SITE OF
SURRENDER
MAY 1945

EXHIBITIONS

Blick in die Dauerausstellung: Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene

The permanent exhibition on the upper floor documents the criminal German warfare and occupation as well as Soviet society during the war.

It shows the war from the perspective of both the German and the Soviet actors. In addition to texts, historical photos, everyday objects and written documents, the exhibition presents people who became victims or perpetrators.

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Currently without end date

Open-air exhibition in the museum garden on the history of the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht to the four victorious powers of the Soviet Union, USA, Great Britain and France on 8 May 1945 in Berlin-Karlshorst.

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EVENTS

3. April 2025, 18:00

Gulag and labour camps

Event series “Writing (hi)stories: The Second World War in Literature and Science”

in cooperation with the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)

With:

Viktor Funk, journalist and author. In his novel Wir verstehen nicht, was geschieht, he tells the story of Lev Mischenko, a survivor of Nazi camps and the Soviet gulag system, and the challenges, traumas and relationships that have emerged from this past.
Felicitas Fischer von Weikersthal is an Eastern European historian specialising in Gulag Studies. In her research and teaching she has dealt with the history of Soviet forced labour camps as well as with the cultures of remembrance in the Russian Federation and Europe.
Moderation: Dr Nina Frieß, Research Associate at the Centre for East European and International Studies
Musical accompaniment: Izabella Goldstein, singer

Der Eintritt ist frei.

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The Second World War in Europe ended in the building of the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum on the night of 8 to 9 May 1945. 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of this historic event.

The museum is organising a special programme to mark the occasion.

Free entry.

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Educational offers for adults, teachers, children and young people

About educational offers

Für Schüler:innen

Blick in die Dauerausstellung: Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene

Guided tour through the permanent exhibition and the historical site

Main topics: “The German war of extermination against the Soviet Union” and/or “The history of the end of the war, consequences of the war and remembrance of the war”.

Für Schüler:innen

Guided discovery tour about historical photographs

In small groups, young people independently explore individual rooms of the exhibition.

Für Lehrkräfte

Training courses for teachers

Training courses on the topics of the German war of extermination in the East and the end of the war, the consequences of the war and remembrance.

COLLECTION

The museum’s collection and library hold documents, artworks, objects, photographs and publications on German-Soviet history of the 20th century.