German-Russian Museum

The museum building

Soviet bas-relief sculpture in the museum

The museum is located at the historical venue of the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) on 8 May 1945. With this act of ratification in Karlshorst of the surrender document signed the day before in Rheims, World War II came to an end in Europe. Until 1949 the building was the former officers’ mess of the Wehrmacht pioneer school and then the headquarters of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. In 1949 at this location the Soviets handed over administrative authority to the first government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 1967 to 1994 the building contained a branch of the “Central Museum of Armed Forces Moscow” featuring the unconditional surrender of fascist Germany in the Great Patriotic War.

After German-Soviet agreements on the withdrawal of armed forces from Germany in 1990, Germany and the Soviet Union decided to jointly recollect in the museum the history of the German-Soviet war and the end of Nazi rule. After restructuring the permanent exhibition, the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst opened to the public in May 1995.

[edit] Permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition, which attracts about 40,000 visitors annually, conveys on ca. 1,000 square meters an impression of the history of German-Soviet relations from 1917 to 1990. The focus is on the German-Soviet War 1941-1945, including the political background, propaganda and hostile stereotypes, and the day-to-day life of soldiers and civilians on both sides of this conflict during different phases of the war.

The heart of the museum is the surrender room, which is in its original state and where a film continuously shows the signing the Act of Surrender in 1945. In addition to the redesigned modern exhibition rooms, parts of the original Soviet exhibition designed for Soviet soldiers stationed in Berlin can also be seen, as well as monuments from Soviet times. On the grounds there is a memorial in which a Soviet T34 tank is integrated on a pedestal, as well as an exhibit of large ite