Germany had signed another surrender document near Reims in France the day before, but it was not accepted for execution by the Soviet Union, which demanded among other things that the act of surrender should take place at the seat of government of Nazi Germany from where German aggression had been started.
Thus, another document was required to be signed; moreover, shortly after the German forces signed, orders for them to stop fire in the west and carry on fighting in the east. Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz, head of state under the Flensburg Government, likewise approved the Allied
recommendation to sign a fresh agreement.
Further French and American representatives signed as the witnesses. Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was Germany's highest representative at the signing event this time. Furthermore resulting in the de facto collapse of Nazi Germany was Germany's surrender record.
Nazi German collapse resulted in the Allies essentially occupying Germany since the German defeat – which was subsequently confirmed by the Berlin Declaration issued by the four countries of Allies as the common representative of new Germany (France, USSR, UK and the US).
The surrender document had three language versions: English, Russian, and German; the English and Russian versions declared in the paper themselves as the only authoritative ones.