(Cont'd) On the night of April 28, 1945, the Soviet soldiers crossed the Spree River. They captured the Reichstag building, which held no actual operational power at the time.
This building had been entirely abandoned by the Nazi government following the Reichstag fire of 1933. The real operational center of the Nazi regime was the nearby Reich Chancellery (Photo 014) and Hitler’s underground bunker.
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot and cyanide poisoning in his bunker on April 30, 1945—the exact same day the Soviet flag was raised on the Reichstag.
Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz took over as the new German head of state. He authorized General Alfred Jodl to sign the first unconditional German Instrument of Surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union on May 7, 1945, in Reims, France.
To satisfy Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a second, definitive surrender ceremony was held in Berlin on May 8, 1945, legally cementing the unconditional surrender of all German forces.