Incumbents

Events

13 - 24 February - 31st Berlin International Film Festival
28 February - Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981
14 June - East German general election, 1981^[1]
1 August — Launch of the MK2 Volkswagen Polo, which makes use of a larger estate-like bodyshell, although it is still marketed as a hatchback.^[2]
23 September — Launch of the new Opel Ascona, which for the first time is available with a hatchback and front-wheel drive, as well as a new range of engines.
29 October — Raiders of the Lost Ark in movie theaters in Germany.
December — The Volkswagen Polo and Opel Ascona miss out on the European Car of the Year award, which instead goes to the Renault 9 from France.
Date unknown - Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt was founded, although it was not opened to the public until 1991.^[3]

Date unknown - German research team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt bombarded a target of bismuth-209 with accelerated nuclei of chromium-54 to produce 5 atoms of the isotope bohrium-262

8 January — Mortimer von Kessel, Wehrmacht general (born 1893)
February 22 - Curtis Bernhardt, film director (born 1899)
March 5 – Gertraud Winkelvoss, German neo-Nazi politician (born 1917)^[4]
March 7 - Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling, German tennis player (born 1908)
April 4 — Carl Ludwig Siegel, mathematician (born 1896)
April 20 — Hans Söhnker, actor (born 1903)
May 9 — Fritz Umgelter, television director, writer and film director (born 1922)
May 13 - Joseph-Ernst Graf Fugger von Glött, German politician (born 1895)
May 18 - Eleonore Baur, German Nazi, only woman to participate in Munich Beer Hall Putsch (born 1885)
June 4 - Fritz Steuben, German author (born 1898)
June 16 - Julius Ebbinghaus, German philosopher (born 1885)
July 5 — Helmut Gröttrup, electrical engineer (born 1916)
July 19 - Karl Steinhoff, German politician (born 1892)
August 23 - Rolf Herricht, German actor and comedian (born 1927)
October 29 - Carl Joseph Leiprecht, German bishop of Roman Catholic Church (born 1903)
November 22 - Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochem (born 1900)
December 31 — Gunther Krappe, Wehrmacht officer (born 1893)

^ Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe: Fourth Edition. Hoover Press. ISBN 978-0-8179-7693-4.
^ "Vw: polo history". Archived from the original on 8 June 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2008.
^ "Geschichte". www.mmk.art. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
^ Schumacher, Martin (2006). Die Volksvertretung 1946–1972 [The People's Representation 1946-1972] (PDF) (in German). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. p. 1376.

1981 in Europe

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