2008 in Germany

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Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
See also:	Other events of 2008 List of years in Germany

Events in the year 2008 in Germany.

Incumbents

Federal level

• President – Horst Köhler
• Chancellor – Angela Merkel

State level

• Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg – Günther Oettinger
• Minister-President of Bavaria – Günther Beckstein
• Governing mayor of Berlin – Klaus Wowereit
• First mayor of Bremen – Jens Böhrnsen
• Minister-President of Brandenburg – Matthias Platzeck
• First mayor of Hamburg – Ole von Beust
• Minister-President of Hesse – Roland Koch
• Minister-President of Lower Saxony – Christian Wulff
• Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – Harald Ringstorff
• Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia – Jürgen Rüttgers
• Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate – Kurt Beck
• Minister-President of the Saarland – Peter Müller
• Minister-President of Saxony – Georg Milbradt (to May 27) - Stanislaw Tillich
• Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt – Wolfgang Böhmer
• Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein – Peter Harry Carstensen
• Minister-President of Thuringia – Dieter Althaus

Events

• 1 January - Deutsche Post loses its monopoly on mail under 50 grams following EU legislation.^[1]
• 1 January - Berlin, Cologne and Hanover introduce restrictions on cars without suitable catalytic converters or diesel particulate filters. More cities will follow during the year.^[2]
• 1 January - Eight states introduce a smoking ban in public places, including restaurants and bars. Three states imposed similar bans in 2007 and the remaining five states will follow later in the year.^[3]
• 1 January - A telecommunications data retention law came into force, requiring German telecommunications services and Internet providers to store telephone and Internet data for up to six months.
• 3 January - Arrest warrants are issued for Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Knut Folkerts, two members of the left-wing terrorist group Red Army Faction in relation to the 1977 assassination of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback.^[4]
• 15 January - The federal government announces that the government budget for 2007 has been balanced and government debt has not increased — for the first time since 1969.^[5]
• 15 January - Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia announces the closure of its factory in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, scrapping its 2300-strong workforce. Nokia, having received approximately 88 million euros in subsidies from the German and NRW governments for the Bochum facility, plans to relocate to Romania where the labour costs are cheaper and millions in EU subsidies are available.^[6]
• 21 January - Black Monday - The DAX falls 523.98 points (-7.16%), the biggest fall since 2001-09-11.
• 27 January - State election in Lower Saxony - The ruling CDU/FDP coalition under Christian Wulff is returned to office, although with a reduced majority. The Left receive 7.1% of the vote and enter the Lower Saxon parliament for the first time.
• 27 January - State election in Hesse - The ruling CDU/FDP coalition under Roland Koch loses its majority in the Hessian parliament, with the CDU losing 12% in comparison to the previous election in 2003. The preferred opposition coalition of SPD and Greens under Andrea Ypsilanti also fails to reach a majority. Coalition negotiations begin. The Left receive 5.1% of the vote and narrowly cross the 5%-threshold required to enter the Hessian parliament for the first time.
• 3 February - Nine Turkish residents die in house fire in Ludwigshafen,^[7] leading to concern within the Turkish community.^[8]
• 14 February - The home and office of Klaus Zumwinkel, CEO of Deutsche Post, is searched by police investigating tax evasion.^[9] Zumwinkel resigns on the following day.^[10] The raid on Zumwinkel is the first after it became known to the government that billions of euros have been diverted into a bank in Liechtenstein by around 900 wealthy Germans.^[11]
• 14 February - The Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne announces that they recently discovered that the Monet painting On the Banks of the Seine by Port Villez, which has been in the museum's possession since 1954, is a forgery.^[12]
• 24 February - State election in Hamburg
• 2 March - Local elections in Bavaria.^[13]
• 27 March - Plans scraps to build the Transrapid high-speed monorail link between the Bavarian capital Munich and its airport because of a massive overrun in costs.^[14]
• 19–30 May - 9th UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn
• 25 May - Local elections in Schleswig-Holstein
• 25 June - German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung (pictured) announces a troop increase of the country's contingent in Afghanistan to 4,500, yet refuses to move the soldiers to areas where they would be more likely to be involved in direct combat. (NYT) - 2008-06-25
• 31 August - Dresdner Bank was paid for 9.8 Milliarden Euro to Commerzbank ^[15]
• 1 September - Since 1 September 2008 foreigners which wish to gain German nationality have to answer a test with 33 questions in German. Sueddeutsche - 2008-09-01
• September 22–28 – photokina in Cologne
• 26 September - The German Bundestag decided that from 2013 German parents will have the right to send their children to a Kindergarten or Pre-school playgroup from the age of one year. The States of Germany have to build enough Kindergarten/Pre-school playgroups to meet this requirement (Work-life balance). n-tv - 2008-09-26
• 28 September - State election in Bavaria: The CSU lost its majority after 46 years in Landtag. n-tv - 2008-09-28
• October - The Volkswagen Golf Mk6 is launched at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

Popular culture

Arts & literature

• July - Loveparade in Dortmund
• 25–27 July - Force Attack music festival in Behnkenhagen, near Rostock
• 27 July and 9 August - Klassik Open Air in Nuremberg
• 31 July - 2 August - Wacken Open Air in Wacken
• 6–8 June - Rock am Ring Music festival at the Nürburgring
• 20 September - 5 October - 175th Oktoberfest in Munich

Film

• 7–17 February - 58th Berlin International Film Festival.
• 31 March - Premiere of The Red Baron (film) in Berlin.^[16]

Sport

• 17–27 January - 2008 European Men's Handball Championship in Norway - world champions Germany finish fourth.
• 7–9 March - 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain
• 13–24 March - 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands
• 2–18 May - 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships in Canada
• April - 2008 World Fencing Championships in Beijing, PR China
• 7–29 June - UEFA Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland
• 16–21 June - Special Olympics National Games in Karlsruhe
• 20 July - German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring
• 8–24 August - 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China. See Germany at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• 6–17 September - 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, PR China
• 12–25 November - 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden.^[17]
• 2–14 December - 2008 European Women's Handball Championship in Macedonia

Births

• Heidi, Opossum

Deaths

• 2 January - Günter Schubert, actor (born 1938)
• 3 January - Werner Dollinger, former federal minister, co-founder of the CSU (born 1938)
• 7 January - Detlef Kraus, pianist (born 1919)
• 27 February - Ivan Rebroff, singer (born 1931)
• 22 September - Thomas Doerflein, zookeeper (born 1963)
• 13 December - Horst Tappert, actor (born 1923)

References

Years in Germany (1870–present)
1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029