Excellent video. This series of important events in German history must be remembered.

My grandfather was a part of this uprising in Berlin. He was arrested. He later escaped with his family to the west. They left everything behind, even the breakfast dishes on the table so if they were apprehended, it would look like they planned to return.

Bertold Brecht wrote a famous poem about the 1953 uprising. In English, it goes something like this: "After the uprising of the 17th of June The Secretary of the Writers' Union Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee Which stated that the people Had squandered the confidence of the government And could only win it back By redoubled work [quotas]. Would it not in that case Be simpler for the government To dissolve the people And elect another?"

An excellent synopsis of events of 1953. Many of us growing up in the West knew something happened that year but details are missing in our knowledge. The subject deserves more commemoration.

One of the most complete and best researched documentaries on this subject on YT! Kudos!

a note every berlin brigade soldier was taught about 1953... and it was a question on promotion boards.....we marched 17 june strassa each year

Vielen Dank, dass Sie diese fast vergessene, aber sehr wichtige Geschichte beleuchtet haben

Two things to add: Stalin dying three months prior had raised the hopes of reforms. And 17th June was the National Holiday of the FRG from 1954 to 1990 as victims of the uprising were considered martyrs for German unity. Since the Cold War was regarded as the only obstacle to reunification of the German people, celebrating that day upheld the belief in a mutual sense of belonging together for future generations. That makes it all the more surprising to me that we don't remember this day officially anymore.

This channel is a diamond in the rough! I just found this video recommended to me and after I finished I subscribed. I love Cold War history and have always been fascinated with the East in particular. Great video ❤ Cheers from St. Louis, USA

This channel should be in schools to everyone that glorify East Germany

I have NO idea why, but I love this channel.

Thank you for making these very thoughtful and well-researched videos. I'm a Canadian from German immigrants after the war and I greatly appreciate your balanced explanations of German history. Please keep up the great work.

I am teaching the events and effects of the Cold War for a high school history class, with a particular focus on the events in Berlin. I was in Berlin in 1987 as an exchange student when Reagan gave his speech at the Brandenburger Tor, and was later stationed in central Germany with the army. I love using your videos in class because I believe they look at often underacknowledged events that had major repercussions across Europe and the world with a perspective that is often missing in other American or British sources. Thanks for putting this channel together!

fantastic and moving video. thank you for the high-quality content.

Much of the time, I watch clips for a different 'take' on historic issues about which I have some knowledge. Your channel presents me with mostly previously unknown (or barely known) characters and events. Es ist höchst interessant, viele danke

An absolutely excellent video, the info you’ve given is fantastic. Many thanks

Awesome content. Welcome to KZfaq - and may The Force be with you

Very interesting video, thank you for taking the time to make this.

Thank so much for this video! I such enjoy to watch videos and see other types of content about history and Cold War!

I just subscribed to your channel. Cold War history is very interesting to me. In particular, East German history. Keep up the good work I will be watching!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks for the memorials, definetly something i will keep in mind and visit some day

I found this scathing documentary to be a highly illuminating, albeit intolerably deplorable, historical event, as well as the inexplicable fact that I was wholly unaware of its very existence, not unlike so many other things that had occurred during my early youth of which I was never apprised, not even by my own parents, although I'm sure they read the daily newspapers.

This was very informative, thank you.

Love your videos , thanks

Thank you for your important work. I I was reminded of the Brecht poem, ` "Die Lösung" : Wäre es da Nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung Löste das Volk auf und Wählte ein anderes?

marched up that street every year for 5 years.......in 89 walked under that gate with my late wife

danke für diese Geschichte, in der Zukunft möchte ich das Denkmal besuchen

Great stuff. I would make the graphics more mobile friendly without a border. You went the extra mile on this one by having an eyewitness to the events.

Thank you for your excellent work.

Back in school (in Sweden), early 80's, we learned about the German uprising in '53, Hungary in '56 and Prague in '68.....I wonder if they teach about those historic events in school today....or if it's more or less a 5 minute mention? 🤨🤔 Still try to find the best books to read and learn more.... Excellent channel, you just popped up on my feed, watched, liked and subscribed!

Amazing content.

As always, a big thank you for the detailed accounts you provide in each presentation. I only learned of this protest when first visiting the re-unified Berlin in 1998, and seeing street names and memorials commemorating that date in June 1953….

marched down 17 june str 5 years walk under that arch in 89...... berlin bde 86 to 92

Heart-breaking! Europeans need to remember that this is what occupation from Moscow looks like!

Excellent. Very interesting. Thank you.

Fascinating story. I didn't know much about the uprising. I've subscribed to the channel and look forward to seeing more of the videos.

