Early on 9 October German troops found some of the forts of the inner ring empty; Beseler had the bombardment stopped and summoned the Military Governor, General Deguise to surrender.
As German parlementaires made their way to Antwerp, four civilian representatives, including the Mayor of Antwerp Jan De Vos, reached Beseler at Kontich, to request an end to the bombardment of the city.
During the afternoon, under threat of a resumption of the bombardment, the civilian representatives signed a capitulation of the city and such fortresses which continued to hold out.
On the morning of 10 October, when the Chief of Staff of the Military Governor appeared with authority to discuss surrender, he was presented with a fait accompli and had to agree to the terms already accepted.
 The last c. 30,000 men of the Antwerp garrison surrendered and the city was occupied by German troops until November 1918.
33,000 soldiers of the Antwerp garrison fled north to the Netherlands, where they were interned for the rest of the war, as far as possible from the Belgian border, for fear of compromising Dutch neutrality.
About one million civilian refugees left in 1914 for Great Britain, the Netherlands and France; most returned after the siege but a sizable number of the refugees in the Netherlands remained after 1918.
Early on 9 October German troops found some of the forts of the inner ring empty; Beseler had the bombardment stopped and summoned the Military Governor, General Deguise to surrender. As German parlementaires made their way to Antwerp, four civilian representatives, including the Mayor of Antwerp Jan De Vos, reached Beseler at Kontich, to request an end to the bombardment of the city. During the afternoon, under threat of a resumption of the bombardment, the civilian representatives signed a capitulation of the city and such fortresses which continued to hold out. On the morning of 10 October, when the Chief of Staff of the Military Governor appeared with authority to discuss surrender, he was presented with a fait accompli and had to agree to the terms already accepted.  The last c. 30,000 men of the Antwerp garrison surrendered and the city was occupied by German troops until November 1918. 33,000 soldiers of the Antwerp garrison fled north to the Netherlands, where they were interned for the rest of the war, as far as possible from the Belgian border, for fear of compromising Dutch neutrality. About one million civilian refugees left in 1914 for Great Britain, the Netherlands and France; most returned after the siege but a sizable number of the refugees in the Netherlands remained after 1918.
Siege of Antwerp (1914)