German astronaut team

Before the establishment of the team, then-West German astronauts were selected for single missions, or as part of the European Space Agency's crewed spaceflight activities.

[1] West and East Germany reunified in 1990 and the astronaut team became representative of a single German nation.

In 1976, East Germany selected Sigmund Jähn and Eberhard Köllner as the participants of Intercosmos missions to the Soviet Salyut 6 space station.

[3] For the first (then-West) German sponsored Spacelab mission D-1, Reinhard Furrer and Ernst Messerschmid were selected in 1983.

[6] The team initially consisted of 5 astronaut candidates: For a German mission to the space station Mir, two cosmonauts were selected in 1990 (a few days after the reunification of West and East Germany), and added to the German team: Flade flew on Soyuz TM-14 in 1992, Schlegel and Walter on STS-55 in 1993.