SPD badge for the early Bundestag elections ("We want to vote! Now!"), March 1983 (Source: Private archive, Hans-Hermann Hertle)
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.