Steinmeier warns on November 9: “Democracy needs defenders”
November 9, 2025, Berlin: On the anniversary of the fall of the Wall in 1989, the National Socialist November pogroms of 1938 and the proclamation of the Republic after the First World War in 1918, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gives a speech about the current threats to democracy in his Berlin residence at Bellevue Palace. Photo: Maryam Majd/Pool AP/DPA/Sipa USA Source: SIPA USA / MARYAM MAJD/dpa/picture-alliance/Sipa USA/AAPImage
In his speech on November 9, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier recalled the historical significance of this date — a day that combines the light and shadow of German history: the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, the Reichspogrom night in 1938 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Under the motto “Roadmarks and defiant democracy,” Steinmeier called for active defense of democracy — against attacks from outside and from within.
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