This is a roundup of the stories from and about Germanyhitting the headlines on Monday, November 9, 2026:
Merz calls for defense of democracy, freedom
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has used the November 9 anniversary of several important dates in German history to call on people in Germany and Europe to stand up for democracy and liberty.
November 9 was the day in 1918 that the monarchy fell, in 1938 a day of antisemitic violence known as the November pogroms, and in 1989 the day when the Berlin Wall opened, paving the way for the reunification of Germany.
Writing on X, Merz said, "November 9 stands for the darkest and the happiest hours of our history: for antisemitism and persecution, for the beginning of democracy and the fall of the Wall."
"Freedom and democracy can never be taken for granted. Let us defend them — in Germany and Europe," he wrote.
Germany marks November pogroms anniversary
Hundreds of synagogues were set on fire during the pogromsImage: akg-images/picture allianceCommemorations are to be held nationwide to commemorate the Nazi pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, when mobs went on an antisemitic rampage, killing at least 91 Jewish people, ransacking Jewish businesses and burning down hundreds of synagogues.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to attend events in the eastern city of Weimar, where he is due to lay a wreath and hold a speech at the memorial site established at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald.
The Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin is to have all the names of Jewish Nazi victims read out over the day in commemoration of the pogroms.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be attending a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue in Munich, which was opened 68 years to the day after the main synagogue in the city was destroyed in the pogroms.
The pogroms are sometimes known as "Reichskristallnacht" or "Night of Broken Glass," but this name has fallen out of favor as underplaying the horrors of what happened.
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November 9 is known as the "day of destiny" in Germany, a day that has in the past seen both horrific events and others that have shaped the country in a more positive way.
Into the first category come the November pogroms of 1938, in which the Nazi regime unleashed a wave of antisemitic violence that led to the deaths of dozens of Jewish people and the burning of hundreds of synagogues.
Events will be held nationwide to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the pogroms, including some in Weimar attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also attend a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue, which opened 68 years to the day after the destruction of Munich's main synagogue in the pogroms.
But November 9, 1989, also saw the opening of the Berlin Wall, when thousands of East Berliners unexpectedly crossed into the west of the city, an event that eventually led to the reunification of Germany.
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