ABSTRACT
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1945
Feb:
Yalta conference of the allied powers
April:
Hider’s suicide
May:
Germany signs an unconditional surrender
June:
The allies declare that they are assuming supreme power in Germany
Legalisation of political parties in the Soviet zone
July:
Western powers take up occupation rights in Berlin
July–Aug:
Potsdam Conference of the USA, U K and USSR
Sept:
Parties legalised in the western zones
1946
FApril:
The SED is formed from the KPD and SPD in the Soviet zone
Nov:
The SED publishes its proposed constitution for a ‘German democratic republic’
1947
Jan:
The Bizone is created from the British and US zones
Feb:
Prussia is disbanded by allied decree
June:
The USA announces the ‘Marshall Plan’
Munich conference of the German Land prime ministers breaks up without agreements
The Soviet military authorities create central administrative organs for their zone of occupation
1948
Feb–June:
The western powers and the Benelux states agree to create a western German state
March:
The Soviet representative leaves the Allied Control Council for Germany in protest at the west’s failure to involve the Soviet Union in its negotiations
June:
Separate currency reforms in the western zones and the Soviet zone
The Soviet Union imposes a blockade on access to West Berlin and leaves the Allied Commandantura for Berlin The western allies begin an ‘air bridge’ to transport essential supplies to West Berlin
Sept:
The Parliamentary Council begins discussions in Bonn on a ‘Basic Law’ for a west German state
Nov–Dec:
Separate city governments formed in East and West Berlin
1949
April:
The French zone joins the Bizone to form a Trizone
May:
The Parliamentary Council and the western allies approve the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany End of the Berlin Blockade Elections to a ‘Third People’s Congress’ in the Soviet zone
Aug:
First Bundestag elections
Sept:
First Bundestag sitting:
Konrad Adenauer becomes the first federal chancellor
Oct:
The ‘Second People’s Council’ enacts the constitution of the German Democratic Republic in the Soviet zone
1950
July:
The FRG joins the Council of Europe
Oct:
First Volkskammer elections in the GDR: 99.7 per cent vote for the candidates of the Nationale Front
The FRG creates a shadow defence ministry
1951
March:
The FRG is permitted to establish its own Foreign Office, with Adenauer as Foreign Secretary
Sept:
Creation of the Bundesverfassungsgericht
1952
March:
Stalin proposes creating a neutral, united Germany; the western powers reject his offer
May:
The western allies allow the FRG to establish armed forces within a new ‘European Defence Community’ and to acquire sovereign rights once the EDC treaty is ratified by all member states
The GDR closes its border to the Federal Republic
July:
Walter Ulbricht proclaims the ‘building of socialism in the GDR’
Aug:
Abolition of the five Länder in the GDR; they are replaced by fourteen Bezirke
Oct:
The FRG’s Sozialistische Reichspartei is banned
1953
March:
Death of Stalin
June:
The Soviet Union imposes a relaxed ‘New Course’ on the GDR, but too late to avoid uprisings in East Berlin and other GDR regions on 17 June
1954
March:
The Soviet Union grants the GDR sovereignty
Aug:
The French parliament rejects plans for the European Defence Community, scuppering Adenauer’s hopes for West German sovereignty
Oct:
The Paris Treaties allow the FRG to rearm within NATO, and to achieve sovereignty
1955
May:
The western powers lift the FRG’s ‘Occupation Statute’, and the FRG is admitted into NATO
The GDR joins the new Warsaw Pact
Sept:
Adenauer visits the USSR and achieves the release of Ger man prisoners of war
The FRG initiates the ‘Hallstein Doctrine’, which rejects diplomatic relations with states which recognise the GDR
1956
Jan:
The GDR’s Nationale Volksarmee is created
July:
The FRG introduces obligatory military service
Aug:
The KPD is banned in the FRG
1957
Jan:
The Saarland is released from French control to join the Federal Republic
Sept:
The CDU achieves an absolute majority of the votes in the Bundestag elections
1958
Jan:
The FRG becomes a founding member of the ‘European Economic Community’, the forerunner of the European Union
Nov:
Soviet leader Khrushchev demands that the western powers agree to leave West Berlin within six months; they ignore his ultimatum
1959
March:
The USSR recognises the western powers’ rights in Berlin
April:
Adenauer announces he will be a candidate for the federal presidency, but later withdraws after realising how litde power the office carries
Nov:
The SPD drops parts of its Marxist ideology at its Bad Godesberg party conference
1960
March:
Forcible collectivisation of agriculture in the GDR
Sept:
Walter Ulbricht becomes the GDR’s head of state
1961
Feb:
