1980s

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The 1980s was the ninth decade of the 20th century and lasted from 1980 to 1989.

Events

US President Ronald Reagan , 1983

Helmut Kohl as Federal Chancellor, 1987

Challenger space shuttle explosion, 1986

Soviet soldiers on their way to the “death zone” in and around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 1986

1980 : Soviet troops march into Afghanistan on December 25, 1979, triggering protests from many Western and Islamic states.
1980: As part of the environmental movement , green parties are founded all over Europe , according to Die Grünen in Germany. In Switzerland and Austria , comparable parties were formed in 1982 and 1983.

1980: May 18: The volcano Mount St. Helens in the US state of Washington erupts .

1980: The first independent Polish trade union Solidarność is founded in Gdansk .

1980: Major maneuvers of the Brotherhood of Arms of 80 of the Warsaw Treaty states in the GDR.

1980: Oktoberfest attack .

1980: The first Gulf War between Iran and Iraq begins (until 1988).

1980: Ronald Reagan is elected US president and takes office in 1981.

1980: Long-time Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito dies, shortly afterwards Yugoslavia falls into a serious economic crisis.

1981, April 12: First flight of the space shuttle USS Columbia, mission number STS-1 , thus starting the NASA shuttle program .

1981 , May 13: Assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

1981: AIDS is recognized as a pandemic disease.

1982 : From February 2nd: Hama massacre .

1982: The International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases declares March 24th as World Tuberculosis Day .

1982 April 2 - June 20: Falklands War .

1982, October 1st: Helmut Kohl becomes German Chancellor .

1983 : Forged Hitler diaries .

1983: Implementation of the NATO double resolution .

1983: Early federal election .

1983: The Greens move into the German Bundestag with 5.6 percent votes and 27 MPs .

1983: First days of chaos in Germany.

1983: NATO maneuver in northern Hesse with 65,000 soldiers.

1984 : Richard von Weizsäcker becomes Federal President .

1984: Zündapp files for bankruptcy.

1984: The famine in Ethiopia causes a wave of willingness to help.

1985 : Speech by Richard von Weizsäcker on the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War .

1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the CPSU . In the years that followed, processes of change were initiated under his aegis in the Soviet Union , which became known under the catchwords perestroika (1987) and glasnost (1986).

1986 : The USA imposed an economic embargo on Libya after a series of attacks, but before the attack on the West Berlin discotheque La Belle , and launched air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi .

1986: The NASA -Weltraumflug STS-51-L ends after 73 seconds in a disaster, and leave as Challengerunglück in history (see Challenger disaster ).

1986: April 26: nuclear reactor disaster is in Chernobyl .

1986: Large demonstration against missile deployment in the Hunsrück ( Pydna ).

1986: Waldheim affair in Austria .

1986: November 1st: Major fire at the chemical company Sandoz in Schweizerhalle near Basel , extinguishing water contaminates the Rhine and leads to great fish deaths .

Opening of the Wall , 1989

1986: The Iran-Contra affair is exposed in the USA.
1987 : Census in the Federal Republic.
1987: Bundestag election: confirmation of the black-yellow coalition.
1987: Barschel affair .
1988 : Bundestag President Philipp Jenninger gives a misleading speech on the persecution of Jews and has to resign.
1988: Gladbeck is taken hostage .
1988: Ramstein air conference accident .
1988: 270 people are killed in the Lockerbie attack .
1989 : George HW Bush becomes President of the USA.
1989, 3rd / 4th June: Months of student protests in China are violently ended by the Tiananmen Square massacre .
1989: Hungary opens the Iron Curtain - dismantling of the border installations from May, increased media reports from June, then the flight of thousands of GDR citizens to the West begins .
1989, November 9th: Fall of the Berlin Wall

Cultural history

Reaganomics and Thatcherism were buzzwords for political and economic developments.
New Romantic
Zero-minded generation
Popper (youth culture)
Punk (youth culture)
Yuppies as a cultural phenomenon

technology

Home computer from 1983

Compact Disc from 1984

Apple Macintosh from 1984

Walkman from 1979

The launch of the US's first space shuttle ( STS-1 ) in 1981 promised new research and transport opportunities in space and marked the first flight of a reusable spacecraft. In 1986, the program suffered a serious setback with the Challenger disaster, from which it was only to recover from the end of 1988. Buran , the Soviet Union's rival model , couldn't get past one flight.

