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| 1960s |
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| The slower economic growth rates that Germany experienced during the 1960s (compared with the previous decade) were due in part to labor shortages. In an effort to combat this problem, the German government in the 1960s recruited “guest workers” (Gastarbeiter) from Italy, Spain, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey. Guest workers from southern and southeastern Europe numbered about 250,000 in 1960; by 1970 their numbers had grown to 1.8 million. While facilitating economic growth, guest workers, especially those from Turkey, faced problems of social and cultural integration. Problems relating to the integration of foreign workers in German society persisted in the following decades. | 1 |
| On the cultural front, writers and social commentators in the 1960s continued to explore the peculiarities of German history that could be drawn on to explain the acquiescence of the population in the atrocities of the Hitler regime. Increasingly, German culture aligned itself with wider European trends. One area in which this made itself evident was in childrearing practices, which moved away from an earlier emphasis on authoritarianism and obedience toward encouraging the self-expression and individuality of children. | 2 |
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| 1960, April 25 |
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| Khrushchev stated that a separate peace treaty with East Germany would terminate Allied entry rights into West Berlin “by air, land or water.” He warned that any Allied attempt to maintain its rights in Berlin by force would be matched by Soviet force. | 3 |
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| April 27 |
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| President Eisenhower reaffirmed that Western troops would not evacuate West Berlin. | 4 |
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