nazism in any form could not be countenanced, the surrender of all remaining military authority confirmed for the Allied Powers the total legal extinction of the former German state. "The unconditional surrender of Germany has thereby been effected...". Subsequent historians have treated 8 May 1945 as the date on which Nazi Germany ceased to exist.
  Since April 30, the US State Department had been actively pressuring all neutral countries that had retained diplomatic relations with Germany to prepare to close down German embassies and hand over their archives and records to the embassies of the Western Allies; and some had done so even before May 8. However, as the military capitulation of the German High Command was taken as constituting the extinction of the German state and the assumption of all state authority by the Allied Powers, all embassies remaining in neutral countries were immediately ordered by the Western Allies to be closed down, their diplomatic staff recalled and their records taken over into one or another Allied embassy. Those neutral countries that had been nominated as protecting powers in respect of Germany and the Allies under the Geneva Conventions were notified that this function had now been terminated, and were requested by the State Department to hand all embassy records and German state property in their trust over to the western Allies. All the protecting powers complied fully with the Allied demands, formally breaking off diplomatic relations; consequently the German state ceased as a diplomatic entity on 8 May 1945.
  On May 23, the Allies closed down the Flensburg administration and arrested its members. This formalised a legal vacuum that was only filled on June 5, when the commanders-in-chief of the four Allied Powers announced, in the Berlin Declaration, the assumption of "supreme authority" in Germany: the Allied forces not only took control of government, but also now assumed all the powers and legal authority of the German state as a whole. It was explicitly stated that this would not effect the annexation of Germany, although the four Powers asserted their authority, as the sole repository of German state power, to determine the future boundaries of German territory:
  
  "There is no central Government or authority in Germany capable of accepting responsibility for the maintenance of order, the administration of the country and compliance with the requirements of the victorious Powers. The unconditional surrender of Germany has thereb
caption: Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel signing the Instrument of Surrender in Berlin
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