The transition from the industrial age to the information age is often dated to the late 1970s or early 1980s in view of the advancement of computer technology . So the IBM Personal Computer ( Personal Computer ) was introduced in 1981. The spread of home computers also contributed to the popularization of information technology. B. the Commodore 64 (short C64 , 1982) and the Apple Macintosh 1984.

Computer games and game consoles found increasing sales. One of the first popular consoles was z. B. the Atari 2600 (available in Europe since 1980). In the late 1980s, handheld consoles such as the B. The Game Boy was introduced, but it did not spread until the 1990s. As a precursor to this, LCD games were popular.

New technologies also found their way into everyday life, including answering machines and microwaves . Since the end of the 1970s, the video recorder also experienced a rapidly increasing spread, as the VHS format became more and more popular in the 1980s and made the devices affordable for a broader population by the end of the decade. Laser discs and optical discs were alternatives, but they could not replace video cassettes .

In the automotive world, new technologies are being used: computer-calculated bodies allow top values in aerodynamics to reduce fuel consumption. ABS and airbags are being installed in large numbers for the first time. With the discussion about environmental pollution ( acid rain ), catalysts are becoming mandatory.

Walkman and radio recorder (colloquially also “ghetto blaster”) became part of youth culture in western and Far Eastern countries.

In 1980 the CD standard known today was established, and in 1982 the first CD player went into series production. By the end of the decade, the technology prevailed and increasingly, but not definitively, displaced records .

Communication was facilitated by car telephones , videotex and faxes . While Vidotex (Minitel) prevailed in France, it remained a niche in German-speaking countries (BTX, Videotex). Car telephones ( C-Netz / Natel C ) had not yet reached mass distribution like the GSM-Netz ( D-Netz in Germany, E-Netz in Austria or Natel D in Switzerland). The Teletex offered by the Deutsche Bundespost , a further development of the Telex , did not become a mass standard either.

Overhead projectors and copiers found their way into offices, schools and universities.

In the world of amusement rides , too, there were major technical developments in the 1980s, such as: B. the ride types Breakdance , Ranger , Flipper, Rainbow, flying carpet and Condor.

Media in general

In 1986 and 1987, the so-called historians' dispute took place in the national print media in Germany in particular . a. Jürgen Habermas and Ernst Nolte were involved.
Gloria Fürstin von Thurn und Taxis drew attention to herself in the tabloid press with eccentric media appearances (e.g. Wetten, dass ...?), Daring costumes and shrill hairstyles by Figaro Gerhard Meir from Munich . The “singing princess” Stéphanie von Monaco was also frequently in the headlines.

watch TV

The Linde road ran from 8 December 1985 at the First

Teletext symbol

The private television came on in Germany, the local television station in Switzerland: On January 1, 1984 in Germany launched the PKS ( program company for cable and satellite broadcasting ) from which a year later Sat.1 emerged. RTL Television began broadcasting on January 2, 1984 , at that time as RTL plus . Tele 5 was launched on January 11, 1988, and ProSieben on January 1, 1989 . The first station TELE Wil went on air in Switzerland, followed by many more.

Daily game shows such as Ruck Zuck , the Wheel of Fortune or The price is hot formed a new format on German private television.

MTV , which has been on the air in the USA since 1981, was also shown in Europe from 1987 . Well-known faces were Kristiane Backer and Ray Cokes .

In 1981, Horst Schimanski alias Götz George, a figure who became popular in the 1980s, but was also controversial, arrived in Tatort .

Teletext , also known as teletext , is introduced.

Individual contributions

The boat

Movie

The De Lorean DMC-12, the movie car from Back to the Future

The Holocaust documentary film Shoah shows the events in a particularly haunting form. However, it also polarizes the public, especially in Poland .

Film series

Multi-part productions

La Boum 1 & 2
Rambo trilogy
Indiana Jones trilogy
Back to the future 1 & 2
Star Wars Episode V & VI
The Neverending Story 1
Poltergeist trilogy
Karate Kid trilogy

Individual contributions

Individual contributions Germany

Oscar Winner (Best Picture)

Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

1980: Behind the Spotlight and Kagemusha - The Warrior's Shadow
1981: The man of iron
1982: Missing and Yol - The Way
1983: The Ballad of Narayama
1984: Paris, Texas
1985: Dad is on a business trip
1986: Mission
1987: The Sun of Satan
1988: Pelle, the Conqueror
1989: Sex, Lies and Video

music

Music stars of the 1980s

Events

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot dead in front of the entrance to the Dakota building in New York .
Bob Marley died on May 11, 1981 .
Benefit projects for Africa such as Band Aid , USA for Africa and the Live Aid concerts were launched in response to the famine in Ethiopia .
The British Phonographic Industry launched the Home Taping Is Killing Music campaign .

developments

Contemporary R&B has become the collective name for mainstream African American music. Luther Vandross , Prince and Michael Jackson were seen as pioneers of the new R&B. Jackson's albums Thriller (1982, best-selling album to date, as of 2010) and Bad (1987) made him a star. Classic rhythm and blues artists such as Stevie Wonder or Tina Turner were also successful.

