Even though the German National Holiday (German: "Tag der deutschen Einheit", "Day of German Unity/Unification") that celebrates the Re-Unification of the Federal German Republic (West-Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East-Germany) takes place on October the 3rd [1] (formerly June 17 [2]), there is another day in Germany that is laden with historic meaning.

Tomorrow, on November the 9th, Germany remembers some of the most important dates in its history. On four different occasions during the 20th Century, fundamental and inimitable events took place on this day, sometimes called a "Day of Fate" for the Germans: The end of the Monarchy in 1918, the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, and the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989.

1918

The First World War ended in 1918 amidst a chaotic situation brought about by the desperate, but ultimately futile last attempts of the German Great General Staff to overpower the ever-advancing Allied Forces in the West by means of a last, possibly game-changing offensive (the "Kaiserschlacht", or "Emperor's Battle", really a string of battles that culminated in the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918 [3]). It emerged that Germany had to settle for peace, but the Allies had made it a condition for peace that the Kaiser should abdicate.

Wilhelm II. did this [4] on November 9, 1918, reluctantly, pressured and shoved by then-chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. Reality had already proceeded without him: A mutiny that was started amongst the long inactive German Navy [5] soldiers, spread throughout German troops, quickly growing into the German Revolution.

On the same day, Social Democrat Leader Philipp Scheidemann, under growing pressure from Berlin workers and soldiers, proclaimed the German Republic from a balcony of the Reichstag, thus unilaterally ending all attempts to establish a constitutional monarchy.

Oddly enough, his proclamation wasn't the only one that day: Socialist Karl Liebknecht declared the formation of a Free Socialist Republic just two hours later. This was but the beginning of a tumultuous autumn in Germany.

1923

The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as Munich Putch (German: "Hitlerputsch" or "Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch"), was an attempted coup d'etat by the Hitler, then based in Munich, to take over Munich with his SA-brownshirts [6]. Modelled after Mussolini's March on Rome that took place the previous year, a successful local revolution in Bavaria was supposed to incite the rest of the Weimar Republic to revolt and enable Hitler to take over power in Berlin as well.

Started on the eve of November 8th, it was badly planned and executed, finally collapsing after a clash with loyal Bavarian troops. Hitler and others were send to prison (even though Hitler only served 8 months of the 5 years he was originally sentenced to). Hitler not only successfully used the trial for publicity, he also wrote "Mein Kampf" while serving time.

1938

One of the lowest points in German History is the Kristallnacht, also known as Night of Broken Glass (German: "Reichspogromnacht" [7]), the best-known of several days during November where pogroms took place. The broken glass referred were the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, houses, and synagogues, many of which were subsequently set on fire and destroyed.

Triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a polish Jew (itself motivated by the expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany), a coordinated and widespread attack on Jews and their property was organised and executed by Hitler Youth, Gestapo, SA and SS. During November 1938, about 400 people died, about 30,000 more were deported into concentration camps, where many more of them died. More than 1,400 synagogues and cultural centres were destroyed, as were thousands of Jewish shops, tenements and cemeteries.

The pogroms can be seen as a step taken from discrimination of Jews towards the systematic persecution, finally culminating in the "Final Solution" - the Shoah.

1989

Conversely, something we Germans can be proud of is the last item on our list: The peaceful Reunification of Germany under a democratic government. And while the Reunification proper did not happen until October 3rd,1990, 20 years ago today the Berlin Wall did come down.

The Iron Curtain had already gotten a bit porous with Hungary removing its border defences with Austria on August 23, thereby allowing thousands of East Germans to escape via this route, or seeking refuge in the West German embassy in Budapest. Similar scenes were taking place in Czechoslovakia.

Even though then-General Secretary of the GDR, Erich Honecker had predicted in January that the Berlin Wall would stand for "a hundred more years", peaceful mass protest that broke out in East Germany (the famous Monday Demonstrations, "Montagsdemos") culminated in the gathering of about a million people in Berlin Alexanderplatz on November 4 amidst chants of "Wir sind das Volk" ("We are the people") and "Wir wollen raus" ("We want out").

To ease the strain the ever-increasing stream of refugees put on the socialist brother countries, particularly Czechoslovakia, the new Politbüro under the new General Secretary Egon Krenz wanted to announce new travel guidelines for their citizens that would permit (but still uphold the need for approval of) private travel to the West.

Curiously, the Politbüro-spokesperson Günter Schabowski was rushed to a press conference and, when pressed by the media, told them that the new guidelines would go into effect immediately. The Media further shortened this into "the borders are open to everyone" [8] - and so it was. The rush of people to the wall, practically overwhelming the surprised guards and flooding the checkpoints. The power of facts had surpassed all politics and the border stayed open.

Ambivalence

So, as is often the case with history, there exists ambivalence about this fateful day in Germany: This year, the positive aspects mostly seem to determine the mood, as it is the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but November 9th seems like it was inspired by Sergio Leone - the good (1918, 1989), the bad (1938) and the ugly (1923) - you have to take the whole package. That all these events fall on the same day in our calendar by chance alone is hardly significant. But by happening at all, the history of Germany, Europe, and the whole world, changed.

Footnotes

[1] Reunification was proclaimed on October 3rd 1990.
[2] Where it commemorated the uprising against socialist rule in the GDR on June 17, 1953.
[3] Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Offensive
[4] Cf. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Statement_of_Abdication; the actual signing of the abdication did not take place until November 28.
[5] After the Battle of Jutland in 1916 no big engagements were fought to challange the British Grand Fleet.
[6] SA is the abbreviation for „Sturmabteilung“, which roughly translates to „Assault Section“.
[7] In Germany, it is no longer politically correct to call it „(Reichs-)kristallnacht“ (the rough meaning of „Night of Broken Glass“) without the quotation marks, even though there is still considerable debate on the other possible wordings.
[8] Mary Elise Sarotte: How it went down. The little accident that toppled history, Nov 1, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR200910...

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Welcome to the History section of layscience.net. Here, we'll be discussing some historical issues, be they the attempts of certain people to distort or misrepresent historical events, be they parallels that can be drawn in order to learn from history, be they overlooked but revealing aspects of history or just some (hopefully) interesting thoughts about the myths and stories that define our identities: History.

As this represents my first foray into this blogging thingy, and I've never done any html, please overlook any starting problems, like formatting errors and the like. I'll get into it, eventually. - mus