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Chronicle 1983

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    • 6 March

      1983

      SPD badge for the early Bundestag elections ("We want to vote! Now!"), March 1983
      In early Bundestag elections, CDU and CSU are the clear victors with 48.8 percent of votes. The SPD falls to 38.2 percent; the FDP loses votes as well, reaching only seven percent. The new governing coalition still has a comfortable majority. The Greens enter the Bundestag for the first time with 5.6 percent of votes.
    • 23 March

      1983

      After months of deliberations and preparations, US President Ronald Reagan announces his "Strategic Defense Initiative" (SDI) – a research programme for a space-based, non-nuclear missile defence system. Its enormous technological demands and astronomical cost are intended to force the Soviet Union to its knees militarily and financially.
    • 30 March

      1983

      In a secret memorandum for the Soviets, SED Politburo member Werner Krolokowski draws a dramatic picture of the economic situation in the GDR and reports on the country’s imminent insolvency.

      At the same time, he vehemently criticises SED leader Erich Honecker, who, he says, does not represent a "class-based" position. "It is a paradox," says Krolokowski, "that an inveterate West German is leading the GDR." SED Politburo member Werner Krolikowski on the internal situation of the GDR, 30 March 1983 (in German) less
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