New Wave developed from a term for the punk movement into a subculture of its own that encompassed “punk-like” music, such as Talking Heads , The Cars or The Cure (for the latter see also Post-Punk , Dark Wave ). Electronic pop music shaped the decade, electronic dance music developed into a commercial breakthrough in various styles. Especially synth pop , which emerged since 1978, largely determined the pop music of the 1980s and partially overlapped with the new wave movement. Bands like Depeche Mode , Culture Club , Kajagoogoo , OMD , The Buggles , New Order , Eurythmics , Soft Cell , Ultravox , Visage and a few more formed the first big wave, later followed by Pet Shop Boys , Alphaville , Talk Talk and Camouflage . For further types of electronic music see also: Electropunk , EBM , Electro Wave , Minimal Electro .

The Neue Deutsche Welle - derived from New Wave - whose first phase at the end of the 1970s was less commercial with bands like the Einstürzende Neubauten or DAF , was picked up by the music industry in the early 1980s, and artists like Nena and Trio also became internationally known . Around the same time experienced as a counterpart of Austropop a boom.

Italo Disco was a mainly Italian commercial dance music of the 1980s, which was composed mainly from 1982 to 1988 and whose heyday was from 1983 to 1985. It was mostly produced cheaply with a synthesizer and drum machine and sung in broken English. Stars were u. a. Gazebo , Ryan Paris , My Mine and Savage .

Euro Disco was a genre of dance music that emerged from the Italo disco. This time the center was in England ( Rick Astley , Mel & Kim , Kylie Minogue ) and Germany ( CC Catch , Modern Talking , Bad Boys Blue , Sandra ). The heyday was from 1985 to 1987.

Public aerobics demonstration

Aerobics , a form of fitness training that combined classical gymnastics with dance elements to modern pop music, was popular around the world around 1982.
With the dance steps of the choreographer and later interpreter of up-tempo music pieces Paula Abdul for music stars such as Janet Jackson , George Michael and others, a trend was set in the USA from 1986 that influences music videos and stage shows to this day.
Hip-Hop spread in the USA , not least through Rapper's Delight in 1979. In Europe, Falco first made hip-hop elements known in pop culture with Der Kommissar in 1981/1982. Breakdance is a media term for dance styles with partly acrobatic characteristics that became popular in the context of hip-hop culture in the 1980s.
Metal , which emerged in the 1970s with hard rock bands like Black Sabbath , split into different sub-styles. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal with bands like Iron Maiden emerged. The “classical” form of music, such as Judas Priest , is called heavy metal . Metallica , among others, was considered a pioneer of Thrash Metal . Another form was Speed Metal , from which Power Metal developed. Later in the 1980s the different directions of Extreme Metal emerged : Death Metal , Black Metal and as an offshoot of Punk Grindcore . Important regional scenes of Metal, which ensure its further development, are formed in Great Britain and the USA as well as in Germany, which has a great influence in particular on the development of Power Metal with bands such as Blind Guardian , Gamma Ray and Helloween , and in Northern European countries such as Sweden, Finland and Norway. The Australian band AC / DC makes hard rock popular and suitable for the masses worldwide.
So-called glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe or Poison shaped rock music, also through their shrill outfits. Other hard rock bands that became known in the 1980s, such as Bon Jovi or Whitesnake , also showed tendencies in this direction. At the end of the 1980s, the sleaze rock emerged as a rougher form , the best-known representatives of which were Guns N 'Roses .
Hardcore punk emerged from 1979 as a further development of punk rock and spread in the 1980s. The straight edge movement originated in the USA. Towards the end of the 1980s, a trend towards crossover and post-hardcore began .

Eric Clapton , 2008

In 1982 Eric Clapton released his compilation Timepieces: The Best of Eric Clapton . The album received diamond status in Japan and seven times platinum in the USA, sold more than 13 million copies within a very short period of time and became one of the most successful compilation albums in music history.
House music became popular, particularly acid house in the later 1980s . The smiley became the symbol of this movement.
In the post-punk and dark wave environment was also the gothic rock and with this the gothic culture as whose followers Goths also in Germany as Goths are called.
The Monsters of Rock Festival emerged and became an institution in hard rock and metal.

