»… Peace at last?!« – 80th Anniversary of the End of WWII and the Consequences
The unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin-Karlshorst on 8 Mai 1945 marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. The continent lay in ruins. What did the end of the war mean for people at the time? What were the far-reaching consequences of the defeat of Nazi Germany?
The open-air exhibition »… Peace at last?!« spotlights the liberation of Europe by the Allies and examines its impact all the way up to the present day. Divided into twelve chapters made up of large-format photos, informative texts and biographical portraits, the exhibition invites visitors to explore, discuss and pay tribute. The exhibition will be on display on Pariser Platz from 2 to 11 May 2025.
The events of 1945 and the consequences of the end of the war form the core of the exhibition. This includes the bitter struggle of the Wehrmacht, the Soviet occupation of Berlin and the post-war reordering of Europe after the Potsdam Conference, which resulted in expulsions and millions of refugees.
The exhibition also examines how Nazi crimes were prosecuted at the Nuremberg Trials and sheds light on the different ways East and West Germany dealt with memory, repression and remembrance.
The voices of survivors form a particularly striking part of the exhibition, each conveying the fact that for many people, the suffering did not end with liberation. Millions were uprooted, most of whom had already experienced unspeakable horrors and lost loved ones. Left almost entirely to fend for themselves, many had to build new lives from nothing. Their heart-rending fates are portrayed in the exhibition.
Guided exhibition tours
The exhibition was developed by the Permanent Conference of National Socialist Memorial Sites in the Berlin Area and is being presented as an open-air exhibition by Kulturprojekte Berlin.
The guided tours through the exhibition are organized in cooperation with the Museumsdienst Berlin.
