The trauma of the early 1970s was quickly left behind, starting in 1974 with the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the opening of the Stuttgart S-Bahn on 1 October 1978 with a scheduled three routes. from 17 to 19 June 1983, ten European heads of state and representatives from the European Union met in Stuttgart for a summit and there made the Solemn Declaration on European Union. In 1986, the European Athletics Championships of that year were held in the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Mikhail Gorbachev, while on a trip to West Germany to offer a spot for a West German astronaut in a Soviet space mission, visited Stuttgart 14 June 1989 and was the honored guest of a sumptuous reception held at the New Palace.