Remembrance and Unity

The German Festival Year

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Remembrance and the Civic Calendar

Not every date on the German calendar is a celebration. Alongside the markets and fairs sit days of mourning, remembrance and political reflection, and the country's civic holiday is placed on a date chosen partly to avoid another one. This chapter covers German Unity Day, the problem of 9 November, the days for victims of the Nazi regime and for the dead of the wars, and the church's last Sundays of the year. It is written factually and respectfully, and the aim is to understand how a country marks days that are not joyful. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

German Unity Day: 3 October

The day

On 3 October 1990 the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic, and the date has been the national holiday, the Tag der Deutschen Einheit, since then (check). It is the only public holiday set at national level.

The celebrations

An official ceremony and a public festival take place each year in a different state capital, rotating with the state that holds the presidency of the upper house, the Bundesrat (check). Most citizens treat it as a day off.

Earlier dates

West Germany marked 17 June as a "Day of German Unity" from 1954 to 1990, in memory of the 1953 uprising in East Germany, and the GDR celebrated 7 October as the Republic's founding day (check).

Why Not 9 November?

Year (check each)	Event on 9 November
1848	The liberal politician Robert Blum was executed in Vienna after the failed revolution.
1918	The Kaiser's abdication was announced and a republic was proclaimed in Berlin.
1923	Hitler's failed putsch in Munich.
1938	The night of the November pogroms, Kristallnacht or Reichspogromnacht, in which synagogues were burned, Jewish shops and homes attacked, and thousands of Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.
1989	The Berlin Wall was opened, which led to unification the following year.

A fateful date Because 9 November holds both a day of national joy (1989) and a day of national shame (1938), it is called the Schicksalstag, the fateful day (check the term). When the date for the national holiday was chosen in 1990, 3 October, the day the treaty took effect, was preferred over 9 November for that reason (check). The decision shows how a calendar can be shaped by what a country does not want to celebrate.

How 9 November is marked. With memorial ceremonies, readings of names, and in many towns the cleaning of the Stolpersteine, the small brass plaques set in pavements for victims of the Nazi regime (check).
The 1989 anniversary. Large events in Berlin mark the Wall's opening, especially at round-number anniversaries (check).

Remembering the Victims of National Socialism

27 January. The Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism, set by the Federal President Roman Herzog in 1996, on the date Auschwitz was liberated in 1945 (check). The Bundestag holds a ceremony, and schools, memorial sites and local groups hold events. The United Nations adopted the same date as an international day in 2005 (check).
8 May. The end of the war in Europe in 1945. For many decades it was described as a defeat or a collapse, until President Richard von Weizsäcker's speech of 8 May 1985 called it a day of liberation from the Nazi regime (check the wording and the context). Berlin has marked the day as a public holiday in some years (check).
20 July. The anniversary of the failed 1944 plot to kill Hitler, remembered in a ceremony at the Bendlerblock in Berlin and by oath-taking of new soldiers (check).
The memory culture. The German word Erinnerungskultur (culture of remembrance) describes this set of days, memorials, museums and school visits. It developed over decades and was argued over in each (check).

Volkstrauertag and the Church's Last Sundays

Day (check each)	Note
Volkstrauertag	The "people's day of mourning", on the second Sunday before Advent. It was begun after the First World War by the Volksbund, the war graves organisation, to remember soldiers. The Nazis changed its name and purpose to a heroes' memorial day. Since the 1950s it has remembered the dead of both world wars and victims of violence, with a Bundestag ceremony.
Buß- und Bettag	The Day of Repentance and Prayer, on the Wednesday before the last Sunday of the church year. It was a public holiday in most states until 1995, when it was dropped to pay for care insurance, and it remains one in Saxony.
Totensonntag	"Sunday of the dead", also called Eternity Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent. In Protestant churches the names of those who died in the year are read, and in many states it is one of the quiet days with limits on public events. Its origins are often traced to Prussia in 1816 (check).

A British comparison Britain's Remembrance Sunday and 11 November, with the red poppy, centre on the First World War and later conflicts, and the Poppy Appeal began after 1921 (check). They are part of an unbroken national narrative of sacrifice, while the German days must remember defeat, guilt and victims alongside soldiers. Scotland also has days such as St Andrew's Day on 30 November, a bank holiday since 2007 (check), and Burns Night on 25 January, which are celebrations of identity. Germany's nearest match to a national day, 3 October, is much more restrained.

Check the details Dates, names and the legal status of remembrance days are specific, and some change from year to year. Several are the subject of political argument about how to remember and who is included. Verify with official sources, such as the Bundestag, the Federal Agency for Civic Education and memorial sites, and treat claims about meaning with care.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain in a paragraph why Germany's national holiday is on 3 October and not 9 November, using at least three events from the table.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Trace how the meaning of 8 May changed from 1945 to 1985, and say what that shows about how national days are shaped.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Compare Germany's Volkstrauertag and 27 January with Britain's Remembrance Sunday: who is remembered, how the day is marked, and what each shows about the national story.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

3 October: Unity Day, the national holiday since 1990 (check)
9 November: 1848, 1918, 1923, 1938, 1989: the fateful day
27 January: remembrance of the victims of National Socialism, since 1996 (check)
8 May: the end of the war; the "liberation" speech of 1985 (check)
November Sundays: Volkstrauertag and Totensonntag; Buß- und Bettag only in Saxony as a holiday