Konrad Adenauer, President of the Parliamentary Council (centre) promulgates the Basic Law (left to right: Helene Weber, Hermann Schäfer, Konrad Adenauer, Adolf Schönfelder, Jean Stock)
Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-D00022155, photographer: Munker, Georg
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14 May 1948
The state of Israel establishedWhile entry conditions for Palestine are severely restricted by the British Mandate government, the entry conditions for the newly founded state of Israel are modified and it now becomes the host country for survivors of the Holocaust.25 June1948
The Displaced Persons Act passed by the US CongressBefore this law was enacted, “displaced persons” (those forced by war to leave their country and who cannot return) were not permitted to enter the U.S.Summer 1948
A plan for the establishment of a "Library of Emigrant Literature" arises in Zurich at a meeting of Hanns Wilhelm Eppelsheimer and board members of the Association for the Protection of German Writers in Switzerland, including Walter Fabian, Jo Mihaly and Kurt Hirschfeld.22 October 1948
Writer Bertolt Brecht returns from American exile, relocating to the Soviet Occupation Zone in Berlin, later the GDR.18 November 1948
The German PEN Centre is re-established in Göttingen11. Januar 1949
The Berliner Ensemble, established by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel, debuts at the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin.23 May 1949
Proclamation of the Basic Law, and with it the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)The Basic Law (Grundgesetz) does not constitute the Federal Republic of Germany as a new state but rather organises it as a new political order of government for a “transitional period”. Hence the “basic law” is used and the term “constitution” is avoided.24. May 1949
Article 16 of the just-proclaimed Basic Law guarantees asylum for victims of political persecution, the only such individual right in the world.8 August 1949
The "Law to Reduce Social Hardship" is passedThis law regulates the dispensing of emergency aid for displaced persons, refugees, the politically persecuted and those harmed by currency instability. The law is a precursor to the Compensation of Burdens Act which comes later.
The German Democratic Republic is established in BerlinBundesarchiv, Bild 183-G1122-0600-132, photographer: Zühlsdorf, Erich7 October 1949
Constitution of the Provisional People's Chamber. In its first session it puts into enacts the constitution which creates the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)