In the two Schönau books, the main character Lotte’s birthday is on November 9 – a special day in German history for many reasons. Therefore, this day linked the numerous historical events with Lotte’s birthday and played a major role in the framework plot set in 1989. The accumulation of historical events on that day may not be immediately apparent or known to everyone, so here is an overview of five historically significant events that took place on November 9. This November 9 is a difficult day. On the one hand, a day of joy because the GDR opened its border on November 9th, and in my opinion that is one of the best things that happened in this country. On the other hand, it was also one of the darkest days in Germany when the hideous pogrom took place in 1938. And these are not the only historical events that took place on November 9th. Let’s travel back in time …
November 9, 1848 – Revolution!
The year is 1848. The gold rush begins in the USA, Karl Marx writes his Communist Manifesto, women forced their hair into corkscrew curls, houses were lit with oil lamps, people traveled by train more often, Dickens’s “Dombey and Son” was published and Germany consisted of 39 states – some monarchies, some duchies or independent cities, some ruled by foreign kings. The whole construct was called the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) and was a loose federation created in 1815 after finally successfully getting rid of Napoleon, who had turned Europe upside down.
Actually, everyone could have been happy – Napoleon was out of the way, art was flourishing, cities were growing and there was beautiful furniture (the Biedermeier style was all the rage). But it wasn’t that easy. Those in power weren’t exactly crazy about change and innovation, on the contrary. Now that the French troublemaker was gone, they wanted to get back to tradition. If something works, why fix it. However, it actually didn’t work. The states of the German Confederation were not necessarily best friends and therefore were not successful in making joint decisions and improving the lives of their inhabitants. Political censorship, famine, low wages and oppression were not particularly well received by the people. However, Germans are not necessarily “Let’s go out and start a revolution!” people. There were some attempts, mainly by younger people, but the majority retreated into private life.
Then the French started yet another revolution and you can imagine how this annoyed the German rulers, because this time the Germans decided to try it out. They took to the streets, mainly in Vienna (Austria was part of the German Confederation) and Berlin. Berlin experienced violent fighting between revolutionaries and the royal army, and a step towards democracy was finally taken – a national assembly of elected representatives from all states of the German Confederation met in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche on May 18, 1848 to draft a constitution. One of the leading speakers there was Robert Blum. In October 1848 he traveled to Vienna to support the revolutionaries there. He wrote to his wife that the people approached the revolution “leisurely but thoroughly.” No disorganized running around and beheading people in German revolutions.
However, things became less comfortable for Blum because he was arrested – despite his diplomatic immunity -, labeled a dangerous anarchist, sentenced to death and shot on November 9, 1848. His last words were: “I am dying for freedom.” He became a famous victim of the revolution, so admired that a veritable cult developed around him. Many consider his death to be the turning point of the revolution, which was ultimately crushed.
November 9, 1918 – Republic
In 1918, Europe was in the stranglehold of war. Emperor Wilhelm II had not covered himself in glory and power had long since passed to the Supreme Army Command. The German Empire had clearly lost the war and the population starved to death. Wilhelm II was no longer even considered relevant enough to keep him fully informed of war developments, and so he continued to dream of victory. He wasn’t exactly flavor of the month (or year) in Germany. This became even more pronounced when US President Wilson made it clear that the abdication of Wilhelm II was the prerequisite for discussions about an armistice. Wilhelm himself, understandably, didn’t think much of it. The Germans no longer thought so much of him.
November 1918 began with strikes and uprisings that soon spread across the country, eventually developing into a full-fledged revolution. The people demanded the emperor’s abdication and ultimately the decision was taken out of his hands. On November 9, the republic was proclaimed not just once, but twice (we Germans are thorough): Philipp Scheidemann from the SPD learned that Karl Liebknecht from the Spartacists was planning to proclaim a socialist republic and so Scheidemann rushed to the balcony of the Reichstag and proclaimed the German Republic. He wasn’t actually authorized to do this, which got him into a bit of trouble with Friedrich Ebert, because, after all, we are in Germany and a revolution is no reason to ignore order and process. But he had saved Germany from becoming a socialist republic, which shows that a little spontaneity can sometimes be helpful.
November 9, 1923 – Putsch
On August 11, 1919, Germany’s new constitution was proclaimed. Because it had been worked out in the small town of Weimar, the new republic was called the “Weimar Republic”. The constitution was motivated by the best of intentions, but in subsequent years it proved to be an unsteady basis for a stable government. The Weimar Republic soon suffered from countless uprisings, assassinations and constant changes of government. In 1922 the German currency lost its value and in 1923 the country was in the throes of massive hyperinflation, which led to the introduction of a new currency, the Rentenmark. The Germans had banknotes with astronomical amounts that were now worthless. Right-wing extremist groups that did not want a republic under a social democratic government organized several coups, the most famous of which were the Kapp Putsch in 1920 and the Hitler Putsch (also called the Beer Hall Putsch) in 1923.
