By early 1944, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union began discussing the proposed surrender document in light of the imminent defeat of Germany. In July 1944, a final text of “unconditional surrender” was finalized.
By May 1945, Germany verged on total defeat with Adolf Hitler dead by his own hand, and the German Army defenseless against the fast-approaching Soviets from the east and Western Allies from the west. German Admiral Karl Donitz, who had succeeded as Head of State as stipulated in Hitler’s last will and testament, made plans to bring the war to an end by surrendering his Army to the Western Allies but not to the Soviets. But his armies were scattered in several large and small pockets from France and the Low Countries to Greece and the Baltic region, as well as in Germany including nearby Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, and Austria.
German commanders in the west, on their own volition or with prompting from Donitz, surrendered to the Western Allies: those in Italy and Western Austria on April 29, 1945, effective May 2, 1945; those in northwest Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark on May 4, 1945, and those in Bavaria and southern Germany on May 5, 1945. As a result, fighting in the west quickly ended. On the other hand, German units facing the Soviets continued to engage in battle, hoping to make a fighting retreat to the west to surrender to the Western Allies.
U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, over-all commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, detected Donitz’s plan, and not wanting the Soviets to suspect that the Western Allies intended to make a separate peace with the Germans, ordered that henceforth no partial surrenders will be made and that the German high command must agree on a complete surrender to the Allies, including the Soviets. Donitz complied and the signing of a surrender instrument was made in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945.
The Soviets took issue with some stipulations in the surrender instrument, as well as the location of the signing itself. They insisted that the formal complete and unconditional surrender must take place in Berlin, the German capital and that the text must place greater emphasis on the Soviet contribution to the war effort. As a result, a second surrender instrument was signed on May 8, 1945.
(Technically, the surrender document was signed at just after midnight on May 9 but was backdated to May 8 as the German surrender had already been broadcast.)