Agency Report –
Germany on Tuesday marked the anniversary of the 1953 uprising in Berlin against the East German communist government.
“We commemorate the suffering of the people who wanted nothing more than their freedom in June 1953,” said Economy Minister Katherina Reiche.
“We remember the courageous women and men who lost their lives,” she added. “We remember those who were arrested, accused, beaten, sentenced, who were then discriminated against, shunned and marginalized.”
On June 17, 1953, around 1 million people took to the streets in East Berlin and around 700 other places in the German Democratic Republic, as the Soviet-backed East German state was formally known.
The demonstrators sought to protest against an increase in the government-prescribed workload for ordinary people.
They also demanded an overall improvement in living conditions as well as free elections and the unification of Germany.
The East German leadership and Soviet occupation troops put an end to the protests by force. At least 55 people were killed, 15,000 others were arrested and around 1,500 of them were later sentenced.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner recalled the beginning of the protest by Berlin construction workers on what is now Karl Marx Allee in the east of the German capital.
“The labour protest quickly turned into a nationwide uprising of the people against the grievances in their own country,” said Wegner. “It became an uprising for freedom, for democracy and, yes, also for the unification of Germany.”
Unification with the capitalist West Germany did not happen until 1990 after the Berlin Wall fell the previous year following another uprising by East German citizens.
