The Italian truck driver Benito Corghi, who notices when already on the Western side of the Rudolphstein/Hirschberg border crossing that he has forgotten his papers on the GDR side, goes back on foot to fetch them and is shot dead by GDR border guards.
13 August
1976
Certificate for participation in the parade of the Combat Groups of the Working Class, 13 August 1976 (Source: Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung)
The SED leadership celebrates the 15th anniversary of the construction of the Wall with a military rally ("Kampfappell") and a parade of the "Combat Groups of the Working Class".
18 August
1976
In the marketplace in the Thuringian town of Zeitz, the Protestant minister Oskar Brüsewitz sets himself on fire in protest at the repression of churches in the GDR. He dies of his severe injuries four days later.
19 August
1976
Meeting between CPSU leader Leonid Brezhnev and SED General Secretary Erich Honecker in the Crimea: Brezhnev repeats his concerns about the growth in inner German travel: "Erich, I have already told you that the GDR has 17 million inhabitants. A lot of people come to the GDR. They make propaganda for capitalism. The District Secretary of the party can’t know everything that is said, not even Comrade Mielke."
The increasing debt of the socialist states in the West causes Brezhnev to advise moderation in this regard. Honecker promises to gradually pay off GDR obligations in the West. He says, however, that this requires Soviet grain deliveries to be made to the amount agreed.less