Karlshorst (, ; ; literally meaning Karl's nest) is a locality in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. It is home to a harness racing track, DIE KULTURELLE BEDEUTUNG DER RENNBAHN KARLSHORST article on karlshorst.de from 2022 the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin ( HTW), the largest Fachhochschule in Berlin, and the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
In April 1945, as the Red Army approached the Nazi Germany capital, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, established his headquarters at a former Heer officer's mess hall in Karlshorst, where on May 8, the unconditional surrender of the German forces was presented to Zhukov by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
From 1945 to 1949 the building complex served as the headquarters of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. After the establishment of the East Germany, it hosted various ministries of the GDR, and from 1963 on offices of both the KGB and the GRU. Festungsbau und Hauptquartier on karlshorst-history.tours In fact The KGB residency in East Berlin-Karlshorst was the largest in the world; it produced as much intelligence as an entire directorate back in Moscow thanks to East German efforts. But none of this was known in the West until after the Berlin Wall had fell.The buildings on the side of the Museum had been left for a long time abandoned, now the process of renovation has started and as usual in Berlin, the former KGB buildings are now appartments. The leadership of the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany hid at the complex during the East German uprising of 1953, where Lavrentiy Beria also traveled to from Moscow to personally coordinate the Soviet Army's repression of the rebellion. The last Russian soldiers left Karlshorst in 1994. The former headquarters has been made the home of the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, formerly called the Capitulation Museum, and later the Deutsch-Russisches Museum.
The 6th Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Soviets' "Berlin Brigade," had barracks in the nearby Wuhlheide area.
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