november 9th, at the end of the day

after we have all seen the images of people hammering on the concrete of a graffiti-adorned wall conquered by masses, there is one piece of written comment within u.s. media that i think best ties up the meaning of the day. it's a comment in the new yorker simply titled "november 9th" by georg packer.

he seemed to have been the only english writer to remember the other november 9ths in german history, a day that because of its other less joyous associations was never turned into an official german holiday:

"This is because November 9th is also the date on which Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated [abdankte], in 1918, two days before Germany’s defeat in the First World War. On November 9, 1923, Hitler attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic, in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. In 1938, November 9th was the Night of Broken Glass [Reichskristallnacht oder Pogromnacht], when Nazi gangs attacked Jews and their property across Germany and Austria, foreshadowing the genocide to come."

german media such as the leading newscast tagesschau included coverage of the ceremonies in several cities including berlin and munich, which commemorated the jewish victims.

packer also seemed to be the only english writer to mention the name of günther schabowski, or "schmetterling schabowski", [butterfly] as the berlin monthly cultural publication "das magazin" once dubbed him. schabowski was the german democratic republic official who on the evening of november 9th 1989 in a press conferences that was broadcast on television had to answer questions about new, more liberal travel regulations set out by the east german sed party [sozialistische einheitspartei deutschlands or socialist unity party of germany]. asked when they these travel rules would go into effect he as packer writes "shrugged, scratched his head, checked some papers, and said: 'Immediately'." this set off the flood of people who we have seen on the indefinitely re-run archival video these days.

packer also ties together the many intricate forces that created the fall of the wall. he credits the brave people behind the curtain, u.s. support of the dissidents, the disastrous communist economy [planwirtschaft or planned economy], the weakening sed party elites, the role of then soviet union president mikhail gorbachev (click here for an interview by al jazeera english's david frost with gorbachev)* alike.

"For Europe's Communist regimes to disappear so suddenly and bloodlessly (Romania was a different story), everything had to fall in place, above and below, within and without. Such circumstances are improbably rare."

whereas i found more credit being given to seminal politicians to path the way to the tumbling of the wall in u.s. based media, the power of the people is something that has been more emphasized in german media. especially in leipzig, where the famous monday demonstrations [Montagsdemonstration] happened, people are proud of this day, i imagine.

dr. peter pfeiffer, a professor for german at georgetown university in washington, dc, who i happened to talk to, reminded me that there were no children during these monday marches as people were aware of the snipers on the roofs around the augustusplatz.

but packer also looks beyond berlin to explain its uniqueness. iraq, for instance, he writes, was according to some advisers of president bush "like Eastern Europe with Arabs". it so far has turned out otherwise. the continuing struggle of people in zimbabwe, burma/myanmar, and china, proves that the friedliche revolution, which is called velvet revolution in english, and its circumstances are not easily repeated. a south korean class mate at ohio university told me before how touched koreans were to see the wall fall in the hope it would foreshadow a reunion in his country. it hasn't happend yet. packer interestingly, sees the biggest parallel case in the recent uprising in iran. a brutal summer for iranian who protested the outcome of the election and president ahmadinejad has damped the hopes for victory of the demonstrators. but suspense remains in the air. the revolution must come from within, packer writes.

like happened in east germany helped by many people and a butterfly.

what exceptional media coverage have you seen? what was the best, favorite, worst, ugliest, or most interesting story in the flood of anecdotes and facts? go ahead and post your recommendations in the comment section.

read the whole comment titled "november 9th" by georg packer in the new yorker

here's a more personal take on the day, with anecdotal memories old and new



* discloser: i am interning with al jazeera english at the moment.