East Germany, 1958–90 — timeline

Key topic 1 · The Berlin Wall crisis, 1958–63

The refugee problem and the origins of the Wall

1949–61

About 2.7 million people leave the GDR, disproportionately young and skilled. Why this date: It is the problem the Wall was built to solve, and its scale is what makes the decision explicable.

1958

Khrushchev demands the withdrawal of Western forces from West Berlin, opening the second Berlin crisis. Why this date: It supplies the international context in which the closure became negotiable with Moscow.

June 1961

Ulbricht tells a press conference that nobody intends to build a wall. Why this date: It is dated two months before the wire, and it is the clearest documented case of the regime's public record being worthless.

13 August 1961

The sector boundary is sealed overnight. Why this date: It ends the emigration and stabilises the state, which is why an account that treats it only as a crime cannot explain the next twenty-eight years.

The Wall's impact on East Berliners, security and escapes

13 August 1961

The sector boundary is sealed overnight; about sixty thousand commuters lose their jobs. Why this date: The suddenness is the point: the division was made in a night and lasted twenty-eight years.

August 1962

Peter Fechter is shot and left in the death strip in view of Western journalists. Why this date: It is the case that fixed the Wall's meaning in Western opinion, and it happened a year after the closure.

1963

The first passes agreement permits brief West Berlin visits at Christmas. Why this date: It measures how complete the separation had been, since a few days' access required a formal treaty.

Key topic 2 · Stabilisation and control: the GDR, 1962–87

Economic stabilisation, the New Economic System and Comecon

1963

The New Economic System devolves limited decisions to enterprises and lets profit measure performance. Why this date: It is the road not taken: a reform attempt abandoned before it could be judged.

1971

Honecker replaces Ulbricht and adopts the unity of economic and social policy. Why this date: It reverses the reform and substitutes subsidised consumption for it, which is the decision the 1980s crisis descends from.

1980s

Soviet oil deliveries are reduced and repriced; hard-currency debt rises. Why this date: It removes the external subsidy the GDR's economy had been designed around.

The Stasi, the churches and the limits of control

1957

Erich Mielke becomes Minister for State Security, a post he holds until 1989. Why this date: One man ran the apparatus for thirty-two years, which is why its methods evolved so consistently.

1978

The church-state agreement gives the Protestant churches limited independent space. Why this date: It creates the only rooms in the country where people could meet without permission, which is where the opposition of the 1980s grew.

1982

Monday prayers begin at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. Why this date: It is the direct ancestor of the demonstrations of autumn 1989, and it began inside a concession the state had made to contain the church.

1989

About 91,000 full-time officers and roughly 173,000 unofficial collaborators are on the Stasi's books. Why this date: It is the highest surveillance density recorded anywhere, and the service still failed to predict the events of that autumn.

Key topic 3 · Life in the GDR – social change, 1962–87

Employment, housing, education and welfare

1971

Honecker commits the state to solving the housing question through mass prefabricated construction. Why this date: It is the most visible expression of the bargain of subsidised living standards in exchange for quiescence.

1971–89

Large prefabricated estates are built while older urban housing decays. Why this date: The two happened together, and an answer that mentions only one has described half the policy.

Women, GDR identity, media and sport

1972

Abortion is legalised on request in the first trimester; state childcare expands further. Why this date: It is roughly fifteen years ahead of the equivalent West German settlement, which is the comparison that makes it examinable.

1976

The GDR finishes second in the Olympic medal table with a population of about seventeen million. Why this date: It is the clearest measure of what state investment in sport achieved, and of why the state wanted it.

1970s–80s

A centrally directed doping programme administers steroids to athletes, including minors. Why this date: It belongs with the medals rather than after them, because both are the same pursuit of visible achievement.

Key topic 4 · Ostpolitik – relations with the Federal Republic, 1969–87

Ostpolitik and the agreements of 1970–72

1970

Treaties with the Soviet Union and Poland accept the post-war frontiers. Why this date: It is the precondition for any settlement between the two German states.

1972

The Basic Treaty establishes relations between the FRG and the GDR. Why this date: It gives the GDR the recognition it had sought since 1949, and it is the strand's pivot.

1973

Both German states join the United Nations. Why this date: It completes the GDR's admission to the international system as a state rather than a zone.

International recognition and state visits

1973

Both German states join the United Nations and Western recognition follows. Why this date: It is the moment the GDR becomes a state in the eyes of the international system.

1975

The Helsinki Final Act confirms Europe's borders and commits signatories to human rights provisions. Why this date: The GDR obtained the borders it wanted and gave its own citizens a document they could quote against it.

September 1987

Honecker is received in Bonn with full state honours. Why this date: It is the high point of external legitimacy, and it comes two years before the state ceased to exist.

Key topic 5 · The Peaceful Revolution, 1987–90

Gorbachev's influence and the protest movements

1985–89

Glasnost and perestroika; the GDR restricts Soviet publications it considers too liberal. Why this date: It is the clearest measure of how far the East German leadership had separated itself from its protector.

October 1989

Gorbachev visits for the fortieth anniversary and indicates the GDR must solve its own problems. Why this date: It confirms publicly that the guarantee behind every previous crisis had been withdrawn.

9 October 1989

About seventy thousand march in Leipzig and no order to fire is given. Why this date: It is the moment protest became survivable, and the crowds multiplied immediately afterwards.

The border openings, the fall of Honecker and 9 November

May 1989

Hungary begins dismantling its border fortifications with Austria; the border opens formally in September. Why this date: It reopens the exit closed in 1961, through a third country, and begins the crisis.

18 October 1989

Honecker is removed by his own Politburo and replaced by Krenz. Why this date: The party attempts a managed turn, and the concessions run permanently a week behind the demands.

4 November 1989

Perhaps half a million people demonstrate in East Berlin. Why this date: It shows the movement had outgrown both the churches and the capacity of the state to contain it.

9 November 1989

Schabowski announces new travel rules as effective immediately and the crossings open that night. Why this date: The most surveilled state in history lost control of its border through an administrative accident on live television.

The collapse of the SED and reunification

December 1989

The SED's leading role is removed from the constitution and a round table prepares free elections. Why this date: It ends the one-party state five weeks after the border opened.

18 March 1990

The first free GDR election is won decisively by parties committed to rapid unification. Why this date: The civic movements that made the revolution were defeated by the electorate it enfranchised, which is the strand's central fact.

1 July 1990

Monetary union converts East German savings into Deutschmarks. Why this date: It exposes East German industry to Western competition overnight and shapes everything that followed economically.

3 October 1990

The GDR accedes to the Federal Republic. Why this date: Unification took under eleven months from the opening of the border, which is the measure of how fast the question changed.