Germany Marks 88th Anniversary of Kristallnacht Amid Rising Antisemitism

Germany is commemorating the Nazi-led November pogroms of 1938, known as Kristallnacht, which occurred 88 years ago. During the pogroms, mobs killed at least 91 Jewish people, ransacked Jewish businesses, and burned hundreds of synagogues across Germany and Austria.

Commemorative events are being held nationwide. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended a ceremony in Weimar, where he laid a wreath and delivered a speech at the memorial site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp.

“We see it and hear it on our streets, in our cities, in the cities of our European neighbors and throughout the world, in parliaments, in associations and in schools.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz attended a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue in Munich. The synagogue was opened 68 years to the day after the city's main synagogue was destroyed during the pogroms.

Speaking inside the synagogue, Merz warned that Jew-hatred is once again omnipresent in Germany. He stated that such hatred is heard on streets, in cities, in parliaments, associations, and schools, and is sometimes disguised as criticism of Israel or anti-colonial liberation struggles.

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, was among those listening. She was six years old during the 1938 pogrom and is now 94 years old. Merz told her that she experienced what no human being or child should ever have to endure.

Germany recorded a record 8,725 antisemitic incidents in 2025, an increase from 8,627 incidents in 2024. The trial against eight suspected members of the militant neo-Nazi group Saxon Separatists is set to continue in Dresden.

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to German reunification, is also being marked on November 9.