The German government had just decided to pay the reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles, had realized that cooperation was the only way to free Germany from its international isolation. For right-wing radical groups, this was unacceptable “fulfillment policy” and so it was decided to remove the government through a coup.
Why is it also called the Beer Hall Putsch? Because the putsch began in a Munich beer hall, the Bürgerbräukeller. It was there that the failed painter Hitler, who had risen to become leader of the Nazi Party, declared a revolution and launched various activities against the Bavarian state government on November 8, 1923. On November 9 the attempted coup continued and at noon a march started from the Bürgerbräukeller with the intention of occupying the most important buildings in Munich. 3,000 men marched, lead by Hitler and Ludendorff but didn’t get far. The police cordoned off the street and ultimately had to use force. Shots were fired and the coup was over. Hitler was arrested, attempted suicide (unfortunately unsuccessful) and – like the other putschists – only received a light punishment.
One could say that it was actually just one of many uprisings in the Weimar Republic, carried out by a little-known right-wing group, also one of many. However, the consequences were serious: the attempted coup made the Nazis known, gave Hitler ample opportunities (for example during his trial) to publicly discuss his motives and goals, and caused him to rethink his strategies for seizing power. The rest is dark, dark history.
November 9, 1938 – Disgrace
Everyone knows about Germany’s darkest years and the hideous persecution of the Jews. In 1938, Jews could no longer work as civil servants, doctors, in cultural professions or as lawyers. The schools were segregated and Jewish passports were stamped with a large red “J”. Jews and non-Jews were not allowed to marry or have physical relationships with each other. All civil rights had been taken away from the Jews.
In October 1938, approximately 12,000 Jews of Polish origin were expelled from Germany more or less overnight. They were transported to the Polish border, but Poland would not accept them and so they wandered around the German-Polish border area under terrible privation. Among these outcasts was the Grynszpan family, who sent a message to their seventeen-year-old son Herschel, who was living with his uncle in Paris. They wrote to him about the terrible events and asked for help. The Évian Conference, at which all participating states except the Dominican Republic closed their borders to Jewish refugees in full knowledge of the impact of this decision, had taken place only a few months ago.
Herschel Grynszpan, who knew that the situation was hopeless, went to the German embassy and shot the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who later died from his injuries. For Herschel it was a desperate attempt to be heard – „I must protest so that the whole world hears my protest, and that is what I will do.“
It was the perfect excuse for the Nazis to stage a “spontaneous” riot by “enraged citizens,” which was in reality a pogrom carried out by SA and SS men in civilian clothing, armed with detailed instructions. It was a disgusting, shameful orgy of violence.
November 9, 1989 – Freedom
In 1989, people were used to the fact that there were two German states – the Federal Republic in the west and the so-called German Democratic Republic in the east. While reunification was one of the goals set out in the West German constitution, no one believed that this would happen soon (or ever). But 1989 brought promising developments. Under the government of Mikhail Gorbachev, a new impulse of freedom swept through Russia and the Eastern European states. While the head of GDR government, Erich Honecker, announced that the Berlin Wall would stand for another hundred years, there were peaceful demonstrations for freedom and democracy in the country, and the rest of Eastern Europe was also preparing to open up. Hungary was a pioneer, the border fence with Austria was officially cut down in the summer of 1989 and countless East Germans who spent their vacation in Hungary took advantage of this opportunity for freedom and crossed the newly opened border.
On November 9, 1989, a small mistake opened the inner German border and paved the way to freedom. The spokesman for the East German ruling party SED, Günter Schabowski, held a press conference. This went quite uneventfully, but then Schabowski remembered a note that had been given to him before the conference and which he was supposed to read out. So he did this and announced that East Germans would be granted freedom of travel and that they could leave the country via all internal German border crossings. Schabowski spoke somewhat hesitantly, with a lot of “ums”. When asked if this also applied to West Berlin, he shrugged, looked at his documents and said, „Yes.“ It was obvious that he had no idea what was going on. This is not surprising because this was not a discussed and officially made decision. There had been plenty of discussion in the GDR government about the need to make concessions regarding freedom of travel, but there was no agreement on the exact conditions. The text read out by Schabowski was not yet supposed to be made public, but no one had informed him of this and he had not seen the blocking notice on the second page.
So when he was asked when this new regulation would come into force, he put on his reading glasses and said: “Well, comrades, I was informed that such a message was already distributed today. (…) As far as I know, that applies … that’s immediate.” He frowned at his papers and the history took its course. East and West Germans streamed to the border. The guards didn’t know what to do for lack of instructions. Eventually the borders were opened and never closed again.
Heike Wolf - Historische Romane 