Germany news: Germany marks fateful date of November 9
President Steinmeier and Chancellor Merz attend events as Germany remembers Kristallnacht and the fall of the Berlin Wall
Quick Look
- Germany holds nationwide commemorations for the 88th anniversary of the November 1938 pogroms, with President Steinmeier attending events in Weimar and Chancellor Merz marking the 20th anniversary of Munich's Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue.
- November 9 also marks the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
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Why It Matters
November 9 is known as the 'day of destiny' in Germany, marking both the 1938 November pogroms and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. The pogroms, sometimes called 'Reichskristallnacht' or 'Night of Broken Glass,' involved antisemitic violence by the Nazi regime that killed at least 91 Jewish people and burned hundreds of synagogues.
Commemorations are to be held nationwide to commemorate the Nazi pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, when mobs went on an antisemitic rampage, killing at least 91 Jewish people, ransacking Jewish businesses and burning down hundreds of synagogues.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to attend events in the eastern city of Weimar, where he is due to lay a wreath and hold a speech at the memorial site established at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald.
The Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin is to have all the names of Jewish Nazi victims read out over the day in commemoration of the pogroms.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be attending a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue in Munich, which was opened 68 years to the day after the main synagogue in the city was destroyed in the pogroms.
The pogroms are sometimes known as "Reichskristallnacht" or "Night of Broken Glass," but this name has fallen out of favor as underplaying the horrors of what happened.
Guten Tag from DW's newsroom on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn!
November 9 is known as the "day of destiny" in Germany, a day that has in the past seen both horrific events and others that have shaped the country in a more positive way.
Into the first category come the November pogroms of 1938, in which the Nazi regime unleashed a wave of antisemitic violence that led to the deaths of dozens of Jewish people and the burning of hundreds of synagogues.
Events will be held nationwide to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the pogroms, including some in Weimar attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also attend a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue, which opened 68 years to the day after the destruction of Munich's main synagogue in the pogroms.
But November 9, 1989, also saw the opening of the Berlin Wall, when thousands of East Berliners unexpectedly crossed into the west of the city, an event that eventually led to the reunification of Germany.
Read on here for more on these and other stories connected with Europe's largest economy.
Open Questions
- Which specific events are planned in Weimar beyond the wreath-laying and speech?
- How many people are expected to attend the Munich synagogue anniversary ceremony?
- What other commemorations are taking place nationwide beyond those in Weimar, Berlin, and Munich?
