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.more
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.
Karl-Heinz Kube is killed; Detlef S. remains uninjured. The guards who killed Kube and the other border soldiers involved are given the "Medal for Exemplary Border Service" and the "Service Badge of the Border Troops" respectively and commended. A memorial cross on the West Berlin side commemorates the victim.
Karl-Heinz Kube, born on April 10, 1949, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on Dec. 16, 1966less
19 December
1966
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.
