At 24:00 on May 8, 1945, at the Soviet Headquarters in Berlin, German Field Marshal Keitel signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Germany, followed by Marshal Zhukov of the Soviet Army, and then the representatives of the Anglo-American and French Allied Forces signed in turn to accept the surrender of Germany, so that the European theater of World War II completely ended the war! Everything seems to be going well, but in fact there was an episode in the surrender ceremony before this, which is actually the second surrender of Germany!
Because just the day before, On May 7, Germany had already submitted its surrender to the Allies in advance, and the Germans would stop all fighting and surrender to the Allies at 23:00 on May 8. In fact, Germany was already very afraid at that time, because the Soviet army was coming to Berlin like a bamboo, and if it was really attacked by the Soviet army, they themselves knew what the consequences would be, but it was better to take the initiative to surrender to the American and British allies who had less grievances. Although the German surrender letter also gave the Soviets a copy, but before the Soviet side could react, the Allies accepted the German surrender, so the surrender was strongly rejected by the Soviet side afterwards.
Stalin did not recognize this surrender, and the reasons he gave were, first, that the instrument of surrender was not comprehensive and necessary to be revised, and second, that the Germans had to surrender to the Soviets, who had sacrificed great sacrifices for the capture of Berlin! He would not have agreed without signing the surrender agreement in Berlin, in the center of the fascist aggressors! This time can only be regarded as a surrender rehearsal.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with Stalin's demands at that time, when the West wanted to reduce the role of the Soviet Union, but to know that the Soviet Union eliminated more than half of the German army's living forces and countless weapons and equipment on the Soviet-German battlefield, which was also exchanged by the Soviet Union at the same cost, and later after the Soviet army conquered Berlin, Hitler felt completely hopeless to choose suicide, but Hitler's successor Dönitz was afraid of the retaliation of the Soviet army and was more inclined to surrender to the Western Allies. Therefore, Stalin directly rejected the proposal of Churchill and Truman, insisted that the surrender ceremony must be presided over by the main Soviet Union, that the surrender ceremony was officially held in Berlin, and that the surrender agreement signed by the Allies was not canceled, but that it was impossible to admit it.
The Western Allies, on the one hand, did know the credit of the Soviet Union in this war, and on the other hand, Stalin's tough attitude, and finally had to agree to the Soviet side's request and prepare to discuss the surrender of Germany again, which led to the German surrender ceremony at 24:00 on May 8. The Soviet Union had achieved its goal in this surrender storm, and the Berlin Surrender, as the only legal surrender, successfully prevented Germany from wanting to contact the Western Allies alone, and now Russia still celebrates the victory of World War II at 00:00 on May 9, when the Berlin Surrender Came into effect.