‘We had to do this’: Berlin museum to drop ‘Russian’ from name

The room where Nazi leaders signed the article of capitulation that officially ended the second world war, in what has been known as the German-Russian Museum Karlshorst. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A Berlin museum dedicated to German-Russian relations on the site where the Nazis agreed to unconditionally surrender in 1945 is to drop the word “Russian” from its name before anniversary events to mark the end of the second world war in Europe.

With tensions already high in the lead-up to the 77th anniversary on 8 and 9 May of Nazi Germany signing the surrender agreement, the German-Russian museum’s director, Jörg Morré, said he would be renaming it Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.