The Bundesverfassungsgericht rejects Adenauer’s plans for a centrally controlled second television channel
Aug:
The GDR’s borders to West Berlin are sealed and the building of the Berlin Wall begins
1962
FJan:
The GDR introduces general conscription
Oct:
The ‘ Spiegel affair’ begins in the FRG after federal investiga tors arrest the publisher of Der Spiegel; in November all five
FDP members leave Adenauer’s cabinet in protest and he is forced to sack defence minister Strauß
1963
June:
President Kennedy of the USA visits West Berlin and is proud to announce that as a free man:
‘Ichbin ein Berliner’
The GDR introduces a ‘New Economic System’ with greater freedom of initiative for state owned enterprises
Oct:
Adenauer retires as chancellor and is replaced by Ludwig Erhard, formerly his economics minister
1964
Feb:
Willy Brandt, the governing mayor of West Berlin, is elected leader of the SPD
Nov:
The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) is founded in the FRG as a party of the far right
1965
May:
The GDR government announces that any future united Germany must be socialist
Dec:
The chairman of the GDR’s economic planning commission, Erich Apel, commits suicide on the same day that the GDR signs a disadvantageous economic treaty with the USSR
1966
Nov:
Formation of the Grand Coalition government of CDU and SPD under Kurt Georg Kiesinger The NPD gains seats in the Hesse and Bavarian Landtage
1967
Jan:
The FRG effectively abandons the Hallstein Doctrine by establishing diplomatic relations with communist Romania
Feb:
The GDR introduces separate GDR citizenship, replacing ‘German’ citizenship
April:
Kiesinger proposes a normalisation of relations with the GDR Konrad Adenauer dies, aged 91
June:
A student, Benno Ohnesorg, is killed by a police bullet during demonstrations against the Shah’s visit to West Berlin
1968
Feb:
Student disturbances in West Berlin against the Vietnam War
April:
The GDR’s new ‘socialist’ constitution takes effect, enshrining the leading role of the SED
Terrorist attacks in rankfurt am Main
Rudi Dutschke, chairman of the SPD’s student wing, is injured by a would-be assassin, sparking riots in West Berlin and the FRG over the Easter period, particularly directed at the Springer press empire
May:
Despite student protests, the Bundestag passes the ‘Emergency Legislation’, leading the western powers to lift their remaining powers of intervention in the FRG
Sept:
The Deutsche Kommunistische Partei is established in the FRG in place of the former KPD
1969
Oct:
Formation of the FRG’s first SPD-FDP coalition under Chancellor Willy Brandt
1970
March:
Brandt visits the GDR premier Willi Stoph in Erfurt; Stoph returns the visit in May
Aug:
Brandt signs a friendship treaty with the USSR (Moscow Treaty), which recognises postwar frontiers in eastern Europe
Dec:
Brandt signs a similar treaty with Poland (Warsaw Treaty)
1971
May:
Erich Honecker replaces Walter Ulbricht as First Secretary of the SED
Sept:
The four allied powers sign a Quadripartite Agreement which effectively recognises the status quo in divided Berlin but reaffirms allied rights in the city
Dec:
The FRG and the GDR sign a ‘Transit Agreement’ to regu late access between the two halves of Berlin, and between West Berlin and the Federal Republic
1972
April:
The CDU fails to dislodge Brandt with a constructive vote of no confidence in protest at the Ostpolitik treaties
June:
Leading members of the terrorist ‘Baader-Meinhof gang’ are arrested
Nov:
Early elections to the Bundestag confirm public approval of Ostpolitik and produce a larger majority for the SPD-FDP coalition
Dec:
The FRG and the GDR sign a Grundlagenvertrag (Basic Treaty) to regulate their relations
1973
June:
The Grundlagenvertrag between the FRG and the GDR takes force
Aug:
Death of Walter Ulbricht
Sept:
The FRG and GDR become members of the United Nations
Oct:
The ‘oil crisis’ begins
1974
April:
Abortion is legalised in the FRG
May:
Brandt resigns as Chancellor over the Guillaume spying affair; he is replaced by Helmut Schmidt (SPD)
1975
Aug:
Both German states sign the Helsinki Accords of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe; these reognise existing borders and commit signatories to basic human rights guarantees
1976
Oct:
Erich Honecker becomes the GDR’s head of state
Nov:
The satirical songwriter and performer Wolf Biermann is refused re-entry to the GDR after a controversial tour of the FRG; many prominent GDR cultural figures protest Demonstrators clash with police at the site of a new nuclear power station in Brokdorf (FRG)
1977
Oct:
Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of the FRG employers’ and industrialists’ associations, is assassinated by his idnappers following the suicides of imprisoned members of the Red Army Faction (RAF), including Andreas Baader; the Schmidt government refuses to give in to terrorist threats
