ABSTRACT
WithinthecountriesoftheformerSovietbloc,thedateof17June 1953standsoutasthekeyeventinthehistoryoftheGerman DemocraticRepublic(GDR):inthiscontext,itrepresentsthefirst broadpopularuprisingagainstStalinismafterStalin'sdeath.Yetifone comparesthisbrief,one-to-two-dayprotestintheGDRwitheventsin HungaryandPolandin1956,Czechoslovakiain1968,andthenwith Polandinthe1980s-and,inalessspectacularform,withchangesin Hungaryaswell-thecharacterofthat1953protestremainsindistinct andcontroversial.Nevertheless,howevershort-lived,itwasaforerunner.TheunrestmarkedawatershedinthehistoryoftheGDR, onethatwouldnotberepeateduntilitsdisintegrationintheautumnof 1989:aspontaneousprotestthatspreadlikewildfireduringthecourse ofasingledaytomostcitiesandindustrialcentresthroughoutthe country,atthesametimequestioningtheveryexistenceofthepolitical orderthere.FromtheperspectiveofitsEasternblocneighbours,the characteristicfeaturesofthisprimalconflictweretheprecocityofits outbreak,thethreatitposedtostateorder,anditsnon-repeatability. Overthefollowingthirty-sixyears-andthusthroughoutaperiod longerthaninanyotheroftheindustrializedavowedly-socialist countries,theGDRwasabletodampenandcontainsocialconflict, althoughatthecostofaspectaculardegreeofself-isolationwithinits ownnationinthewakeofthewall'sconstruction.Solidarnoscremained adistinctlyforeignword.
