Fireworks light the sky during the as musicians play on stage during the concert for freedom for the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2024
TRIUMPHALIST celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall drowned out commemorations of November 9’s other key anniversary, that of Kristallnacht, in Berlin on Saturday.
In 1938, Nazi thugs smashed Jewish shops and businesses across Germany and Austria, which it had recently annexed, torched synagogues and attacked and murdered Jews.
In a speech focusing on the fall of the wall, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said the lesson from the defeat of East Germany was that “without freedom, everything is nothing.” He did refer to Kristallnacht, saying “anti-semitism is still a reality today.”
The cancelled China trip of the German Foreign Minister marks a break with Helmut Schmidt’s China policy and drives Germany further into Washington’s confrontation course, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN
The decision highlights the tension between freedom of expression and the state’s role in shaping historical memory at former concentration camps, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
JOHN GREEN observes how Berlin’s transformation from socialist aspiration to imperial nostalgia mirrors Germany’s dangerous trajectory under Chancellor Merz — a BlackRock millionaire and anti-communist preparing for a new war with Russia
In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring