Germany marks its day of destiny

Nov. 9, 1989 wasn't meant to be a watershed in German history. While the communist leadership of East Germany had decided to allow citizens to travel freely on that day, the change in policy was not supposed to take effect until Nov. 10 to give border guards time to prepare.

But Guenter Schabowski, a member of the East German politburo, who announced the decision at a press conference had not been present at the meeting. Asked by reporters when the new regulation would take effect, he said: "Immediately."

Schabowski during his historic press conference on Nov. 9, 1989

Watching Schabowski's statement on television, thousands of East Berliners rushed to crossing points to West Berlin, where overwhelmed border guards soon decided to let them pass.

Thus, Nov. 9 yet again became a German "day of destiny" marking the first, triumphant steps towards the country's reunification. But while Germans had a reason to celebrate on that date in 1989, another event that took place 51 years earlier on Nov. 9 remains one of the darkest in the country's history.

1938: Jewish Pogrom

A Jewish shop in Berlin the day after "Kristallnacht"

Using the Nov. 7, 1938 assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a German-Polish Jew as an excuse, the so-called Reichskristallnacht two days later rang in the Nazis' brutal persecution of Jews that would eventually end in the murder of millions of people.

While the 1935 Nazi race laws had already severely affected Jewish life in Germany, members of the Nazi SA militia across the country now torched synagogues and destroyed Jewish stores. About 100 people were killed during the pogrom and about 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

1923: Hitler putsch

Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, had meanwhile gathered in Munich to commemorate the 15th anniversary of another Nov. 9 event: Hitler's failed putsch attempt of 1923.

A bust of Hitler in the German Historical Museum's depository

Worried that other nationalistic, right-wing groups might overshadow his emerging Nazi party (NSDAP), Hitler and his followers on Nov. 8 stormed a meeting of Bavarian government officials in a Munich restaurant and forced them at gunpoint to support his revolution.

When the men revoked their agreement to cooperate a few hours later, Hitler led a march on the center of Munich, which was broken up by police. The NSDAP was banned as a result and Hitler ended up spending a few months in prison.

1918: Proclamation of the republic

Philipp Scheidemann

Unlike the other Nov. 9 events, the putsch attempt did not fall on that date by coincidence, according to Heinrich August Winkler, one of Germany's most renowned historians. Hitler's march on Munich took place exactly five years after the proclamation of the German republic by Social Democratic politician Philipp Scheidemann, which came just two days before the end of World War I.

"Many Germans saw the parliamentary democracy not as a new beginning, but as a consequence of the lost war as well as an instrument of the victors," Winkler told German daily Die Welt, adding that right-wing supporters rejected the republic as "non-German."

1848: Killing revolutionary dreams

The national assembly in Frankfurt's St. Paul's Church was disbanded on May 30, 1849

Another event significant for German history took place on Nov. 9, 1848 -- the execution of Robert Blum, a member of the Frankfurt national assembly, a legislative body meant to create a constitution for a unified Germany.

Ignoring his immunity as a parliamentarian, Blum was sentenced to death by Austria's imperial government after supporting Viennese revolutionaries. His execution showed the parliament's powerlessness and made Blum a symbol of the failed attempt to create a unified and free Germany.

No alternative national day

Few people might think of Blum's execution when asked about significant events for German history on Nov. 9. But according to a 2008 opinion poll, an increasing number of Germans also has trouble remembering that the event which did eventually lead to a unified and free Germany took place on that date.

Today, everyone's free to pass through Brandenburg Gate

Asked "What happened on Nov. 9, 1989," every third person questioned didn't know the answer. Of those aged 29 and younger, 42 percent couldn't connect the fall of the Wall with Nov. 9.

"I don't think it's a good idea to make it a national day," he said, adding that Nov. 9 should be a German day of reflection instead. "Which speaker wouldn't be overwhelmed by the task of expressing joy over the fall of the Wall and at the same time mourning Nov. 9, 1938, an important step on the way to the Holocaust?"