A Somber Germany Marks Kristallnacht Anniversary : Extremism: Day after anti-violence protest was marred by leftists, nation remembers Nazi past.

Germans passed a day heavy with history Monday by trying to reassure themselves that their democracy is strong enough to survive the pressures of political extremism.

For much of the post-World War II era, Nov. 9 stood as one of the blackest days in this country’s checkered past--the 1938 evening known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), when Nazi mobs launched attacks across Germany against Jews, their homes, shops and synagogues. On this same date three years ago, however, the world rejoiced with all Germans as the infamous Berlin Wall fell.

But the joy of reunion soon faded in Germany, and as members of the country’s small Jewish community gathered in several cities Monday for services commemorating Kristallnacht , authorities strengthened security to prevent attacks by right-wing extremists against Jewish cemeteries, memorials and other possible targets.

The re-emergence of right-wing extremist violence has been directed largely against foreigners living in the country. But it has also included attacks on Jewish cemeteries and concentration camp memorials at Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrueck and near Dachau.

The wave of violence led to a massive counterdemonstration in Berlin on Sunday to protest such acts. Instead, the 300,000 or so who came saw their president being forced to hide behind police shields as radical youths pelted him with fruit, eggs, rocks and other missiles.

Ironically, those involved were at the other end of the political spectrum--leftist, anarchist youths who believe the country’s politicians have done little to protect foreigners and are pandering to the right by moving to tighten the country’s liberal asylum law.

In the aftermath, leading politicians in Bonn tried to play down the incident, insisting that the huge turnout far beyond what organizers had predicted had made the event a success. Two of Berlin’s leading newspapers, Tagespiegel and Berliner Morgenpost, also played down the violence, carrying large, front-page photos of happy protesters and a smiling President Richard von Weizsaecker under main headlines that made no mention of the attacks.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, also attacked by youths throwing fruit and eggs as he walked to Sunday’s rally in Berlin, said the incidents showed that extremism from the left was also a threat to democracy.

The object of Sunday’s radical action--Von Weizsaecker--spoke on both national television networks Monday and urged people to continue their protests against political extremism. “This demonstration only showed what it is really about in Germany,” he said. “We’ve got to fight for human rights and the dignity of the individual. I’ll go back into the street, and if an egg hits my coat, I’ll brush it off and go on further.”

He said the huge turnout showed that modern Germany cannot be compared to the ill-fated Weimar Republic, which collapsed into Nazism after only 12 years, in part because Germans seemed uninterested in saving it. Monday was also the 74th anniversary of the declaration of that republic.

In Berlin, the city marked the third anniversary of the wall’s fall by declaring three leading statesmen of the 1980s as honorary residents. At a formal ceremony at the Reichstag, former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, former President Ronald Reagan and Kohl were honored for their role in reuniting the city. Gorbachev and Kohl were present; Reagan was represented by his chief of staff, Fred Ryan.