Berlin, November 9th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – In Nazi Germany, the November Pogroms took place 88 years ago, to the day. Hundreds were murdered by Nazi mobs just because they were Jews, in state-sponsored attacks.
Nazis set 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms on fire during the Night of Broken Glass. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, Jewish-owned businesses destroyed. So were apartments and houses Jews lived in. This day marked the transition from the discrimination against Jews to their expulsion and systematic annihilation.
Fifty-one years later, on November 9th, 1989, the unthinkable happened, but this time it was a very positive event. The Berlin Wall, which had separated Germans from Germans, fell. Citizens from East Germany and West Germany walked right through it, from both directions.
Beginning of the End
They stood on top of it, chipped away at it using pickaxes and celebrated a day many thought would never come. Twenty-eight years after the Wall’s construction, its fall on November 9th, 1989, marked the beginning of the end of the GDR along with its repressive communist regime. Germany’s reunification was less than a year away.
Yet another historic event connected to this day was the proclamation of the republic on November 9th, 1918.
This year, ahead of November 9th, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner stated, November 9th was a fateful day for Germany, one that was remembered again and again, especially in Berlin.
“Hatred and Contempt”
“On the one hand, we commemorate the November pogroms of 1938, when hatred and contempt for human beings turned with brutal violence against fellow citizens of the Jewish faith, bringing death and destruction”, Wegner said. “On the other hand, we also recall moments of hope in German history, such as the proclamation of the republic in 1918 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which paved the way for a peaceful revolution that ultimately led to reunification and a democracy for all of Germany.”
“This day shows what power courage and commitment to democracy can unleash, but also what destruction and violence can arise from hatred and incitement”, the Governing Mayor added. “We bear the responsibility to keep remembrance alive and, time and again, to draw from our history the mandate for an open, free and humane society.”
Today, the events of November 9th 1918, 1938 and 1989 will be commemorated at several locations in Berlin, including the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse and the former German-German border crossing at Bornholmer Strasse. During a service at Berlin Cathedral, both the fall of the Berlin Wall and the November Pogroms will be commemorated.
