In 1953, workers and citizens in the GDR demand free elections and better living conditions. On June 17th there is a popular uprising. The day has been a national day of remembrance since 1963. How did people in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania experience the events around June 17?
June 17, 1953 went down in the history books as the key day of the popular uprising in the GDR. At the beginning of the 1950s, the Federal Republic experienced an economic miracle that increased prosperity among the population. In the GDR, on the other hand, the economic situation is bad four years after it was founded. A supply catastrophe is imminent.
More work for the same pay leads to protests
On June 16, 1953, demonstrators in East Berlin demand a lowering of the working standard, but resistance, demonstrations and arrests also occur in the northern districts of the GDR.To avert this, the SED regime decides on May 28, 1953 to increase labor standards by 10.3 percent. For workers, this means more work for the same wages. Anger at the mismanagement and arrogance of those in power grips the whole of the GDR. On June 16, the first protests took place in Berlin. Around 10,000 people are calling on the government to withdraw the increase in standards and are calling for a general strike the next day. In Muchow in the district of Ludwigslust, for example, farmers are demonstrating against the government.
The district authority of the German People's Police in Schwerin received a message:"11:10 a.m. call from the Güstrow operational staff. Around 400 people, mostly women, have gathered in front of the courthouse on Domstrasse in Güstrow [...] The members of the Bruchhäuser furniture factory have their work to do laid down."
NWDR and Rias as "hate broadcasters"
A report by the People's Police Office in Hagenow reads:
"At around 7:00 a.m. on June 17, 1953, it was discovered in the Elbe shipyard in Boizenburg that some workers there, who had heard the decision of the Central Committee on the raising of the standards through the democratic radio, commented on these questions. Here peeled In particular, a group of 25 men emerged who had listened to RIAS or Northwest German Broadcasting and carried the arguments of this hate broadcaster to the ranks of the workers.”
A people rise up against their leadership
On June 17, a popular uprising broke out that gripped the entire GDR. Without central coordination, more than a million people gather in 701 towns and communities in the GDR, and numerous companies go on strike. The demands of the demonstrators soon go far beyond the repeal of labor standards:Among other things, they demand free elections, the resignation of the SED government, the withdrawal of Soviet troops and reunification. Serious clashes erupted in Berlin and other cities, especially in the industrial south of the GDR:Angry crowds stormed party houses, city administrations and prisons. SED leader Walter Ulbricht and GDR prime minister Otto Grotewohl flee to the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.
Protests also in the northeast of the GDR
Workers also went on strike in numerous companies in the three northern districts, and farmers declared their withdrawal from the agricultural production cooperative. Hundreds gather in Teterow on June 17, 1953 and demand the release of political prisoners, some prisoners are actually released. Soviet soldiers intervene in Teterow, as they did in the evening at a demonstration on the market square in Grabow. Free elections are demanded there. That evening, the Soviet military commander declared a state of emergency in many places, there was a strict ban on gatherings, and there was a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
In Wismar there are around 1,400 people, in Stralsund on June 18th more than 2,000. The workers gather at the Warnow shipyard in Warnemünde and demand the repeal of labor standards, free elections and German unity. They want the flags to be flown at half-mast for the dead in Berlin and the government to resign. In many other companies in the north, work is also stopped, in restaurants and schools the pictures of the SED officials are removed from the wall. A police report dated June 18, 1953 shows that in Rostock too, almost all workers stop working. It states:"At 1:55 a.m. only two percent of the workforce was still working."
The regime and the Soviet Union use violence against insurgents
In Berlin, demonstrators throw stones at Russian tanks. In Stralsund, for example, the use of tanks prevented the strikers from uniting.The state leadership is not squeamish with the alleged ringleaders of the uprising. At around 1 p.m., the Soviets imposed martial law in Berlin and large parts of the country. Tanks roll up, the uprising is brutally suppressed. Around 120 people die, and 18 demonstrators alone are shot dead. Several hundred people are injured, around 6,000 arrested and sentenced to prison and penitentiary terms.
At the end of June 1953, for example, the district administration for state security reported to State Secretary Erich Mielke in Berlin that a total of 81 people had been arrested in the Rostock district. The district authority of the people's police in Neubrandenburg speaks of 60 arrests.
By January 1954, the GDR courts alone had issued 1,524 prison sentences and two death sentences. The number of verdicts by the Soviet military tribunal is even higher. Exact figures are not known to this day. In Boddin, for example, a 17-year-old brigade mechanic was arrested a year later and sentenced to two years in prison. On June 13, 1954, he said in a conversation that the GDR government was too weak, otherwise no tanks would have had to be deployed on June 17.
Day X - June 17th becomes "Day of German Unity"
In fact, June 17, 1953 remained a trauma for those in power. The so-called Day X - for the state security it is A day of alert every year. Until 1989, on June 17, the actors from 1953 are monitored according to a plan of measures that tightens controls between German and German border crossings.
While the East German leadership reinterpreted the popular uprising of June 17 as a "counter-revolutionary coup", in the western world it became a symbol of the East German population's desire for freedom. Just a few days after the uprising, it was declared a day of remembrance in the Federal Republic and was celebrated as a public holiday from 1954 as "Day of German Unity" until reunification in 1990.
You can see where and when what happened in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the overview map: