#GDR #OTD 1953 – June 17th Uprising: thousands take to the streets across East Germany (1)

East German austerity plans demanding increased work norms without pay rise sparked initial protests (2)

While the ruling SED reversed course on austerity, these changes came to late to stem public outrage (3)

On June 16, construction workers walked off the job at Stalinallee building sites and marched in protest (4)

News of the work stoppage spread by word of mouth and was amplified by Western radio. This led to a general strike on June 17th – crowds in East Berlin swelled from hundreds to tens of thousands (5)

Protests spread out from East Berlin across all of the GDR – here demonstrators in the main square of Leipzig (6)

When the demonstrators began to demand free elections and end of SED rule, Soviet troops were called in. (7)

6 Soviet divisions, more than 20,000 troops, deployed across the GDR to suppress the East German uprising (8)

On June 18th, demos continues in hundreds of towns across East Germany but these were also suppressed with force (9)

At least 55 East Germans were killed by Soviet troops or local police on June 17/18, 1953. The SED claimed that five policemen were killed by protestors. (10)

Consequences of June 17th Uprising included massive expansion of East German security apparatus including the creation of worker's militia (Kampfgruppen) (11)

Many were arrested for instigating protest but SED also increased consumer goods to appease angry population (12)

Bertolt Brecht commemorated the 17th of June Uprising with the poem The Solution: Would it not be easier […] /for the government /To dissolve the people /And elect another? (13)

The philologist Victor Klemperer, who was highly critical of the SED, feared that the June 17 Uprising could lead to the removal of Soviet forces. Klemperer had narrowly avoided being deported to a death camp in 1945 (14)

In West Germany, June 17th became the “Day of German Unity” until reunification in 1990 when the holiday moved to October 3, the actual day of unification. (15)

On the origins of the 17th of June Uprising, check out this Soviet report on how the SED had alienated virtually every part of East German society http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110023  (16)