in detail
The building which houses the Berlin-Karlhorst Museum was built in 1936-1937 as an officers` club for the neighboring military cadet school. At the end of April 1945, the staff of the Soviet shock troops were quartered here. On the night of May 8, the signing of the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht took place in the dining room (Capitulation Room).
From June 1945 until October 1949 the building housed the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. After the administrative functions were returned to the provisional GDR government under Otto Grotewohl on May 10, 1949, the successor organization of the Soviet Military Administration, the Soviet Control Commission, resided in the former officers` club in Berlin-Karlshorst.
On November 5, 1967, a Soviet military museum opened as "The Museum of the Unconditional Surrender of Fascist Germany in the War 1941-1945". The heroic fighting and glorious victory of the Soviet army was emphasized; its losses faded into the backround.
After the agreement on Soviet troop withdrawal was reached in ctober 1990, the museum was remodelled as a German-Soviet cooperative project. The German-Russian "Berlin-Karlshorst Museum Association" was founded to manage the future joint museum. The museum`s thematic format was broadened to include some of the many topics neglected until then, including the National Socialist extermination policies in regard to Jewish and non-Jewish populations in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union and the fate of the Soviet prisoners of war and forced laborers. In addition to these topics, the many-faceted pre-war German-Soviet relations from 1917-1941 and the post-war relations between the Soviet Union and the GDR, and between the Soviet Union and the FRG were incorporated into the revised exhibit. The historical Capitulation Room, the diorama "Assault on the Reichstag", the office of Marshal Shukov, as well as the memorial floor for the fallen soldiers have been preserved in their original form.
May 8-9, 1945
Signing of the unconditional surrender by the Wehrmacht in the dining room of the former officers`; club (Capitulation Room).
1945-1949
Residence of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.
1949-1953
Residence of the Soviet Control Commission.
November 5, 1967
Opening of the Soviet forces army museum in East Germany: The Museum of the Unconditional Surrender of Fascist Germany in the War 1941-1945.
May 1994
Founding of the German-Russian "Berlin-Karlshorst Museum Association" to manage the forthcoming museum.
May 10, 1995
Opening of the new exhibition about the history of German-Soviet relations from 1917 to 1990 in the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum.
Since 1997
Numerous changing exhibitions on the subject of German-Russian relations.
