154. When did the Second World War end?

Answer options

1. 1933
2. 1945
3. 1949
4. 1961

Explanation

1945 is correct: in Europe the Second World War ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945; in Asia, Japan surrendered on 2 September 1945. The year 1945 marks Germany’s “zero hour,” Allied occupation, and the dissolution of the Nazi regime’s legal order. From this rupture emerged the 1949 Basic Law as a provisional liberal-democratic constitution whose guarantee of human dignity and the binding of state authority to law were direct responses to war and Nazi crimes. 1933 denotes the Nazi seizure of power, 1949 the founding of the Federal Republic, and 1961 the construction of the Berlin Wall.