1968

31.01.1968 Walter Ulbricht presents to the East German Parliament the draft for a new constitution that establishes East Germany as a “socialist German state” and declares Berlin “the capitol of the German Democratic Republic.” The new charter replaces the parliamentary constitution of 1949.
06.02.1968 A 24-year old East German Soldier escapes across the Berlin wall into West Berlin. He is the 500th army soldier to escape since August 1961.
19.02.1968 4 East Germans escape across the border to Lower Saxony into West Germany.
24.02.1968 Walter Ulbricht gives his firm support to the Soviet positions during Communist conference in Budapest, Hungary. The Soviets want to summon a new meeting in Moscow and renew the Communist Manifest from the Moscow summit of 1960. Ulbricht harshly attacks the Chinese.
10.03.1968 Officials in the East German government voice their concern about the political development in Czechoslovakia in the western media.
23.03.1968 Meeting of “the Five” (Soviet Union, GDR, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria) and Czechoslovakia in Dresden, East Germany. Dubcek is deceived into believing that the only agenda for the meeting are economic issues. What is in fact the only question on the agenda is the situation in Czechoslovakia. Dubcek is openly criticized by the Soviets, Polish and the East Germans, who characterize the events in Czechoslovakia as a “counterrevolution.”
23.03.1968 The East German regime cancels all three-day tourist travels to Czechoslovakia. The restriction is lifted on March 25.
25.03.1968 Kurt Hager, the leading ideologist and member of the steering committee of the East German Communist party, attacks the Czechoslovakian leadership during a party meeting in Berlin. 
26.03.1968 The East German Parliament (Die Volkskammer) adopts the constitutional draft.
26.03.1968 The East German leadership announces that a plebiscite on the new constitution will be held April 6.
06.04.1968 11 millions East German go to the polls to adopt a new constitution that reaffirms the communist one-party rule and the division of Germany.
16.04.1968 The East German regime’s mouth piece Neues Deutschland comments on the student revolt in West Berlin and in West Germany, condemning West German police actions as “fascist terror.”
19.04.1968 East German authorities announce that they will give more influence to youth organizations at universities and colleges. The promise is given at a conference in Dresden, where 400 professors, student and party leaders are discussing university reforms in East Germany.
25.04.1968 Walter Ulbricht voices harsh attacks against the Czechoslovakian leadership during a conference to celebrate the 150 years birthday anniversary of Karl Marx in East Berlin. 
26.04.1968 Klaus Schuetz, Mayor of West Berlin, is denied access to East Berlin.
May, 1968 Protests against the planned demolition of the University church in Leipzig.
09.05.1968 The Warsaw Pact starts military exercises along the Czechoslovakian borders with Poland and East Germany.
12.05.1968 An article in Neues Deutschland by Helmut Baierl – leader of the Bertold Brecht theater, claims the political development in Czechoslovakia is a threat to the communist system and the communist alliance. The East German regime launches a press campaign against Czechoslovakia.
29.05.1968 Walter Ulbricht in Moscow for meetings with the Soviet leadership.
30.05.1968 The University Church in Leipzig is blown up despite protests.
04.06.1968 Per Michelsen, correspondent in the Danish newspaper Informationen is denied a visa to East Germany because of his critical reports about the East German treatment of the singer Wolf Biermann, and of the dismissal of Robert Havemann, a leading critic of the regime, from his post as Professor of Chemistry at the Humboldt University.
21.06.1968 Walter Ulbricht denies distribution of the West German newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung in East Germany. The decision comes after the West German government allows the distribution of East German newspapers in the west.
13.07.1968 The Neues Deutschland warns the Czechoslovakian leadership and claims that the Czechoslovakian government has secret connections to Western countries, especially West Germany.
14.07.1968 - 17.07.1968 The East German leadership participates in the Warsaw Pact meeting in Warsaw.
23.07.1968 East German soldiers erect barbed wire on the border with Czechoslovakia.
31.07.1968 The East German Minister of Defense, Heinz Hoffman, meets with Soviet military leaders in Moscow.
12.08.1968 The East German Communist leader Walter Ulbricht meets Dubcek in the border town of Karlovy Vary. Ulbricht joins the meeting together with Erich Honecker and Willy Stoph.
21.08.1968 East German soldiers participate in the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
23.08.1968 Several hundreds of East German workers refuse to sign proclamations in support of the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
23.08.1968 Fliers criticizing the invasion of Czechoslovakia are distributed in East Berlin. Ordinary people deliver boxes of food to the Czechoslovakian embassy in East Berlin in sympathy with the Czechoslovakian people. More than 100 young people are arrested in the following days for their criticism of the invasion, many of them children of prominent members of the communist party (among them Thomas Brasch, son of the Vice Minister of Culture).
24.08.1968 Youth demonstration against the invasion of Czechoslovakia outside hotel Berolina at Karl Marx-Allé, East Berlin. The demonstrators shout: “Dubcek, Dubcek!” and “Svoboda, Svoboda!” Professor Robert Havemann’s two sons are arrested.
25.08.1968 The East German correspondent in Stockholm, Hans Wacholz, applies for political asylum in Sweden.
26.08.1968 Wolf Biermann and Robert Havemann are arrested by the regime after they declare their support of Czechoslovakia in a West German newspaper.
10.10.1968 Horst Bonnet, producer at the East Berlin Komische Oper, sentenced to two-and-a- half years in prison for his protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. His wife is sentenced to two year prison for the distribution of fliers in the days after the invasion. The daughter of professor Lothar Berthold, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Institute, is also arrested.
21.10.1968 A series of trials start against students and intellectuals that participated in protests against the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Among the accused are Frank and Florian Havemann, Erika Berthold, Rosita Hunziger and Thomas Brasch. The accused received prison sentences ranging from fifteen to twenty-seven months.