Germany marks more than Berlin Wall

BERLIN, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The fall of the Berlin Wall 18 years ago Friday is not the only event in the history of Germany that occurred on the 9th day of November.

At least four other significant events took place on that date, Deutsche Welle reported Friday.

The newspaper says in 1938, the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris sparked what is known as Reichkristallnacht, when members of the Nazi militia torched synagogues and destroyed stores owned by Jews, killing some 100 people.

Fifteen years earlier on Nov. 9, Adolph Hitler and his followers stormed a meeting of Bavarian government officials in a Munich restaurant and forced them at gunpoint to support his revolution.

They backed down a few hours later and Hitler ended up in prison and his emerging Nazi party was banned.

German historian Heinrich August Winkler says Hitler chose that date because it was exactly five years after the establishment of the German republic just before the end of World War I.

Another significant event occurred on Nov. 9, 1848, when a member of the Frankfurt national assembly, Robert Blum, was executed for trying to create a unified and free Germany.