East Germany

Today in History 11/09 (Kristallnacht)

Pedestrians glance at the broken windows of a Jewish-owned shop in Berlin after the attacks of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938 (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1938) Nazis launch ‘Kristallnacht’ terror campaign
Nazis attack Jews and loot and burn their businesses and synagogues in a coordinated and widespread campaign throughout Germany and Austria. The event, later known as ‘Kristallnacht’ or the ‘the night of broken glass,’ will portend an even greater horror, the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht or Reichskristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, Reichspogromnacht or simply Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed.
Start date: Nov 09, 1938
End date: Nov 10, 1938
Location: Free City of Danzig
Target: Jewish people
Attack type: Pogrom, looting, arson, mass murder, state terrorism
Deaths: 91+

Interior of Berlin's Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, opened in 1912, after it was set on fire during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. It was destroyed entirely during an Allied air raid on Berlin in 1943, and a Jewish Community Center was opened in its place in 1959
The interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin after Kristallnacht
wiki/Kristallnacht
4.15.A18

(1938) Nazis launch ‘Kristallnacht’ terror campaign.
Also on this day,

1960 | Ford under McNamara as McNamara takes over at Ford Motor Co.
One of Ford’s ‘Whiz Kids,’ who helped save the struggling carmaker in the 1940s, Robert McNamara is the first president of the company not named Ford. His tenure as president will last only a few weeks, however, as he’ll soon be tapped to join the newly elected Kennedy administration.
1989 | Fall of the Berlin Wall as East Germany lets the Berlin Wall come down
East German officials have bowed to pressure and lifted travel restrictions to the West. Thousands of Berliners from both sides swarm the wall and cheer the destruction of the 12-foot high barrier that had separated them for over 30 years.
2004 | Astros pitcher Roger Clemens wins his seventh Cy Young Award
Nicknamed ‘Rocket,’ Clemens sets a record for the most Cy Young Awards of any major league pitcher, adding another accolade to an impressive career. A steroid scandal a few years later, however, will taint Clemens’ accomplishments.

Today in History 11/09/17

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989, as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall (© Gerard Malie/AFP/Getty Images)(1989) East Germany lets the Berlin Wall come down
East German officials have bowed to pressure and lifted travel restrictions to the West. Thousands of Berliners from both sides swarm the wall and cheer the destruction of the 12-foot high barrier that had separated them for over 30 years.
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
Address: Bernauer Straße 111, Berlin
Phone: 030 3087770
Construction started: Aug 13, 1961
Destroyed: Nov 09, 1989

Berlin-wall-map
Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

wiki/Berlin_Wall
4.6.n17


Today in History 10/03 (Germany Reunited)

Young people light flares in front of Berlin's Reichstag early October 3, 1990, to celebrate German unification (© Diether Endlicher/AP)(1990) A nation carved up by the Cold War is made whole
In what will later be celebrated as ‘Unity Day,’ a country torn in two after the Second World War is reunited as the once Soviet-controlled East Germany is dissolved and its territory and citizens merged with the Federal Republic of Germany, formerly known as West Germany.
The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a united Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled again. Therefore, the name addresses neither the re-union nor the union, but the unity of Germany. The Day of German Unity on 3 October has been the German national holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.
Observed by: Germany
Significance: Commemorates the German reunification in 1990
Frequency: annual
Date: 3 October

Berlin, deutsche Vereinigung, vor dem Reichstag
For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB-Grimm-3.10.90-Berlin: Vereinigung/Hunderttausende waren dabei, als vor dem Reichstag die schwarz-rot-goldene Bundesfahne gehißt wurde.
wiki/German_Unity_Day
4.15.A18

(1990) A nation carved up by the Cold War is made whole.
Also on this day,

52 BCE | Caesar conquers the Gauls at Battle of Alesia
The Gallic Wars have raged for eight years, with Julius Caesar leading much of the Roman Republic’s charge against the tribes of Gaul in Western Europe. An inability to band together against their common enemy dooms the Gallic tribes, and the struggle ends at the Battle of Alesia.
1895 | Crane sees the Civil War through a young soldier’s eyes in ‘The Red Badge of Courage’
Stephen Crane’s novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ is released in book form for the first time. Not yet born when the Civil War ended, the young author weaves a narrative of America’s great cataclysm, now 30 years gone, with such verisimilitude that critics will call him a master of Realism.
1942 | V-2 rocket crosses a cosmic threshold
A new Nazi ‘Wunderwaffen,’ or ‘weapon of wonder,’ is fired in a test flight, and the missile’s top 52.5-mile altitude is so high it becomes the first manmade object to enter outer space. In less than two years Germany will begin launching thousands of V-2 rockets, mainly against Belgium and the UK.

Today in History 10/03/17

Launching site for V2 rockets in Germany during WWII (© Roger Viollet/Getty Images)(1942) Missile crosses a cosmic threshold
A new Nazi 'Wunderwaffen,' or 'weapon of wonder,' is fired in a test flight, and the missile's top 52.5-mile altitude is so high it becomes the first manmade object to enter outer space. In less than two years Germany will begin launching thousands of V-2 rockets, mainly against Belgium and the UK.
The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4, was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile with a liquid-propellant rocket engine was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into outer space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.
Sectional view of the missile Aggregat 2 / V 2
Layout of a V-2 rocket

wiki/V-2_rocket
4.4.j17