1978
March:
The GDR leadership meets senior figures in the Protestant church and agrees to allow the GDR churches greater room for manoeuvre
Dec:
Further rise in world oil prices
1979
March:
Demonstrators protest at the nuclear waste plant in Gorleben (FRG)
Oct:
In the Bremen regional elections, the Greens gain their first seats in a Land parliament
1980
Jan:
Founding federal congress of the Green Party
Oct:
The CDU/GSU fare badly in the Bundestag elections under their chancellor candidate, the Bavarian prime minister Franz
Josef Strauß
1981
Oct:
Large demonstration against nuclear armament in Bonn
Dec:
Chancellor Schmidt visits Honecker in East Berlin
1982
June:
Haifa million protesters demonstrate at the NATO summit meeting in Bonn
Sept:
The FDP, unhappy over economic policy, swaps coalition partners, enabling Helmut Kohl (CDU) to replace Schmidt as chancellor in October following a constructive vote of no confidence in the Bundestag
1983
March:
Bundestag elections confirm the new CDU/CSU-FDP gov ernment in office, and return the first Green members of parliament
1984
June:
The Greens win their first seats in the European Parliament
1985
March:
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and ushers in reformist policies in the following years
May:
Federal president Richard von Weizsäcker describes 8 May 1945 as a ‘day of liberation’
Oct:
Green politicians enter the government of Hesse
1986
June:
Demonstrations at two nuclear power plants in the FRG following the Soviet reactor disaster at Chernobyl
1987
Jan:
The CDU/CSU-FDP coalition is confirmed in Bundestag elections, but the CDU/CSU share of the vote slips
Sept:
Honecker is received on a state visit to the FRG
1988
Jan:
Over 100 arrests of demonstrators for peace and human rights in East Berlin
Oct:
Death of the Bavarian premier, Franz Josef Strauß
1989
Jan:
Protesters disrupt an official SED march in Leipzig
May:
Dissidents protest against electoral fraud following the GDR’s local elections
Aug–Sept:
Thousands of GDR citizens leave for the west via the newly open border between Hungary and Austria, or take refuge in FRG embassies in eastern European capitals
Oct:
Large protest demonstrations in Leipzig overshadow the official celebrations of the GDR’s fortieth birthday Honecker is forced to resign his state and party roles, and is briefly replaced by Egon Krenz as the SED and GDR structures begin to disintegrate
Nov:
The GDR opens the Berlin Wall and its borders to the Federal Republic Opposition parties are legalised in the GDR
Dec:
The GDR Volkskammer removes the constitutional guarantee of the SED’s leading role
The SED adopts the new name ‘SED-Partei des demokratischen Sozialismus’
Kohl visits the GDR’s new prime minister, Hans Modrow (SED-PDS) in Dresden
1990
March:
First free elections to the GDR Volkskammer produce a clear victory for the western dominated CDU alliance
July:
The D-Mark and the FRG’s social and economic structures are introduced to the GDR Gorbachev agrees to the creation of a united Germany within NATO
Sept:
The four wartime allied powers lift their rights over Germany and Berlin
Oct:
The FRG absorbs the five new Länder of the ex-GDR
Dec:
Bundestag elections for united Germany return Chancellor Kohl’s CDU-led coalition to power
1991
March:
The 2+4 Treaty is fully ratified
April:
Detlev Rohwedder, head of the Treuhand agency to privatise the former GDR’s nationalised industries, is assassinated by the Rote Armee Fraktion
June:
The Bundestag votes for Berlin to replace Bonn as the FRG’s seat of government Oct:
Attacks on foreign workers in Hoyerswerda (Saxony)
Dec:
The FRG demonstrates independence in western European foreign policy by recognising the breakaway Yugoslav republics, Croatia and Slovenia
1992
Aug:
Riots break out in Rostock over the presence of foreigners in the city
Oct:
Willy Brandt dies
Nov:
Three residents of Turkish origin are killed in an arson attack on their home in Mölln
1993
May:
In a further arson attack, five citizens of Turkish origin die in Solingen
1994
July:
The Bundesverfassungsgericht allows, in principle, Bundeswehr troops to participate in operations outside the NATO area
Oct:
In Bundestag elections, the GDU/CSU-FDP coalition is narrowly re-elected
1998
April:
The far right Deutsche Volksunion achieves nearly 13 per cent of the vote in elections to the Sachsen-Anhalt Landtag
Sept:
Helmut Kohl’s CDU/CSU-FDP coalition loses the Bundestag elections to an alliance of the SPD and Greens under Gerhard Schröder (SPD)
Nov:
The PDS enters the government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
1999
Jan:
The Deutsche Mark becomes a founding currency of the new Euro
2000
Jan:
Former Chancellor Kohl and other CDU leaders are implicated in a major corruption scandal over allegedly illegal party financing
