Attempts to lay a telephone cable direct to Goebbels in the bunker were only partially successful. All contact was thus solely in the hands of von Dufving. After making a perilous journey from Chuikov’s command post to the German lines, von Dufving was briefly held by SS troops. Released on Bormann’s orders, he eventually made his way to the bunker in order to report to Goebbels. Predictably Goebbels rejected the Soviet proposals, saying, ‘I shall never, never agree to that’. He then ordered von Dufving to fetch Krebs back to the bunker. After having spent just over nine hours at Chuikov’s command post, Krebs returned to the bunker. At noon, every Soviet gun in the sector opened up on the remaining German bastion. Half of the first day of May had been wasted in fruitless discussions. Now the Soviet command in Berlin were determined to use their massive combat power to forcibly bring down the curtain on this epic drama.
General Weidling was in the bunker with Goebbels when Krebs made his report signalling the failure of his attempts to negotiate an armistice. He confirmed that the Soviet command in Berlin would accept nothing less than a complete surrender. Goebbels and Bormann baulked at the very notion of surrender, citing Hitler’s determination to continue the struggle. Exasperated beyond belief, Weidling exclaimed, ‘But the Fuhrer is dead!’. This cut no ice with Hitler’s loyal paladins. Weidling could only explain that prolonged resistance was no longer possible. Taking his leave from what he regarded as a madhouse, Weidling invited Krebs to accompany him back to his command post. Krebs politely refused, stating that he intended to commit suicide in the bunker.
With the final acceptance that the uncompromising stand made by the Soviet command in Berlin signalled the end of Nazism, Goebbels and his wife Magda prepared to take their exit from the world stage. The children would die too, as Magda Goebbels could see no future for them in a world deprived of Hitler’s genius. On 22 April, she arrived in the bunker with her six children, all of whom’s names began with the letter H, in honour of her idol. For Magda, just being in close proximity to Hitler was exhilarating. Following his capture, Colonel Kempka was asked about her relationship with Hitler. Responding in his typically earthy style, he said that, ‘Whenever she was in the presence of the Fuhrer, I could hear her ovaries rattling’. Indeed, her love for Hitler was so great that it blinded her to reality. It was in this state of intoxication that she murdered her children at approximately 18.00hrs by first giving them chocolate laced with Finodin to induce sleep, then crushing cyanide capsules between their teeth. The eldest child, twelve-year-old Helga, clearly put up a struggle, as when her lifeless body was discovered the following day, her face and neck showed signs of bruising.
After she had killed her children, Magda played solitaire, chain-smoking all the while. In the meantime, her husband reminisced with the Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann about the early days of the struggle against the Communists in Berlin. At 20.15hrs, Goebbels informed the SS guards that both he and his wife intended to commit suicide in the New Chancellery courtyard. Carefully dressing for his last public appearance, Goebbels donned his kid gloves, hat, scarf and coat. He then took Magda’s arm, and together they made their way to the bunker entrance. The film Downfall shows Goebbels shooting his wife at close range. In reality, she bit on a cyanide capsule which acted quickly, leaving her in a kneeling position on the ground. Her husband then personally administered the coup de grace with a shot from his pistol into the back of her head. Goebbels himself made doubly sure of his own suicide by copying the method earlier employed by his master. However, the similarities ended here as there was precious little time left for formalities. Without ceremony, the bodies of Goebbels and his wife were hastily cremated in the open with the available petrol.
That evening, General Weidling gathered his staff together at his command post on the Bendlerstrasse. Recognising that Soviet advances in the city had rendered the possibility of a successful breakout too risky, the gathered officers agreed that there was no other course open to them other than surrender. At 00.40hrs, the Soviet 79th Guards Division picked up the following transmission from Weidling’s 56th Panzer Corps:
Hello, hello. This is the 56th Panzer Corps. We ask you to cease fire. At 00.50hrs Berlin time we are sending envoys to parley at the Potsdamer Bridge. The recognition sign – white flag. We await reply.
The transmission was repeated five times over a one hour period until it was picked up. The message was acknowledged by 79th Guards Division with the reply that the request for a cease fire had been forwarded up the chain of command. The end game had begun.
