The People’s Uprising in the DDR

The Red Army cracks down on East German protesters

East Germans were already disgruntled with their poor living conditions, and their discontent boiled over in 1953 following an announcement that workers would be required to put in 10% more work for no extra pay. After thousands of construction workers in Berlin downed tools and went on strike on 16 June, the next day more than 100,000 people assembled in the East of the city to protest. Their demands: free elections, a new government, the end of socialism and the withdrawal of the Soviets. A few isolated voices called for reunification with West Germany. At the same time, more than a million demonstrators took to the streets at over 700 locations throughout the DDR. Crowds stormed police stations, SED and Stasi buildings and opened up prisons to free political prisoners. Whilst the East German security forces were soon overwhelmed, the Soviet military commander declared a state of emergency and unleashed 20,000 Red Army soldiers with tanks. The protesters stood no chance: between 50 and 100 East Germans were killed and 15,000 arrested.

The SED knew that they could not afford a repeat of the uprising and reacted with a combination of appeasement and repression. Rescinding the increased working norms, the DDR government raised wages and stepped up food production. The Soviet Union supplied more grain and reduced their demands for reparations. This was accompanied by a massive expansion of the apparatus of control and repression. Whilst the SED portrayed the uprising as a Western-inspired fascist coup, the West – which really had nothing to do with it – viewed it as a symbol of the desire of ordinary East Germans to live in freedom. Although only a few East Germans had called for reunification, the Federal Republic declared 17 June a public holiday, which was marked as the “Day of German Unity”.