“Surrender” means giving up military resistance.
The German armed forces declared their unconditional surrender to the Allies. “Unconditional” here means that the defeated side could not make its surrender dependent on political demands of its own.
The surrender was signed in Reims on 7 May. During the night of 8–9 May, the commanders of the German armed forces signed in Berlin-Karlshorst. Remembrance of the European end of the war is associated with 8 May 1945.
The other three answers
Not every event in the final weeks of fighting was the formal end of the war.
with the death of Adolf Hitler
Hitler died on 30 April 1945. Fighting continued afterwards; the unconditional surrender marks the formal European end sought here.
with the withdrawal of Germans from occupied territories
Withdrawal from occupied territory can accompany military defeat, but it is not a comprehensive surrender. The task asks about the formal end, not individual troop movements.
through a revolution in Germany
The war in Europe did not end through a victorious German revolution. Military defeat and unconditional surrender to the Allies were decisive.
Europe is the geographical scope of the question.
In Asia, the war continued longer. Japan signed the formal surrender document on 2 September 1945. The European end in May and the end of the entire world war must therefore not be treated as identical.
Military surrender also did not mean that all consequences of war disappeared immediately. Destruction, displacement and the effects of Nazi crimes continued far beyond that point.
Surrender in 1945 · Museum Berlin-Karlshorst ↗Europe: 8 May 1945 — unconditional surrender.
Connect the date to the event. Hitler’s death and Japan’s surrender belong to other points in the same history.
Three words for this question
- die Kapitulationsurrender
- A declaration that military resistance is being given up.
- bedingungslosunconditional
- Without being able to attach one’s own conditions to acceptance of the surrender.
- die Alliiertenthe Allies
- Here: the allied powers to which Germany surrendered.