Scene in East Berlin during civilian uprising
Jun. 06, 1978 - 25 years ago (1953) Revolt in East Berlin/GDR: In the Federal Republic of Germany 17 June has been declared a national public holiday - it is the day of the insurrection in East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic, 25 years ago. Produced by spontaneous protest strikes and demonstrations in East Berlin on June 16th, 1953 against the retention of the employment-norm increase, which had been decided one month before, on June 17th there and in numerous central German industrial towns and also in rural territories took place riots (liberal and the like): one demanded the resignation of the government and options. At midday martial law was imposed and till the evening the unarmed revolt was put down by the people's police and Soviet tanks. The revolt on June 17th, 1953 resulted in some hundred deaths, not only demonstrators, but also more than a hundred functionaries of the SED-regime and several soldiers of the Red Army. Photo Shows Revolution with humour - a worker of East Berlin on the demonstration march, on his shoulder the sector frontier sign, demolished by demonstrators, End of the democratic sector (ie the Eastern sector)
