Governing Mayor warns: Defend freedom and democracy

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  Kai Wegner (CDU), Governing Mayor of Berlin, speaks during a commemorative event of the Berlin Senate and House of Representatives in the Festival and Coat of Arms Hall of the Rotes Rathaus.

• Margot Friedländer, contemporary witness, Holocaust survivor and honorary citizen of Berlin, sits on the stage to a standing ovation during a commemorative event of the Berlin Senate and House of Representatives in the Festival and Coat of Arms Hall of the Rotes Rathaus.

To mark the end of the war 80 years ago, Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has called for lessons to be learned from the horrors of the Nazi era and to stand up resolutely for freedom and democracy.

May 8, 1945 was a day of liberation, as the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker described it in his historic speech in the Bundestag in 1985. However, May 8 was also a day of remembrance, Wegner said at a joint commemorative event organized by the Berlin Senate and House of Representatives in the Rotes Rathaus.

"It is our responsibility that we never forget"

History must never be forgotten, the memory of atrocities and the Holocaust must be kept alive. "It is our responsibility that we never forget. It is our responsibility to ensure that history does not repeat itself," emphasized Wegner. "It is our responsibility to stand up for democracy and defend it against enemies from within and without." After all, peace and democracy cannot be taken for granted and democracy is also coming under pressure in Germany.

Signing of the capitulation in the night from May 8 to 9, 1945

The Second World War in Europe ended in 1945 with the surrender of the German Wehrmacht. On the night of May 8-9, 1945, representatives of the Wehrmacht signed a document to this effect in front of the victorious powers of the USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union in the building of today's Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.