Crowd in Berlin on June 17, 1953

Description

Crowd in Berlin on June 17, 1953; Photo; Licensed item; Original: 2880×2160; Photographer: Unknown;0Licensable; Rights: 0© Bleek/zb Media. The photo shows demonstrators in Berlin on June 17, 1953, during the popular uprising in the GDR. On this day, hundreds of thousands of people protested in East Berlin and many other cities of the GDR against the government of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The demonstrations began as workers’ strikes against rising work norms but quickly developed into a broad uprising against the communist regime.

The GDR government was unable to suppress the protests alone, so the Soviet Union intervened. Soviet tanks and military troops marched into East Berlin to violently suppress the uprising. Numerous demonstrators were arrested, many were killed or injured. Martial law was declared, and the protest was brutally ended.

The photo is a striking symbol of repression in the GDR and Soviet control over East Germany. It shows the harsh reality of the Cold War: While democracy and freedom were propagated in the West, an authoritarian regime supported by the Soviet Union ruled in the East. June 17, 1953, was later declared “Day of German Unity” in the Federal Republic of Germany, in remembrance of the first major popular uprising against the communist dictatorship in the GDR.