Wendisch Evern is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Recent history (Second World War)

On 4 May 1945 on the ''Timeloberg'' hill at the edge of Deutsch Evern a German delegation under the command of

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg Hans-Georg Friedrich Ludwig Robert von Friedeburg (15 July 1895 – 23 May 1945) was a German admiral, the deputy commander of the U-boat Forces of Nazi Germany and the second-to-last Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. He was the only repr ...

signed a document in the presence of British Field Marshal

Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the ...

for the unconditional surrender of the three German armies operating in Northwest Germany. This went into force on 5 May at 7 a.m. With the signing of the surrender agreement the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in Northwest Germany came to an end. After the war a monument was erected by the British on what they now called ''Victory Hill''. The monument was dismantled in 1958 and rebuilt at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

. Today the spot lies in a military out-of-bounds area and is not accessible. In 1995 another monument was erected on the edge of the Timeloberg, outside the out-of-bounds area. After

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

committed suicide in May 1945 his body was supposed to have been interred on the Wendisch-Evern Training Area at an unknown spot.

References

Lüneburg (district) {{Lüneburg-geo-stub