Berlin

Berlin appears as both a place receiving the shock of political news and the approaching endpoint of the European war. In April 1945, the city was already under pressure from advancing forces; within weeks, the Red Army had taken it, while rumors of Germany’s surrender continued to shape public statements by Harry S. Truman.

News Reaches Berlin

When news broke that Franklin D. Roosevelt had died on April 12, it spread around the world within minutes. In Berlin, the date had already turned to Friday the 13th. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, telephoned Adolf Hitler to present Roosevelt’s death as a turning point written in the stars. The episode places Berlin within the immediate global circulation of the news, while showing how the Nazi leadership sought to interpret a major Allied loss for its own purposes.

The Battle Approaches the City

By the time Harry S. Truman became president, the European front was moving toward Berlin. Ninth Army tanks had pushed beyond the Elbe River, nearly to the city’s suburbs, and at some points American and Russian forces were only seventy-five miles apart. The Battle of Berlin was nearing its climax: the city’s proximity to the advancing armies made the direction of the war unmistakable, even as fighting and uncertainty continued elsewhere.

Fall and Uncertain Surrender

On May 2, the day Berlin fell to the Red Army, Truman held a press conference to deny reports of a final German surrender. Winston Churchill continued to suggest that peace might come within the week, but the city’s capture did not itself establish that Germany had formally surrendered. Berlin’s fall thus marked a decisive military change without resolving the immediate uncertainty surrounding the end of the war.