Uprising against communist regieme

As the division and restructuring of Germany came so did many forms and packages to help their economical problems that Hitler caused during WWII. After the war East Germany had adopted a communist government under the power of the Soviet Union. In 1953, shortly after Stalin’s death, a package was put together by the Central Committee of East Germany to help with the economical and agricultural reconstruction. This package, otherwise known as Volkseigene Betriebe, included changes such as an increase in taxes and prices. It also incorporated a 10% increase in work quotas. For the workers it seemed like more work for the same amount of income. The package also said that if the quotas weren’t met workers would get a reduction in their salary. This did not sit well with the laborers and workers of East Germany.

On June 16 factory and construction workers in East Berlin decided to go on strike to show their anger and disagreement with this new package which in no way would help them and only boost working hours to help with East Germany’s troubles. The talk of strike spread like wild fire through the working circle of East Germany and on June 17 only one day later all of East Germanys factory workers had walked off the job and went on strike. Now with all production lines at a standstill Germany was in worse off condition then what it had began with. The crowds grew so big that police and government officials hide because they were targeted and blamed for this proposal of change. The government had little luck at stopping the riots so a curfew was set and extra police were brought in to calm the crowds. Many protesters stormed government buildings and took them over.

Hans Stenzel, my grandfather, a postal man at the time in East Berlin was an eye witness to these protests. He recalls when he would have to pick up the daily shipment of mail from the train he would always have an armed Russian soldier with him in the car to protect him from any rioters. He also remembers that in the post office parking lot the protesters had set up a stage with a podium which the main leaders of the strike would stand and speak. “One day”, as Hans recalls,” they took a government official up on that stage during a big rally. When they got him up there said he was the reason for all the problems and began to hit and kick him. It was gruesome to watch. They were trying to promote that if there was no change more and more officials will be beaten and eventually killed.” Hans says they would often chant, “Down with the Government. We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be free.”

Protests began to get out of hand and eventually the Soviet Union noticed all the arrests and had to step in. They were forced to go in with tanks and soldiers to take down the protesters because East Germany didn’t have an army to fight back. Fights brook out between the rioters and the soldiers. In the end it was estimated that there were over 200 deaths and 5,000 arrested. The Soviet army over took the protesters and finally the strikes were over. Even though the strike was over the work wasn’t. Clean up began in various cities to clean the destruction the rioters caused. After this uprising the Soviet Union and Central Committee increased their power so there would never be a protest that would get this out of hand.

This strike brought light to the power that people of East German really possessed. I think that in the end if the Soviets wouldn’t have been able to stop the riots the citizens could have easily run them out of their country and eliminated communism from the German government.