Day of People's Sorrow in Germany (13/11)

Day of People's Sorrow (German. The Volkstrauertag is a state day of remembrance in Germany. It is celebrated in mid-November and currently serves as a reminder of the need for reconciliation, understanding and peace.

The day was established by the German People's Society for the Care of War Graves in 1919 in memory of the nearly 2 million fallen and missing during World War I.

«Unprescribed» grief was the motive of this day, a sign of solidarity of those who did not lose anyone and who had no one to mourn with the relatives of the dead and missing.

In 1922, the first official ceremonial meeting took place in the Berlin Reichstag. Paul Loebe, then president of the Reichstag, gave a speech that had an international response, in which he contrasted the warring world with reflections on reconciliation and understanding. Since 1926, People's Sorrow Day was regularly celebrated on the fifth Sunday after Easter, however, it was not a public holiday.

After the transfer of power into the hands of the National Socialists in 1933, this day in Germany was legally declared a state day off. The organizers of the new public holiday from 1933 to 1945 were the Wehrmacht and the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The nature of the Day of People's Sorrow has also undergone major changes. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels issued directives on the maintenance and conduct of the holiday.

Now mourning was no longer its basis. From now on, the dead soldiers of the First World War were glorified with Nazi pomp as «Heroes». The flags in the country were not lowered at half-mast, but raised completely. The change in the content of the holiday in changing its name was especially clearly expressed: the Nazis renamed the Day of People's Sorrow «Day of Remembrance of Heroes».

In 1948, the German People's Society for the Care of War Graves again adopted the tradition of celebrating the Day of People's Sorrow in the form it was before 1933. The purpose of the holiday, as before, was grief and mourning for the dead, but now two world wars, a reminder of the victims of tyranny and despotism, regardless of nationality.

The first central mourning meeting dedicated to the Day of People's Sorrow took place in 1950 in Bonn. Since 1952, this day in Germany began to be considered a national day of mourning.

After the Bundestag moves from Bonn to Berlin, the central funeral meeting takes place in the plenary hall of the Bundestag in one of the Reichstag buildings in Berlin. An obligatory part of the rally is the speech of the Chancellor, heads of government offices and the diplomatic corps, as well as musical design: performance of the national anthem and the song «Der gute Kamerad». Rallies are held in a similar way in all federal states and most cities in Germany. In all settlements, wreaths are solemnly laid at memorials.

By the way, in another week the Protestant Church of Germany celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Dead (Totensonntag).

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