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East Germany

1949–1990 country in central Europe, unified into modern Germany

24 dated entries naming East Germany, drawn from 13 separate years between 1950 CE and 1990 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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20th century

  • 1950February 19 – Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany, to begin reunification.source
  • 1950February 8 – The Stasi is founded in East Germany, and acts as a secret police until 1990.source
  • 1952July 13 – East Germany announces the formation of its National People's Army.source
  • 1952May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army.source
  • 1953January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying.source
  • 1953January 24 – Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.source
  • 1954March 25 – The Soviet Union recognises the sovereignty of East Germany. Soviet troops remain in the country.source
  • 1959June 23 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after nine years in a British prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.source
  • 1961August 13 – Berlin Crisis of 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin, and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe (until 1989, when Berlin and Germany both reunified in 1990, following the Fall of the Berlin Wall). On August 22 Ida Siekmann jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall.source
  • 1962August 17 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin, leading to mass protests on the Western side.source
  • 1962May 5 – Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.source
  • 1966February 1 – Around 2,600 political prisoners are released by East Germany, in return for "donations" worth approximately $10,000 a head from West Germany.source
  • 1967July 6 – Langenweddingen level crossing disaster: A level crossing collision between a train loaded with children and a tanker-truck near Magdeburg, East Germany, kills 94 people, mostly children.source
  • 1970April 4 – Fragments of burnt human remains believed to be those of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children are crushed and scattered in the Biederitz river at a KGB center in Magdeburg, East Germany.source
  • 1970March 19 – Ostpolitik: The leaders of West Germany and East Germany meet at a summit for the first time since Germany's division into two republics. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt is greeted by cheering East German crowds as he arrives in Erfurt for a summit with his counterpart, East German Ministerpräsident Willi Stoph.source
  • 1974April 24 – Guillaume Affair: exposure of an East German spy Günter Guillaume within the West German government, leading to the resignation of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.source
  • 1989December 1 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist-dominated Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) its monopoly on power. Egon Krenz, the Politburo and the Central Committee resign two days later.source
  • 1989November 1 – The border between East Germany and Czechoslovakia is reopened.source
  • 1989November 3 – East German refugees arrive at the West German town of Hof after being allowed through Czechoslovakia.source
  • 1989November 7 – Cold War: The Communist government of East Germany under prime minister Willi Stoph resigns, although SED leader Egon Krenz remains as head of state.source
  • 1989October 3 – The government of East Germany closes the country's border with Czechoslovakia to prevent further emigration to the West.source
  • 1990April 24 – Cold War: West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.source
  • 1990July 1 – German reunification: East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, the West German Deutsche Mark becoming the official currency of the East also. The Inner German border (constructed 1945) also ceases to function.source
  • 1990June 13 – Cold War: The destruction of the Berlin Wall by East Germany officially starts, 7 months after it was opened the previous November.source

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