Last year, there was a theory afloat in German intellectual circles stating that the number nine has a specific role in German history. The idea was that most of the major events of the German twentieth century happened in years terminating in nine: 1919 was the Treaty of Versailles, which almost directly gave birth to the declaration of the Second World War in 1939. After that, 1949 saw the division of Germany made official and, forty years later in 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall reunified the country.