Today is a symbolic date for Germany as millions of people across the country mark “Schicksalstag” – otherwise known as its day of fate.
It’s a day of national commemoration, as opposed to celebration. Indeed, as German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier puts it, November 9th is an “ambivalent” date, both “a bright and dark day.”
Germany, it is often said, is better than many other nations at acknowledging the shameful episodes in its past. And today is an occasion to reflect on a particularly ugly historical event. It’s the 83rd anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom known as “Kristallnacht” – or “Night of Broken Glass” – where Nazis, accompanied by many ordinary Germans, terrorised Jews throughout Germany and Austria, destroying around 7,500 Jewish businesses, burning more than 1,400 synagogues, and killing at least 91 people.
Yet November 9th also marks some prouder moments in German history. On this day in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, setting in motion the country’s unification.
