After the Unconditional Surrender: Ruins at Brandenburg Gate (May 8, 1945)

After finally being taken by the Red Army on May 2, 1945, the city of Berlin was in complete ruins. This photograph shows a fallen “Reich Eagle,” the symbol of the German Empire, among the ruins at the Brandenburg Gate. The image aptly conveys the atmosphere in the capital immediately after the military surrender.

print version     return to image list

previous image      first image in next chapter

© Bundesarchiv