Chronicle of the GDR (1961–1970)
Chronicle of the GDR (1961–1970) supplements the main article History of the GDR with a chronology of the events in the stabilization phase of the German Democratic Republic .
1961
The GDR State Security kidnapped the former SED functionary on June 16 and, after fleeing to West Berlin , Heinz Brandt from West Berlin worked as editor of the West German trade union newspaper “Metall” .
Walter Ulbricht declared at a press conference on June 15: “Nobody has any intention of building a wall!” In July 1961, the number of refugees from the GDR and East Berlin reached 30,415, the highest level since June 1953.
On August 13, on the instructions of Ulbricht, with the consent of the Soviet Union and under the coordination of Erich Honecker, the GDR border with West Berlin is closed and the Berlin Wall is erected. Its opening in 1989 heralds the turning point and peaceful revolution .
On August 22nd, the " use of arms " against refugees is ordered.
On August 24, the 24-year-old Günter Litfin was shot dead by transport police officers trying to escape near the Friedrichstrasse train station. He is the first of 270 people who, according to an official count by the Berlin public prosecutor's office, died on the inner-German border and the Berlin Wall.
The German Border Police (DGP) is renamed the GDR Border Troops on September 15 and subordinates to the Ministry of National Defense .
October 3: In the GDR, 3,175 people are forcibly evacuated from the restricted area during the Festigung or Kornblume campaign .
East Berlin is declared the 15th district of the GDR on September 7th.
On September 20, the People's Chamber passed the "Law for the Defense of the GDR".
After the XXII. CPSU party congress (October 17–31) begins the second wave of de-Stalinization. In their train, the East German “Stalinstadt” will be renamed “ Eisenhüttenstadt ” and the East Berlin “Stalinallee” will be renamed “ Karl-Marx-Allee ” on November 13th .
1962
On January 24th, the People's Chamber decided to introduce general conscription in the GDR and East Berlin.
Heinz Brandt was sentenced to 13 years in prison on May 10th.
On May 23, West Berlin police shot at East German border guards in order to rescue a refugee, a 15-year-old boy, who was seriously injured by gunfire from the border guards while swimming through the Spree. Here is Corporal Peter Goering killed, he is posthumously promoted to sergeant of the GDR border troops.
18-year-old Peter Fechter from East Berlin was shot while trying to escape at the Berlin Wall on August 17 and bleeding to death in the death strip. The GDR border guards let the seriously injured, screaming man lie there for around 50 minutes. There are protest demonstrations in the west. West Berlin police are firing tear gas towards the east at the wall after East German border police fired tear gas at a protest rally on the West Berlin side.
The composer Hanns Eisler dies on September 6th.
The trade organization “ Intershop ” is founded on December 14th. It may only be used by foreigners with convertible currencies.
1963
The economic conference of the Central Committee of the SED (June 24th / 25th) resolves an economic reform with the New Economic System of Planning and Management of the National Economy (NÖSPL).
On October 22nd, the member states of the “Council for Mutual Economic Aid” ( Comecon ) conclude an agreement on the introduction of the transfer tax as a clearing unit and the establishment of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation in Moscow.
On November 14, Ulbricht was re-elected as Chairman of the Council of State and Otto Grotewohl as Chairman of the Council of Ministers . Margot Honecker, née Feist, wife of Erich Honecker, becomes Minister for Public Education.
A first pass agreement between the government of the GDR and the Senate of West Berlin comes about on December 17th.
1964
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The last all-German Olympic team will be nominated on January 11th .
Robert Havemann , a chemistry professor at East Berlin's Humboldt University, was relieved of his post on March 13 for making statements critical of the regime. The communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism had criticized the dogmatic hardening of ideology and politics in the GDR.
At the second Bitterfeld conference for socialist national culture in the GDR (April 24 to May 25) the GDR leadership moved away from the program of the first Bitterfeld conference in 1959, the so-called “Bitterfeld Weg”.
The last meeting of young people in Germany will take place in East Berlin from 16 to 18 May with more than half a million participants from both German states.
On June 12, the Soviet Union guaranteed the inviolability of the GDR's national borders in a friendship and assistance agreement.
On September 1, the Volkskammer confirmed the impunity for GDR refugees who left the GDR before August 13, 1961 (the day the Berlin Wall was built).
On September 7th, military service as a construction soldier without a weapon is introduced in the National People's Army (NVA).
The Council of Ministers decides on September 9th that citizens of retirement age may be granted a trip to visit relatives in the Federal Republic or West Berlin once a year. After the Berlin Wall was built, visits to the West were generally no longer possible.
Otto Grotewohl, chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, dies on September 21.
Willi Stoph (1914–1999) becomes the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Deputy Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR on September 24.
Postcodes will be introduced in the GDR on October 1st .
An amnesty is issued on October 6th. About 10,000 criminal and political prisoners are released. Among them are Wolfgang Harich , Georg Dertinger and Heinz Brandt .
On October 14th, Nikita Khrushchev was overthrown in the Soviet Union . He will be succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev .
After the entry into force of a pass regulation, the first pensioners from the GDR visit their relatives in West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany on November 2nd .
1965
On February 24, Ulbricht's first state visit outside of the Warsaw Pact member states was to Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser . In response to this, the Federal Republic of Germany will cease economic aid to Egypt on March 7 and established diplomatic relations with Israel.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) admitted two separate German teams to the Olympic Games 1968 for the first time on October 8 and recognized the GDR's National Olympic Committee ( NOK ).
