ABSTRACT
In the GDR’s early years one popular protest event stands out above all others. On 17 June 1953 – or, more accurately, between 16 and 21 June – between 1 and 1.5 million people, 6 to 9 per cent of the total population, participated in strikes, demonstrations and rallies.1 Over 700 towns and villages were affected, and at least 0.5 million workers in well over 1,000 workplaces stopped work. If these statistics are arresting in themselves, recent research indicates that the potential scale of the rising was greater still. In many areas strikes were nipped in the bud thanks either to the timely response of SED or FDGB (the state-run ‘union’) functionaries, or to massive intervention by the security forces and the Soviet army. These made large-scale arrests, especially of strike leaders, they blocked factory gates, dispersed crowds and occupied urban areas.2 It used to be thought that the rising had already begun to peter out before the arrival of Soviet tanks, yet, although this claim is not without foundation, recent evidence emphasises the degree to which their appearance and the imposition of military law cut into a rising movement. There is also no question but that solidarity with the strikes extended well beyond striking workplaces. Wide layers of the workforce showed sympathy with the strikes in countless ‘turbulent meetings’, many of which were only dispersed by management’s blandishments and threats, sometimes by military occupation.3 Each new publication based on materials from the East German archives brings a rich collection of incidents of ‘substrike’ or strike-related activity, such as acts of sabotage, or brief work stoppages to honour colleagues who had been killed in previous days.4 It seems safe to conclude, in the words of a Stasi report quoted by Armin Mitter, that ‘the potential for protest and resistance was very much greater than the numbers actually on strike would suggest’.5
