Der 9. November

Philipp Scheidemann declares a German Republic from a window of the Reichstag building on November 9, 1918. (Source: Der Tagesspiegel)

While November 9 has some disastrous implications for German history, namely Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and the violent turning point of Kristallnacht, it is also the anniversary of the two most crucial inceptions of German democracy, Philipp Scheidemann’s declaration of the Weimar Republic and the end of the Kaiserreich in 1918, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. If there is ever a day to contemplate the duality of German history, it is today.