November 9 (Germany)
On 9 November a number falls of events for German history as political are turning points with partly international impact. The anniversaries of the fall of the Wall in 1989, the beginning of the November pogroms in 1938, the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch in 1923 and the November revolution in 1918 ( proclamation of a German republic ) are particularly serious for contemporary public discussion in retrospect - starting in the more recent past. in the then imperial capital Berlin . These historical “highlights” of the German nation-state since 1871 in different contexts, when viewed together and viewed in relation to one another, form contradicting and polarizing climaxes in terms of content and ideology in the historical-political confrontation with the history of Germany, especially that of the 20th century .
After the end of the Second World War , various historians and journalists coined the term fateful day for this date , but it only became more widespread after the events of autumn 1989 .
In remembrance of the November pogroms of the Nazi regime against German Jews in 1938, November 9 is also a day of remembrance in Germany for the victims of National Socialism - in addition to the official national Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 , the anniversary of the liberation of the extermination camp Auschwitz (1945). January 27 is also the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism proclaimed by the UN General Assembly .
Timetable
- November 9. 1918 - November Revolution in Berlin: proclamation of the Republic in Germany
Philipp Scheidemann when the republic was proclaimed on November 9, 1918
In view of the impending defeat of the German Reich in World War I, Chancellor Max von Baden , appointed a few weeks earlier, proclaimed the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and entrusted Friedrich Ebert ( SPD ) with the official business. Ebert's comrade Philipp Scheidemann , who will replace him as head of government in February 1919, proclaims the " German Republic " from a window in the Reichstag building . On the same day, but a few hours later, Karl Liebknecht , one of the leaders of the left-wing revolutionary Spartakusbund , proclaimed from the Berlin City Palace a Free Socialist Republic of Germany intended as a Soviet republic . In the following, regionally partly civil war-like disputes between the advocates of a socialist soviet republic and those of a pluralistic parliamentary democracy , the supporters of the council model succumb. Liebknecht himself was murdered two months later, together with Rosa Luxemburg, on January 15 by reactionary volunteer corps. Subsequently, in August 1919 the first democratically structured state in Germany, known as the Weimar Republic , was constituted (named after the national assembly that met in Weimar ). - November 9, 1923 - Hitler-Ludendorff Putsch in Munich: National Socialism is recognized internationally for the first time.
Adolf Hitler , the party leader of the NSDAP hardly known to the general public , deliberately undertakes a coup attempt against the democratic Reich government on the 5th anniversary of the proclamation of the republic. The company, which claims 16 deaths, fails after just a few hours in front of the Munich Feldherrnhalle . Hitler uses the subsequent process to present himself as a leading figure in the völkisch movement . He is five years imprisonment convicted, but released early after only nine months "for good behavior". When he came to power ten years later and established a totalitarian dictatorship in Germany, he declared November 9 a commemorative and public holiday. During the Nazi dictatorship, state funeral ceremonies are held here every year, at which the so-called " martyrs of the movement " are commemorated.
- November 9, 1938 - the peak of the November pogroms ( November 7th to 13th): After an assassination attempt on a German diplomat in Paris, the National Socialists stage the November pogroms (the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938 is often also up to the present day known under the euphemistic term " Reichskristallnacht "). In the Nazi propaganda , the excesses , mainly committed by SA and SS members in civilian clothes, are portrayed as an expression of “popular anger” against the Jews . All over Germany and Austria, Jewish shops and institutions are demolished and synagogues are set on fire. Hundreds of Jews are murdered within a few days. These events mark the transition from social exclusion and discrimination to the open persecution of the Jews under the dictatorship of National Socialism . During the Second World War , National Socialist anti-Semitism culminated in the industrially pursued genocide, now known as the Holocaust , of around six million European Jews and other population groups in the extermination camps of the Nazi regime, who were excluded for racist motives .
- November 9, 1967 : At the ceremonial inauguration of the new rector of Hamburg University , students unfold a banner with the slogan Unter den Talaren - Muff of 1000 years , which will become the symbol of the 1968 movement .
- November 9, 1969 : The left-wing extremist terrorist organization Tupamaros West Berlin placed a bomb in the Jewish community hall in Berlin. However, the bomb does not explode.
- 9. November 1989 - Fall of the Wall :
The opening of the German-German border highlights and perpetuates the success of the peaceful revolution in the GDR , the October 3, 1990 with the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany , the German reunification follows (see also history of the Federal Republic Germany (until 1990) and history of the German Democratic Republic ).
As the date of the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9th is currently being discussed as the national holiday of united Germany. Also out of consideration for the commemoration of November 9, 1938, the Unification Treaty 1990 ( Art. 2 Para. 2 EV) stipulates October 3 as the Day of German Unity .
literature
- Eckart Conze : A difficult day of remembrance. November 9th in history and memory. In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 69 (2019), p. 1 ff.
- Anke Hilbrenner , Charlotte Jahnz: On November 9th: Interior Views of a Century 1918, 1923, 1938, 1969, 1974, 1989 . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-462-05144-5 .
- Jörg Koch: November 9th in German history 1918 - 1923 - 1938 - 1989. 3rd edition. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-7930-9596-5 .
Web links
- Bernd Jonas: November 9th in German history. ( Memento from January 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Historical Institute of RWTH Aachen : Project Lexicon of Contemporary History .
- Jürgen P. Lang : November 9th - a German day of remembrance . Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation , November 9, 2015.