Germany's Day of Destiny

[Kellanved]

Tuesday marks the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but Nov. 9 had been an important date in German history long before. Since 1848, at least four other significant events took place on that day.



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 Günter Schabowski (photo), 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."

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1938: Reichskristallnacht



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 curtailed the life of Jews 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.
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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1389348,00.html