Germany under the Flensburg Government led by the head of state, Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz, also accepted the Allied suggestion to sign a new document.

[4] With the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on the Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control was split in two.

Moreover, the speed of the final Allied advances of March 1945, together with Hitler's insistent orders to stand and fight to the last, left the bulk of surviving German forces in isolated pockets and occupied territories mostly outside the boundaries of pre-Nazi Germany.

He was joined there on 2 May 1945 by the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" (OKW) (English: "High Command of the Armed Forces") under Wilhelm Keitel, which had previously relocated to Krampnitz near Potsdam, and then to Rheinsberg during the Battle of Berlin.

At Hitler's death, German armies remained in the Atlantic pockets of La Rochelle, St Nazaire, Lorient, Dunkirk and the Channel Islands; the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes and the Dodecanese; most of Norway; Denmark; the northwestern Netherlands; northern Croatia; northern Italy; Austria; Bohemia and Moravia; the Courland peninsula in Latvia; the Hel Peninsula in Poland and in Germany towards Hamburg, facing British and Canadian forces; in Mecklenburg, Pomerania and the besieged city of Breslau, facing Soviet forces; and in southern Bavaria towards Berchtesgaden, facing American and French forces.

The third part, articles 6 to 12, related to the surrender by the German government to Allied representatives of almost all its powers and authority, the release and repatriation of prisoners and forced laborers, the cessation of radio broadcasts, the provision of intelligence and information, the maintenance of weapons and infrastructure, the yielding of Nazi leaders for war crimes trials, and the power of Allied Representatives to issue proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions covering "additional political, administrative, economic, financial, military and other requirements arising from the complete defeat of Germany".

[8] The Yalta Conference in February 1945 had led to further development of the terms of surrender, as it was agreed that the administration of post-war Germany would be split into four occupation zones for the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States.

It stated that the Allied representatives "will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarization and dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security.

[11] By the end of March 1945, the British government began to doubt whether, once Germany had been completely overpowered, there would be any post-Nazi German civil authority capable of signing the instrument of surrender or of putting its provisions into effect.

Meanwhile, the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the Western Allies agreed in August 1944 to general guidelines for the terms of local military surrenders to be concluded with any capitulating German forces.

[12] The reasons for the change are disputed but may have reflected awareness of the reservations being expressed as to the capability of the German signatories to agree the provisions of the full text or the continued uncertainty over communicating the "dismemberment clause" to the French.

[11][13] German military commanders in Italy had been conducting secret negotiations for a partial surrender; which was signed at Caserta on 29 April 1945, to come into effect on 2 May.

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, with overall military command for OKW-South, initially denounced the capitulation; but once Hitler's death had been confirmed, acceded to it.

[9] The impetus for the Caserta capitulation had arisen from within the local German military command; but from 2 May 1945, the Dönitz government assumed control of the process, pursuing a deliberate policy of successive partial capitulations in the west to play for time in order to bring as many as possible of the eastern military formations westwards so as to save them from Soviet or Yugoslav captivity, and surrender them intact to the British and Americans.

[14] In addition, Dönitz hoped to continue to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from the Hela peninsula and the surrounding Baltic coastal areas.

Dönitz's representative, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, informed him on 6 May that Eisenhower was now insisting on "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts.

The signing took place in a red brick schoolhouse, the Collège Moderne et Technique de Reims [fr], that served as the SHAEF headquarters.

[22] It was to take effect at 23:01 CET (one minute after 11:00 pm, British Double Summer Time) on 8 May, the 48-hour grace period having been back-dated to the start of final negotiations.

"[28] Consequently, Eisenhower arranged for the commanders in chief of each of the three German armed services to be flown from Flensburg to Berlin early on 8 May; where they were kept waiting through the day until 10:00 pm when the Allied delegation arrived, at which point the amended surrender text was provided to them.

Consequently, the physical signing was delayed until nearly 01:00 am on 9 May, Central European Time; and then back-dated to 8 May to be consistent with the Reims agreement and the public announcements of the surrender already made by Western leaders.

Otherwise the amended text set out an expanded article 2, now requiring German forces to disarm and hand over their weapons to local allied commanders.

Field Marshal Keitel initially balked at the amended text, proposing that an additional grace period of 12 hours be granted to surrendering German forces, before they might be exposed to punitive action for non-compliance under article 5.

Representatives: For the most part, the Berlin signing did the job required of it; with German forces in Courland and the Atlantic outposts all surrendering on 9 May within the informal 12-hour grace period.

As the protecting powers complied fully with the Allied demands, the German state ceased as a diplomatic entity on 8 May 1945 until the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949.

[25] Stalin had, however, already backtracked on his previous support for the principle of German dismemberment, publicly renouncing any such policy in his victory proclamation to the Soviet people of 8 May 1945.