Crowd in Berlin on June 17, 1953

Description

Crowd in Berlin on June 17, 1953; Photo; Licensed article; Original: 2880×2160; Photographer: Unknown;a Licenseable; Rights: a9 Bleek/z.b. 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 in East Berlin and many other cities in the GDR protested 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 on its own, which is why the Soviet Union intervened. Soviet tanks and military troops marched into East Berlin to violently crush 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 the repression in the GDR and the 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 memory of the first major popular uprising against the communist dictatorship in the GDR.