Meanwhile, an exhausted Chuikov received another German delegation, this time headed by Senior Executive Officer Heinersdorf of the Ministry of Propaganda. He came bearing a pink folder containing a letter from Dr Hans Fritzsche, who following the death of Goebbels and the disappearance of Bormann was now the most senior Nazi official left in Berlin. The letter stated:
As you have been informed by General Krebs, former Reich-Chancellor Goering cannot be reached. Dr Goebbels no longer lives. I, as one of those remaining alive, request you to take Berlin under your protection. My name is known. Director of the Ministry of Propaganda, Dr Fritzsche.
After reading the letter aloud, Chuikov asked Heinersdorf about the circumstances of Goebbels’ death and the whereabouts of General Krebs. The questions then turned to the inevitable matter of surrender:
Chuikov: Are you aware of our terms – that we can speak only of unconditional surrender?
Heinersdorf: Yes, we are aware of that. That is what we came to do, and we offer our help.
Chuikov: And what can you do to help your people?
Heinersdorf: Dr Fritzsche asks that he be given the opportunity to speak over the radio to the German people and army, calling on them to stop pointless bloodshed and to accept unconditional surrender.
Chuikov: Will the troops accept orders from Fritzsche?
Heinersdorf: His name is known to all Germany, and to Berlin especially.
Following a discussion on the telephone with Marshal Zhukov, Chuikov ordered Colonel Vaigachel to escort the German delegation back to their own lines. He also ordered Vaigachel to make arrangements for the proposed broadcast to the German people and army.
However, events were now proceeding apace. As the delegation was leaving, they unexpectedly came face to face with Weidling, who snarled, ‘You should have done this sooner’. Weidling was ushered into Chuikov’s presence. Without preamble, Chuikov began the interrogation:
Chuikov: You command the garrison of Berlin?
Weidling: Yes, I am the commander of 56th Panzer Corps.
Chuikov: Where is Krebs? What did he tell you?
Weidling: I saw him yesterday in the Imperial Chancellery. I believe that he has committed suicide. To begin with he reproached me because capitulation had started yesterday, unofficially. Today an order for surrender was issued to the troops of the Corps. Krebs, Goebbels and Bormann yesterday refused the idea of surrender, but before long Krebs was himself convinced of the closeness of our encirclement and decided – in spite of Goebbels – to stop the senseless bloodshed. I repeat, I have given orders for my Corps to surrender.
Chuikov: And the whole garrison? Does your authority extend to it all?
Weidling: Yesterday evening I issued an order to continue resistance, but… later I issued another order.
General Sokolovskii: Where have Hitler and Goebbels gone?
Weidling: As far as I know, Goebbels and his family must have committed suicide. The Fuhrer did the same on 30 April. His wife…took poison.
Chuikov: Did you hear this, or see it?
Weidling: Towards evening on 30 April I was in the Imperial Chancellery. I was informed of this by Krebs, Bormann and Goebbels.
Chuikov: So this is the end of the war?
Weidling: In my opinion, to waste a single life more would be a crime, a madness.
Chuikov: Quite right… Have you served long in the army.
Weidling: Since nineteen hundred and eleven. I started in the ranks…
General Sokolovskii: You must issue an order for full surrender.
Weidling: I was not able to issue orders for surrender at all, since I had not got contact. So there may still be isolated groups in a number of places which will continue resistance. Many people do not know of the Fuhrer’s death, since Dr Goebbels forbade announcement of it.
Chuikov: We have ceased hostilities entirely, and even grounded the air force. You are not aware of the latest developments? Your troops started to surrender, and after that a delegation came here from Fritzsche with a declaration of surrender, and we stopped all action in order to make it easier for them to put this into effect.
Weidling: I shall be glad to help in getting our troops to cease hostilities… The SS want to break through to the north. My authority does not extend to them.
Chuikov: Issue an order for full surrender… So that resistance may not be kept up in even isolated sectors.
Weidling: We have no reserves of ammunition. Resistance cannot therefore go on for long.
Chuikov: We know this. Write an order for full surrender, and then your conscience will be clear.
Weidling conceded that it was a case of better late than never. Commenting that this was the second war in which he had ended up on the losing side, Weidling appeared resigned to his fate, and that of Germany as a defeated nation. He then sat down to draft the surrender order which took him only a short time to write. When it was completed, he started to read it aloud: