Remembrance Day - Volkstrauertag

It's Remembrance Day today -- something I've always faithfully observed (11th hour, 11th day, 11th month) faithfully. It's kinda interesting being in Germany this year for it. Is it something that's observed here?

yeah, the beginning of Fasching at 11:11 am.

Heh heh. Pardon my laugh Gills, it's just that 11.11 at 11.11am is the start of Fasching, which is totally not Remembrance Day.

However, on Sunday, there are some events for the German equivalent of Remembrance Day. It's called Volkstrauertag here.

Oh really Showem? And you call yourself a Canadian...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/remembranceday/

Responding to that, I answered. I bloody well know what Remembrance Day is Kza, don't worry.

I am wearing my poppy right now in fact. The Royal British Legion sells them to raise money for current ex-servicemen and their families to give them social, financial and emotional support.

Katrina

so this 11 o'clock thing. Was it 11 o'clock GMT or CET when peace kicked in. Shouldn't it be observed at 10am in UK?

No it shouldn't, don't be silly. It was GMT.
Katrina

the Fasching people are warming up here already

I'm not being silly. I'm interested in the historical aspect of how it actually worked. Was there a time difference in 1918? So was peace official at midday in the trenches? And how did it actually work - when did the shooting stop? did everyone just stand up at 11 (or 12)?

Volkstrauertag is on Sunday, I thought.
It also is St Martin's day today, so don't be surprised to see a lot of kids with Laterns on the street this evening.

I had all intentions of hitting the Canadian Consulate to get a poppy, its just since not living in Canada, I tend to forget the Canadian Holidays (In Manitoba everything is shut today, til 1pm)

<--- poppy wearer also

In the UK, Today is remembrance day..(officially on Sunday),

Was listening to Virgin Radio when the 2 minutes silence was called for.

So I was silent for 2 mins, and the guys in my office were wondering "WTF happened to the radio??".

Just wondering if anyone remembered... erm... remembrance day???


Thread merged in by admin

Took my 2 minutes aside just before 11am as I had a huge meeting at 11.

Got no poppy here with me, just wasnt organised enough this year. Maybe next year if anyone has any contacts with the British Legion we shoudl get some sent over.

P

I did. I went downtown and laid a rose on the White Rose memorial, and one on the soldier's tomb. It felt right somehow...

I don't have a poppy... I wish I did -- it's kind of close to home, John McCrae was my hubby's ancestor (his grandmother's cousin) -- but I AM going to see Sarah Mclachlan tonight, if that counts somehow

for anybody who is interested there's a commonwealth and allied war grave on the way down to tegensee. they maybe somethig going on on sunday.

In Melbourne they built the shrine of remembrance so that light from the sun would shine on the word "Lest we forget" exactly at 11 am on Remembrance day. Then they introduced daylight savings (the seasons are opposite in Oz of course) and messed everything up. I don't know if they moved the hole in the roof, or what they did.

Although there might be some sort of remembrance services, the Germans don't usually observe this day. Most wouldn't even know that it was anything special, I reckon.

yep, someone asked me last year if I knew what was special about 11.11 and I replied of course it marks the end of WW1. They looked very confused and had expected me to not know or know it was Fasching. They had no clue about the WW1 significance. Can't blame them I guess

you mean not having an idea about modern history is ok?? PISA and all that ?

No, thats not what I mean at all. What I mean is that it perhaps isn't that surprising they don't know the exact day WW1 finished on. I'd hazard a guess that quite a few Brits/Americans don't know the exact dates of VE and VJ day (end of WW2), or the exact day the vietnam war finished. Doesn't mean they have no idea about modern history, just means they haven't had a particular date drummed into them by annual commemoration.

but mr rats look at the title in the thread! today is also a official german day of commemoration.

ok although I thought someone said that was Sunday. But I take your point, although the official reasoning behind the German day is

'Um sich von der Tradition des "Heldengedenktages" abzusetzen, wurde 1952 entschlossen den Volkstrauertag künftig am 2. Sonntag vor dem 1. Advent zu begehen'

so it isn't related as such to 11.11

It isn't an official day of commemoration. And it's on Sunday.

opps just checked GERMAN diary yes its sunday, but in the uk its the same, rememberance sunday is bigger than the thursday... still i think its sad that alot of german's modern history starts in 1933 and ends in with the wirtschaftswunder.

so by my calculation, if 11.11 actually fell on a Sunday, the German day would still actually be on the 18th (2nd Sunday before 1st advent Sunday).

/end of pedantry

whilst being in munich the weekend just gone, i wore my poppy with pride. and i caught many people looking at it. didnt see any others though.

I thought it was the years 1933-1945 which were left out.

I wore my poppy and one of the German girls at work said, Oh that's a pretty flower and when I told her what it was for she just told me she had never heard of it and that Carnival began that same day. Took 2 mins silence outside at midday. A proper service would be nice though.

Remembrance Day coming up; does anyone know where we can get hold of a poppy in Germany? Thanks!

I'm gonna ask friends who are going back to bring mine as usual, don't think you can get them here.

Oh! 11/11 is a Saturday this year. Boozetastic!

Going back a bit here, but seeing as someone else bumped this topic...

The Armistice Terms state:

"One - Cessation of operations by land and in the air six hours after the signature of the armistice."

and at the very bottom

"This armistice has been signed the Eleventh of November, Nineteen Eighteen, at 5 o'clock French time."

So, the armistice came into effect at 11:00 French time.

Given that Novemeber is unlikely to have been subject to daylight savings time in either France or the UK (both countries used it in WW1, but the UK changed clocks on Oct 1st) , it would be safe to assume that the terms came into effect at 10am in the UK.

every year Rememberance day (poppy day) is the 11th of november but they celebrate it on the sunday that is near that and in the UK it is at 11am so it would count as 12 midday here if you wanted to do it the English way

while 11.11am on the 11th of the 11th marks Remembrance Day back in the UK, it marks the start of something totally different here in Germany ...
I remember once being back in the UK on the 11th of the 11th with a German friend. we happened to be in M&S at 11.11am and an announcement over the loudspeaker requested one minute's silence ... my German friend thought it quite amazing that we took the start of Fasching so seriously !!!
yep, while Britons remember the war, the Germans think of carnival !!!

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.

I don't remember when I was younger any minutes silence on 11th November itself, this is something that has started since the mid 1990s.

I think its a trend towards organised and sanctioned grieving.

admittedly, it was in the post-Diana era

Today is Volkstrauertag, the Germans commemorate victims of war and terror regimes. This year, for the first time, Bundeswehr soldiers will also be included although Germany has not - officially - been involved in a war since WW II.

I remember it very well, and I'm even older than you