Skip to main content
Morning Star Conference
Berlin Wall bombast drowns out Kristallnacht commemorations in Germany
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.”

In Vienna, Jewish students surrounded the Holocaust Memorial on Friday night and prevented Walter Rosenkranz, parliamentary leader of the far-right Freedom Party which is the largest in the legislature, from laying a wreath in memory of Kristallnacht’s victims.

Mr Rosenkranz is a member of a far-right pan-German student fraternity organisation and has previously expressed praise for Johann Stich, Nazi attorney-general. The students said they did not want him to “spit on our ancestors’ faces.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
LETTING THE RIGHT IN: Men chip away at the defunct Berlin wa
Features / 24 February 2025
24 February 2025
The fall of the Berlin Wall enabled neofascist activity to spill over into East Germany, laying the groundwork for the strengthening of right-wing forces today, writes JACOB YASKO