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East Germany

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

31 dated entries naming East Germany, drawn from 18 separate years between 1949 CE and 1994 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.

Also written as East German, GDR, German Democratic Republic in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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20th century

  • 1949October 7 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is officially established (until 1990).source
  • 1950February 8 – The Stasi is founded in East Germany, and acts as a secret police until 1990.source
  • 1950February 19 – Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany, to begin reunification.source
  • 1950July 6 - Treaty of Zgorzelec was signed between the Republic of Poland and East Germany (GDR).source
  • 1952May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army.source
  • 1952July 13 – East Germany announces the formation of its National People's 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
  • 1959October 7 – On Baghdad's al-Rashid Street, President Abd al-Karim Qasim was ambushed on his way to the East German embassy. The five man team, led by future Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, killed Qasim's driver and wounded Qasim. One assassin died and Saddam himself was injured, but escaped to farm.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
  • 1962May 5 – Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 1972August 14 – An East German Ilyushin airliner crashes near East Berlin; all 156 on board perish.source
  • 1973September 18 – The two German Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), are admitted to the United Nations.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
  • 1979September 16 – East German balloon escape: Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.source
  • 1989September 10 – The Hungarian government opens the country's western border (with Austria) to refugees from East Germany.source
  • 1989October 3 – The government of East Germany closes the country's border with Czechoslovakia to prevent further emigration to the West.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
  • 1990April 24 – Cold War: West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.source
  • 1990May 18 – German reunification: East Germany and West Germany sign a treaty to merge their economic and social systems, effective July 1.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
  • 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
  • 1994May 29 – Erich Honecker, 81, German communist politician and leader of the GDR, liver cancer.source

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