Following a resolution by the SED Politburo, the Commercial Coordination (KoKo) department headed by Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski is put under the charge of Günter Mittag and thus under Erich Honecker’s direction.
Under strict secrecy and isolation from all other Central Committee departments, the Planning Commission as well as the SED Politburo, the KoKo department is henceforth answerable only to Honecker and Mittag.less
3 November
1976
The GDR author Rainer Kunze is thrown out of the GDR Writers’ Association federation after the publication of his novel "Die wunderbaren Jahre" ("The Wonderful Years") by a West German publisher.
16 November
1976
The songwriter Wolf Biermann is expatriated from the GDR during a concert tour of West Germany. Thirteen well-known GDR artists and intellectuals demonstrate their solidarity with Biermann and publish a protest declaration on 17 November.more
The GDR regime critic Professor Robert Havemann is placed under house arrest. He is no longer allowed to leave his house in the Grünheide district of Berlin. However, he continues to succeed in creating contact with the outside world and smuggling his writings to the West.