November 9th is a momentous day to Germans. Many major events in German history occurred on that day: Robert Blum’s death in 1848, Kaiser Wilhelm’s abdication in 1918, Einstein’s Nobel Prize win in 1922, the failed Munich Putsch/Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Since shortly after World War II, November 9th was nicknamed Schicksalstag (“Day of Fate”) by some media members. But its current widespread use in Germany started after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
