Ludwig Erhard resigns on 30 November after the collapse of the governing coalition of CDU/CSU and FDP. A "grand coalition" is formed; Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) becomes Chancellor, the SPD chairman Willy Brandt is made Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister, Franz Josef Strauss (CSU) is Finance Minister and Karl Schiller (SPD) is Economics Minister.
Because of the weak opposition in the Bundestag, the so-called "Extraparliamentary Opposition" (APD), consisting mostly of students, comes into being; among other things, it protests against the passing of the so-called "emergency laws".
In a letter, the writer Günter Grass tells Willy Brandt of his reservations about the SPD's joining a grand coalition; in his answer, Willy Brandt promises that there will be "no bland political stew".less
16 December
1966
In Kleinmachnow, south of Berlin, the 17-year-old Karl-Heinz Kube and the 18-year-old Detlef S. try to get through the border fortifications towards the Berlin district of Zehlendorf (Düppel). They are noticed by border guards, who fire at them.more
The Saale motorway bridge, the first and so far only joint construction project carried out by the two German states since the division of Germany, is opened to traffic. The old bridge had been blown up in 1945.