Erich Apel , candidate of the Politburo and chairman of the State Planning Commission, commits suicide on December 3rd because of a trade agreement with the USSR that is disadvantageous to the GDR . Alfred Neumann signs the contract. Gerhard Schürer becomes Apel's successor.
The 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED (December 15-18) concludes the second stage of the “New Economic System of Planning and Management” (NÖSPL) and rigorously criticizes insubordinate writers and artists (“Kahlschlagsplenum”).
1966
On January 12th, the Minister for Culture, Hans Bentzien , was recalled because of a “serious mistake”. Klaus Gysi will be his successor .
The member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED Erich Mückenberger describes the songwriter Wolf Biermann , the writer Stefan Heym and the scientist Robert Havemann as "allies of the opponents of socialism".
From April 1st, every second Saturday is off work.
Although its members voted against it with a majority of one vote on April 23, Robert Havemann was expelled from the GDR Academy of Sciences on April 1 .
On May 9th, the first nuclear power plant in the GDR goes into operation in Rheinsberg .
1967
On February 20, the Volkskammer passed the GDR Citizenship Act , which replaces the previous German citizenship . East Berlin is included in this regulation.
The Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Kurt Georg Kiesinger is looking for contact with the GDR on April 12th and advocates regular coexistence and closer economic ties.
At the 7th party congress of the SED (April 17-22, 1967) the introduction of the 5-day working week is decided - combined with the cancellation of five public holidays . This concerns Easter Monday, Liberation Day, Ascension Day, Reformation Day as well as the Day of Repentance and Prayer.
On July 1st, the MfS mobilization directive 1/67 was issued, which among other things provides for the planning of isolation camps for opponents of the regime.
In the elections to the People's Chamber, according to official information, 99.93% vote for the unified list.
On July 6th, the Langenweddingen railway accident occurs .
On July 12th, the painter Otto Nagel , founding member and 1956–1962 president of the German Academy of the Arts in East Berlin , dies in Berlin.
In the period from August 1st to 18th, the GDR unilaterally marked the entire inner-German border and erected the first metal mesh fences.
The 5-day working week is introduced on August 28th.
With the conviction of 37 "escape helpers" on August 18, a whole wave of similar trials began.
On December 12th, the currency of the GDR was renamed from “Mark of the German Central Bank” (MDN) to “ Mark of the German Democratic Republic ” (M).
1968
On January 12th, the People's Chamber passed a new penal code. After that, political crimes are punished more severely. According to Section 213, crossing the border illegally is a crime and is punishable by up to eight years in prison.
The new constitution of the GDR is adopted by referendum on April 6th and comes into force on April 8th. It defines the GDR as a “socialist state of the German nation” and establishes the leading role of the SED.
On July 11th, there was a chemical accident in Bitterfeld .
Units of the National People's Army (NVA) take part in the 20th / 21st August not because of troops from Warsaw Pact member states marching into Czechoslovakia and because of the crackdown on the Prague Spring .
Protesters against the invasion of Czechoslovakia will be condemned in East Berlin from October 21-28.
1969
On March 5, the Federal Assembly of the Federal Republic of Germany in West Berlin elects Gustav Heinemann as Federal President . The GDR protests against the location of the election and hinders transit traffic to West Berlin for a few days.
On March 17th the “Budapest Appeal” of the heads of state and government of the states of the Warsaw Pact goes out. A conference on security and cooperation in Europe is proposed.
On April 3, the State Council of the GDR decided to continue the third university reform.
On May 8, Cambodia became the first country outside the Soviet system to establish full diplomatic relations with the GDR. Iraq and other Third World countries follow .
The regional churches of the GDR that previously belonged to the EKD will merge on June 10 to form the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (BEK).
On September 29, the GDR signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty .
The second television program of the GDR begins on October 3rd with its broadcasts. The first color broadcasts based on the Franco-Soviet SECAM system followed a few days later .
On the fringes of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the GDR on October 7, the rumor that The Rolling Stones would be playing on the roof of the Axel Springer high-rise not far from the Berlin Wall led to serious youth riots.
On December 17, the GDR submitted proposals for normalizing relations with the Federal Republic on the basis of “ peaceful coexistence ”. In a letter to Federal President Gustav Heinemann on December 18, the Chairman of the State Council, Walter Ulbricht, proposed the establishment of equal relations between the GDR and the Federal Republic. In a reply, the Federal President announced that he had forwarded the letter to the Federal Government for reasons of responsibility .
1970
The Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Willy Brandt meets on March 19 in Erfurt with the Prime Minister of the GDR Willi Stoph . On the sidelines of the meeting, the GDR population expressed their sympathy for Willy Brandt.
The ambassadors of the USA , the USSR, Great Britain and France begin negotiations on March 26th on a four-power agreement on Berlin .
On May 21, the second meeting of the German heads of government Willy Brandt and Willi Stoph will take place in Kassel .
On November 12, the agreement on the exchange of goods and payments between the GDR and the USSR for the years 1971–1975 is signed in East Berlin.
On November 27, an exchange of views between the State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery, Egon Bahr , and the State Secretary at the GDR Council of Ministers, Michael Kohl . The 14th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED, taking place from December 9th to December 11th, decides on modifications of the economic strategy.
See also
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ Rainer A. Blasius: "Friendship of the Nations" on the Nile: Egypt and the GDR in February 1965: stenographic records from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about Ulbricht's visit to Nasser . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte vol. 46 (1998), no. 4, pp. 747-805, ISSN 0042-5702 .
- ^ BStU , topic: Prison instead of Rolling Stones: A rumor, the Stasi and the consequences
