WGermany8

=West Germany Period 8=

Jeff/Peter
KEY THEMES: 1. The Search for Economic Unity with the continent 2. Reunification with East Germany

People/Leaders: 1. Konrad Adenauer 2. Willy Brandt 3. Helmut Schmidt 4. Helmut Khol 5. Wolfgang Schaeuble 6. Angela Merkel

1949 - **Konrad Adenauer** is elected as Chancellor (Political) May 12, 1949 - End of Berlin Blockade (Economic) May 24, 1949 - Federal Republic of Germany Founded (Political) 1952 - military occupation of West Germany ends at the Bonn Convention (Political) May 26, 1952 - Border between East and West Germany is closed ( Political, Social)

1954 - FIFA World Cup Champion ( Social) 1955 - Joins NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) (Political) 1957 - Joins EEC (European Economic Community) (Economic) August 13, 1961 - The Berlin wall, seperating East and West Berlin, is built (Political, Social)

1969 - Social Democrat **Willy Brandt** becomes chancellor and seeks better ties with Soviet Union and East Germany (Political) 1970 - Willy Brandt goes travels to Poland to signs nonagression treaties with Poland and the USSR, symbolizing West Germany's desire of peaceful reconciliation with eastern Europe ( Political) 1972-Munich hosts the 1972 Summer Olympics ( Social) 1973 - East and West Germany join the UN (Political) 1974 - Brandt resigns after allegations surrounding his aides come up. **Helmut Schmidt** becomes new chancellor. (Political)

1974 - FIFA World Cup Host and Champion (Social) 1982 - Christian Democrat **Helmut Khol** becomes chancellor (Political) 1987 - East German leader Erich Honecker pays first ever official visit to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) (Polictical, Social) June 12, 1987 - President Ronald Regan visits Berlin and urges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (Social) November 9, 1989 - Berlin Wall is torn down signifying the end of seperation between East and West Berlin (Social)

November 1989 - Kohl presents a ten-point plan for a step-by-step unification in cooperation with both East Germany and the international community. (Political) October 3, 1990 - East and West Germany are united into one nation under West German laws and constitution ( Polictical) 1991 - Berlin is named the capital of Germany (Political) 1993 - Germany ratifys the Maastricht Treaty with European union, an attmep to create a finacial unity in the continent (Economic) 1994 - Honecker dies. Helmut Kohl is re-elected ( Political) 1994 - Russian and Allied troops leave Berlin (Political, Social) 1998 - Kohl replaced as CDU (Christian Democratic Union) leader by **Wolfgang Schaeuble** (political) 1998 - Government and industry announce compensation fund for former slave workers under Nazis. (Social) January-April 2000- CDU party funding scandal, leads to Kohl resigning as honorary party chairman after he admits illegally accepting thousands of dollars in party contributions. Party leader Schaeuble resigns over his handling of the scandal. **Angela Merkel** takes over. ( Political) 2001 - European Court of Human Rights finds guilty three former East German Communist leaders and therefor should serve jail terms for sanctioning a policy of shooting would-be escapees at the Berlin Wall. The Court said that the men - among them the last East German leader Egon Krenz - had violated international human rights law. (Political) June 2001 **-** Government and nuclear industry representatives sign agreements to cut out nuclear energy entirely over next 20 years (Political) November 2001 - Germany deploys 4000 troops to aid the U.S campaigne in Afghanistan, the largest deployment outside Europe since WWII. ( Political) January 2002 - Euro is introduced as standard currency, signifies the Economic Unity of the Continent (Economic, Political) March 2002 - Government accepts immigration bill allowing limited numbers of skilled non-EU workers into the country .(Social, Economic) August/September 2004 - Tens of thousands protest in the streets of eastern regions over government plans to cut unemployment benefit and other welfare and labor reforms (Social) 2005 - Pariliament ratifies EU constitution (Polical) 2006 - Hosts FIFA World Cup ( Social)