History

Although we are busy remembering the start of systematic slayering of jews and political opponents in the Reichsprogromnacht at November 9, 1938; and remembering the fall of the Wall in November 9, 1989, there is also pretty important dates we should not forget:

November 9, 1918: Kurt Eisner declares the free state of bavaria, marking the end of monarchy. Bavaria was one of the first states in Germany to actually revolt against monarchy. Kurt Eisner was shot shortly afterwards by right wing Count Arco. Subequently the Communist took over (Eisner was socialist) to form the Soviet Republic of Bavaria.

The conservative uproar following the revolution in bavaria lead to...

November 9, 1923: Hitler tries to putsch him self into power for the first time (the infamous beer hall putsch). He gets a couple of years in prison for it, during this time he writes "Mein Kampf".

Inbetween, November 9, 1918: the armistice of Compiègne starts the end of WWI. After the marine revolted, german military finally accepted the loss of the war. Wilhelm II resigns. Inn Berlin, Philipp Scheidemann declares the german Republic and Karl Liebknecht the Soviet Republic of Germany.

Funny enough, although a lot of important events happened on November, 9, which are all somehow connected and only together lead to some understanding of german history, we only talk about two of them. The Armistice is remembered anywhere outside germany (as is May 8, 1945) - germans do not generally know this date. For the generation of my parents it seems that history only covers everything till 1871 and then starts again at 1950, for my generation it seems that history mainly consists of 1933-1945 (with some hints of middle ages and 1950-1989).