Reigning Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD), Culture Senator Klaus Lederer (left) and State Culture Minister Claudia Roth (Greens) came to the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse. About 200 schoolchildren from Germany, France and Norway placed roses in the cracks of the wall that once separated them, parts of which are still in their original location in the monument.
The Belarusian Volny Choir also performed as part of the event. It was established in August 2020 in response to repression in Belarus. To remain anonymous and to protect themselves from persecution by those in power there, the singers wore hoods or masks.
On November 9, 1989, after a large wave of departures and massive demonstrations by the opposition, the then GDR leadership opened the borders to West Berlin and the Federal Republic and allowed all GDR citizens to travel. Less than a year later, Germany was reunited on October 3, 1990.
November 9 also stands for other events in German history: in 1918 the republic was proclaimed in Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II and with him all other monarchs in the German Empire abdicated. On November 9, 1938, synagogues and other Jewish institutions were destroyed and Jews murdered during Nazi pogroms.
On November 9, 1923, the future dictator Adolf Hitler failed with an attempted coup in Munich. On November 9, 1848, the German revolutionary Robert Blum was executed in Vienna.
(SDA)