Individual contributions

Individual contributions Germany

Doctors band logo

Nena , 2008

literature

In 1985 the perfume by Patrick Süskind appeared , of which over 20 million copies were sold and which was translated into 48 languages.
Science fiction and fantasy literature is booming. Authors such as Wolfgang Hohlbein or Terry Pratchett become known. Cyberpunk emerges as part of the SF genre.
In 1988 Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses , which led to demonstrations and a call for murder in the form of a fatwa by the Iranian revolutionary leader Khomeini .
The television program The Literary Quartet was broadcast for the first time in 1988.
Socially critical youth literature is booming in Germany: Gudrun Pausewang with Die last Kinder von Schewenborn (1983, nuclear war) and Die Wolke (1987, GAU), in the series dtv pocket appear Myron Levoy's The Yellow Bird (1981, Nazi era) and Robert C. O'Briens Z for Zacharias (1982, nuclear war). A world bestseller is Morton Rhues Die Welle (1981, totalitarianism).

art

1981: New Wilde
1982: Documenta 7 , Zeitgeist
1984: From here - two months of new German art in Düsseldorf
1987: Documenta 8
1988: Freeze

Sports

XIII. 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid ; February 13, 1980 to February 24, 1980

XXII. Summer Olympics in Moscow 1980; July 19, 1980 to August 3, 1980. The games were boycotted by the USA and 64 other states, including the Federal Republic of Germany , due to the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops .

12th Football World Cup in Spain 1982; June 13, 1982 to July 11, 1982

XIV. Olympic Winter Games in Sarajevo 1984; February 8, 1984 to February 19, 1984

XXIII. 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles ; July 28, 1984 to August 12, 1984. The games were boycotted by all Eastern Bloc countries (except Romania ) .

13th soccer world championship in Mexico 1986; May 31, 1986 to June 29, 1986

XV. Olympic Winter Games in Calgary in 1988; February 13, 1988 to February 28, 1988

XXIV Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, 1988; September 17, 1988 to October 2, 1988

Fashion

Complete color palette from a German office accessories catalog from 1984

Katarina Witt in leggings with a bridge under a leotard with batwing sleeves

Mullet hairstyle

Balloon pants
Balloon skirts
Perm , mullet , blow dry and hair gel
Bat sleeves and puff sleeves
John Wayne shirts
Sweatshirts
Stirrup Pants
Carrot pants
narrow leather ties
Denim shirts
Stand-up collar and satin blouses
Leggings , cuffs
Neon colors
Shoulder pad (part of clothing)
Sneaker (distribution as boys' clothing)
Headbands
Swatch
Rolex
Pleated trousers
Pastel painting
Ray-Ban Wayfarer
white tennis socks (common as boys' clothing)
1950s revival
Checked jackets
Velcro sneakers
Eye-catching costume jewelry (especially brooches and extremely long necklaces worn in groups at the same time)
Cowboy boots
Overknee boots

Others

Rubik's Cube

Role playing games also spread across Europe. Popular in the US since the 1970s, Dungeons & Dragons was published in German translation in 1983. Midgard was founded in Germany in 1981 . In 1984 Das Schwarze Auge came onto the market.
BMX bikes were fashionable among young people in the early 1980s and replaced the bonanza bike . Likewise were roller skates popular, especially through the disco culture 1970 since the end of year, which spilled over to Europe.
In the early 1980s, spontaneous sayings were often heard and read.
In the course of the 1980s, terms like cool and cool emerged in youth language , which were initially frowned upon and only slowly, especially in the course of the 1990s, became socially acceptable. The song Geil by Bruce & Bongo took up this development - it reached number 1 in the German single charts in 1986.
At times, there was a hula hoop - Revival .
The yo-yo also gained a large following at the beginning of the decade.
Fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King experienced a rapidly increasing distribution in West Germany.
Rubik's Cube, the so-called magic cube , was a popular toy during a fashion wave.
Yps was a youth magazine that enjoyed some popularity with its so-called gimmicks since the 1970s, but also in the early 1980s .
Type cases found widespread use in many youth and living rooms.
Wooden fleas - pendants painted as a figure that look like they consist of one large and one smaller ball.
Tricotronics - handy LCD games.

Famous personalities

Web links

Commons : 1980s - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Eighties music, fashion, lifestyle and cult of the eighties
Do you remember? Souvenirs and cult items from the 80s
Kabeleins.de Six-part television documentary from the 80s