This is a map of Germany at the time of Berlin’s surrender in May 1945.
The dark red areas are those still controlled by the German army; they include: the entirety of Denmark and Norway, the coastal parts of western Holland; within Germany itself, the territory of the Third Reich was bisected, with control over only the northern coast and parts east of the Elbe River; parts of the southeast and the province of Silesia bordering the Czech Republic, as well as western regions of the Czech Republic, and parts of Bavaria near the Austrian border; most of Austria; parts of northern and northwestern Italy; half of Croatia’s territory; and the Courland Pocket and the Vistula River estuary—this small area was critical, as it was the only seaport where German eastern front forces could escape by sea from Russian pursuit.
However, even these “controlled” areas were rapidly shrinking as the Allies aggressively compressed German-controlled zones from all sides. These fragmented and disjointed areas could not form a coherent defense line or maintain sufficient depth. In short, these “scattered remnants” were quickly shrinking, with survival hanging by a thread.
Moreover, after the announcement of the Führer’s death was broadcast on Berlin radio, German morale collapsed instantly, and soldiers were no longer bound by their enlistment oaths. Though numerous, the remaining Wehrmacht and SS lacked supplies, including food, medicine, weapons, and ammunition.
Critically, the German army’s spirit was gone, rendering them a soulless force without the will to fight. Many officers and soldiers began changing into civilian clothes and deserting, scattering in all directions, and no organized units remained.
The Flensburg Dönitz government, established after Berlin’s fall, existed merely to buy time for German troop withdrawals. They demanded that eastern front units continue to resist to cover the retreat of large numbers of troops to the western front.
A large number of German troops on the eastern front fled spontaneously to the west, trying to escape Soviet capture and enter American and British POW camps.
However, the US and UK saw through the Flensburg government’s ploy and threatened that if the eastern front German troops did not immediately surrender to the Soviets, they would close the western front and refuse to accept German surrenders.
Ultimately, despite the Flensburg government’s best efforts, only about 30% of the German forces were captured by the Soviets, with the majority of the German POWs entering the camps of the Western Allies.
That’s not quite true.
Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945, shooting himself in the head and, at the last minute, appointing Adm. Karl Donitz as his successor. His previous successor, Herman Goering, was removed from his post and ordered shot on sight when he asked Hitler to give him control over armed forces while Hitler was stuck in Berlin (at the time, Goering was free to move through the country).
Naturally, Donitz, being surrounded, decided the best thing to do was negotiate to try to keep his job. It was pretty clear the Allies agreed on one thing – everyone involved in the Nazi regime was to be removed and replaced.
Luckily, Hitler’s death convinced some of the commanders in the field that there was no hope. Two whole armies on the western front surrendered, and Donitz sensed an opportunity because the generals on the eastern front were not eager to surrender to the Soviets.
As such, Donitz sent a message to Eisenhower and Montgomery. He offered to surrender Nazi occupied Norway and Denmark if the western Allies would cease hostilities and allow Germany to continue fighting the Soviets. He was hoping that the delicate alliance between the US, UK and the USSR was breaking down.
However, the western allies replied that they had no intention of cutting the USSR out and that they would only accept an unconditional surrender of all forces. Donitz rejected this out of hand as completely unacceptable.
Donitz probably wasn’t in a position to deliver an all-front surrender anyway. Many of the remaining units were Waffen SS willing to fight to the last man. As such, he supported not only a continued fight, but told them to continue to follow Hitler’s order to destroy as much infrastructure as possible to deny it to the allies.
In the meantime, he once again approached Eisenhower and told him he would immediately surrender all units fighting the British and Americans, but not the ones fighting the Russians. Eisenhower responded by threatening to re-start bombing raids and cutting off the western flow of refugees if an unconditional surrender was not agreed to by May 7.
Donitz realized this would result in all of the German army in the east being captured by the Soviets, and that’s when he finally decided to capitulate. This allowed thousands of German soldiers to flee the front and get behind American lines over the next 48 hours. At 2:41 a.m. on May 7, Donitz went to Reims, France to sign the surrender documents for all remaining German forces. Stalin, in order to put on a show, rejected the surrender and had the Germans sign another surrender on May 9.
Could it have had something to do with the enemy army which had overrun the capital?
Red Army soldiers raise their flag over the Reichstag
By April/May 1945 the German government only controlled the white parts of Germany:
Situation 1 May 1945 (pink = Allied held territory, red = areas being fought over, white = German territory)
And they were powerless to stop the Allies taking the rest over the next few weeks at most.
They surrendered because the war was over. Their army had been smashed, their capital was in enemy hands, most of their country conquered and their leader had killed himself.
Honestly, why continue fighting at that point? They should really have surrendered the previous year when it was blatantly obvious they were going to lose. But Hitler let it drag on pointlessly into 1945, costing the lives of millions of Germans for no reason.
