The Socialist German Student Association (SDS) announces its disbandment. The student movement and the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) splits up into a reform movement, which the SPD joins, a group that follows the German Communist Party (DKP), and Maoist, district-based and spontaneous formations.more
19 March
1970
Meeting between West German Chancellor Willy Brandt und GDR chairman of the Council of Ministers Willi Stoph in Erfurt, 19. 3.1970 (Photo: The Federal Government, Photographer: Ludwig Wegemann)
Meeting between the chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, Willi Stoph, and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in Erfurt. While Willi Stoph calls for relations between East and West Germany to be taken up as between independent, sovereign states, Willy Brandt insists on a special German-German relationship.
Several thousand people chant "Willy, Willy" and break through the barricades set up by the State Security. In front of the Erfurter Hof hotel where the meeting is taking place, the crowd then shouts: "Willy Brandt to the window!" and leaves no doubt which Willy it means.
The start of the German-German dialogue arouses hopes among the GDR population; among the SED leadership, the "Erfurt incident" reactivates the fear of its own walled-in people. On 21 May there is another meeting in Kassel.
RIAS report on Willy Brandt’s visit in Erfurt and the reactions of the GDR press, 19 March 1970 (in German) (Source: Archiv Deutschlandradio, Broadcast: Rundschau am Mittag, Moderator/Reporter: Peter Schulz, Jürgen Kellermeier)
Four-Power talks about the divided city begin in the former Allied Control Commission building in West Berlin. They are aimed at bringing about regulated access and a reduction in tensions.