How Berlin marks 9 November with memorials and services

Berliner Zeitung has published an overview of how Berlin commemorates 9 November, a date that links the 1938 pogroms against Jewish people with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. On Monday, the 88th anniversary of the November pogroms, many events invite residents to pause, remember the victims and take a stand for democracy and against antisemitism.

The Jewish Community is holding a day-long reading from 11 am to 9 pm in front of its community house at Fasanenstraße 79 in Charlottenburg. The names of the 55,696 murdered Jewish Berliners are to be read out, and passers-by are invited to take part by sponsoring the reading of individual names and life dates.

Several districts hold wreath-laying ceremonies. Lichtenberg's mayor Martin Schaefer begins at 9 am at the memorial stone of the former synagogue in Konrad-Wolf-Straße. Others follow at the Weißensee and Schönhauser Allee Jewish cemeteries, in Reinickendorf, Friedrichshain, Steglitz and Spandau. At 4 pm Schöneberg's mayor Jörn Oltmann hosts a ceremony in Münchener Straße, opened by a speech from Lala Süsskind.

In the evening, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche holds a music and history event at 6 pm, an antifascist rally starts at the former Levetzowstraße synagogue, and the central ecumenical service begins at 7 pm at the Französische Friedrichstadtkirche.

Remembrance of the Wall includes tours at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße and a gathering on the Bösebrücke at 6:53 pm, the minute Günter Schabowski announced the new travel rules in 1989. The Berlin Freedom Week runs from 7 to 14 November 2026.