Chronology 1971 on

This page provides a chronology of events that shaped the period that "Berlin 1969" describes, from 1971 on to subsequent events that answer questions that developed during this time.  This page will be updated from time to time.

1971:  Markus Wolf, foreign intelligence boss for the GDR, awarded the "Red Star of the Interior Ministry of the Soviet Union".

29 Jan 71: Extension of the U-Bahn Line U-7 from Moeckernbruecke in the American Sector to Fehrbelliner Platz in the British Sector (5.3 km) and the extension of Line U-9 from Spichernstrasse to Walther-Schreiber-Platz in the American Sector (3.5 km).

14 Mar 71:  The SPD gains an absolute majority in the West Berlin government.  Ironically, this creates a need to bring all elements of the party into positions of power, including the far left wing.  Leftists in the new city government obstruct policies, disrupt legislation, leading to a negative reaction against the socialists from the voters in the Mar 75 election.

Apr 71: "Red Army" German radical group publishes "Concept of the Urban Guerilla" paper advocating underground warfare.

4 May 71:  Erich Honecker replaces Walter Ulbricht as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the GDR (DDR). [Another source reports this as 3 May 71.]

Summer 71:  Life goes on in leafy Zehlendorf, as shown in the video reached through the link listed below.

24 Jul 71:  Violence returns on the "modern" Wall, as Werner Kuehl, age 22 is shot.

Aug 71:  Author of this website leaves Berlin on Pan American Airlines via Frankfurt, is separated from the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey.  Working my way home slowly across the United States, I find a country much changed since I had returned from home after the holiday leave for Fort Lewis in Jan 1969.  In New York City, the cabbie refuses a tip at Grand Central Terminal, because I'm in uniform and he does not like the way that GI's are being treated, because of the war in Vietnam.  In Schenectady, New York, a man buys a drink for me-- his son is in Vietnam-- even though I explain that I never went to Vietnam.  Riding across North Dakota, it really hits me that I am now a veteran of something almost completely forgotten by my countrymen.  At Portland Union Station, I alight from the train and am met by family members.  My father tells me that the Four Power Agreement is going to be adopted, that "... you've won your war, and now they're signing the treaty." [It is a strange ending for what began in 1968 as preparation for being sent to Vietnam.]

3 Sep 71:  Signing of the Four Power Agreement, known as the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin.  This provided the framework for the subsequent Transit Agreement.  Soviet Ambassador Abrassimov wraps up the process with the quote that could be translated as "All's well that ends well."  [The Quadripartite Agreement is known as the Four Power Agreement on the Status of West-Berlin in GDR documents.]  Lord Mayor Schuetz calls it "status quo plus" in describing it from the city's standpoint.

Nov 71:  Nobel Peace Prize for Willy Brandt.

17 Dec 71:  Transit Agreement between the German Democratic Republic and German Federal Republic  is signed.

1 Jan 72: The sadly unused portion of U-Bahn Line U-2 (today's designation) between Wittenbergplatz and Gleisdreieck was put into mothballs. Once the highest traffic volume segment of the U-Bahn network, the line led down from the elevated Hochbahn into the death strip at Potsdamer Platz, no longer carrying through traffic. During the previous winter's flu epidemic, the line segment was shut down in order to redeploy staff to cover absences elsewhere. Its other half continued to operate in East Berlin, with trains turning back toward Pankow beneath the Potsdamer Platz no-man's land. Riders in the neighborhoods that lost this service could use a parallel U-Bahn line nearby. What really was lost was the concept that the Wall might reopen at any time soon, which had been the only justification for keeping this line in operation from 13 Aug 61.

1 Jan 72:  Horst Kullack, age 23, is shot while attempting to flee the GDR.

8 Jan 72:  Reports appeared of a speech by Erich Honecker, in which he referred to the German Federal Republic (West Germany) for the first time as a foreign country.

7 Mar 72: Klaus Schulze, age 19, is shot while trying to escape the GDR.

3 Jun 72:  Foreign ministers of the Four Powers sign the final protocol of the agreement that becomes the founding document for arrangements in Berlin until the reunification of Germany.

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9 Nov 89:  The Berlin Wall is opened.

18 Jun 94:  The farewell parade of Allied forces in West Berlin.

Print sources include print publications of:

The Allied Museum, Berlin.
The Press and Information Office of the Land Berlin.
The Land Berlin Central Office for Political Education.
The BVG's 75th Anniversary History
Verkehrsamt Berlin.

Dittfurth, Udo and the Berliner S-Bahn Museum; August 1961: S-Bahn und Mauerbau; Gesellschaft fuer Verkehrspolitik und Eisenbahnwesen; Berlin; 2003; 160 pages.

Bering, Henrik; Outpost Berlin; edition q, inc.; Carol Stream, Illinois; 1995; 266 pages.

Return to Chronology cover page.

Richard Huffman's Baader-Meinhof pages focus on German terrorists.

Go to Troubled Times table of contents.

Return to Berlin 1969.