Great video thanks for posting

My uncle Immo was part of the uprising. He was pulled from his home beaten by the Stasi and was taken to a Gulag Copper Mine. He spent 3 years in this Copper mine. One out of three died in this copper mine. The family farm was near Rhinow in a tiny village called Lunden. My Opa was the Bergermeister of this tiny village. After Immo came home he was involved in smuggling western magazines into the DDR. According to Immo these magazines were LOOK, LIFE and Der Spiegel. Also he would help bring in bibles to the DDR. Bibles would get you 10 years per bible. He got caught with magazines but no bibles and he went to prison again. This time for 3.5 years. But during this time word got back to my Opa that he and his family were to be arrested. Opa made the tough choice to leave the DDR. Luckily for Opa he had war time buddies who were in the Border Police. After a few bribes and one step ahead of the Stasi he escaped to the west. He left behind his son. Years later Uncle Immo and I were sitting on my deck drinking beer and smoking cigars. I asked him if it was worth it. All the jail time and constant resisting the Communist. He took a puff on his cigar, looked over at me and smiled and said. “Yes, It was. Here I am sitting with you in America drinking bad American beer and smoking cigars, Germany is one again and the communist are gone. I won.” We clinked our bottles and laughed

Thank you!!

Excellent video and info

I recently found your channel. In the 20th Century the German people were lead by a mix of Imperial, Fascist, Communist and Democratic leaders. I admire the German people for trying to sort out what is best for them and become one country. We have some power hungry politicians in the US who want to lead us down a dark path. I hope we can hold on to our Democracy. No empire has lasted forever. Even the Roman Empire fell. I enjoy your videos. Thanks.😎👍

I most certainly did find it very interesting! thank you!

Good video pal. This channel deserves more subscribers! Looking forward to the next vid ☺

Good video !

June 17th was a federal holiday in West Germany until the unification in 1990.

The DDR was trapped in a Stalinist system, the leaders of the DDR were the survivors of the purge's of the 30s where many loyal communists were re-educated. Where they had to be more Stalinist than the Soviets,. Unfortunately the DDR was always subject to influences from the Soviet Union Victor Grossman gives a good insight into the DDR The sad thing is the DDR was never given the opportunity to work due to Soviet influence and outside pressures from the cold war

I remember coming across mention of the 1953 protests in East Germany in a 1960s edition of the World Book Encyclopedia, during the 1970s. Picture of a barricade, someone lobbing something, that sort of thing.

Very touching memorial. The Soviet tank is gone, but the cross remains...

Good video

I heard a similar uprising took place in the 20's in Germany.

interesting fact the soviets are used the same military tactics (that they learned defeating the 1953 Berlin uprising) to defeat the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

I was in the middle of this as a teenager. Russian tanks took over in my city of Halle in Saxon-Anhalt. Some got shot on Riebeck Platz. The putsch was over pretty quick.

Fantastic video. I am a tour guide in Berlin, and I was wondering, was Mr. Holzapfel perhaps related to Heinz Holzapfel, who escaped over the wall from the roof of the Ministry of Ministries building (formerly the Reich Air Ministry Building) in July 1969?

The soviets really were animals

This is a great resource... DON'T GIVE UP. It would be great if you could talk about BRIXMIS and the mission in Potsdam 👍

1:33 1 year for stealing food can also happen in many capitalist democracies like the US. In some states you can even get a life sentence without parole if you do it too often, because of three-strikes law. So yes, it was a bit harsh, but not more so than in many "western" countries. Also the incarceration rate of 10,000 in half a year (equivalent to 20,000 in a year, which was about 0.15% of the population at that time) was still low compared to the current rate in the US. So calling this state terror might be a but exaggerated.

One question: how is the 1953 Berlin uprising an "almost forgotten" event?! It is taught in every class I have been in that covers post-WWII history, not to mention plenty of BBC docos (& the like).

Not really forgotten. After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup and the West Berlin blockade most western illusions about USSR were long gone. And NATO became a reality. But in 1953 the war was still just eight years away. The scars had not really started to heal. I guess, that’s why Budapest 1956 is better known. When the Berlin wall was build in 1961 things had changed a bit regarding the Germans, and after Prague 1968 even most hard core communists in the West despised Moscow. Sadly, they chose madman Mao instead.

The interessting point ist the LPGs are at the ende succesfull. This "Genossenschaft" could keep there revenues or give it to the members. So at the food base level it was secured to be enough. Without the markt oeconomie element, the eastern block my be had starved to death 20 years earlier.

Is the 17 June Uprising really so "forgotten"? Compared to ... - other similar crises and upheavals in the 1950s? The independence wars in Kenya, Cyprus, French Indochina, the Belgian Congo, Malaya; the Lebanon Emegency; the Hungarian Uprising; the Suez Crisis; China's annexation of Tibet? Are these - for instance - so much better "remembered"? It seems to me that the 17 June Uprising is just as adequately, or just as poorly, documented, commemorated, written about, reflected on, as these other events of the same period. This is a fascinating video. Nothing is added by turning the 1953 uprising into an unduly "forgotten" event.

11:58, that's strange! to have a memorial site in between a major thoroughfare!

I've been to the building on the end of Goering's air ministry several times. The information boards erected after the fall of the wall and the mosaic/murals erected by the Communist DDR Government proclaiming the success of East Germany are really interesting. Great video. Thank you.

Somehow I doubt this was on a calendar of strikes and other social movements a co-worker decided to hang on the wall, last year. It had a certain ideological bent.

13:08: Was that the same tank later moved to across the DDR border by Checkpoint Bravo?

Können Sie bitte ein Video speziell über den Studentenaufstand in Leipzig und die Folgen drehen? Wie haben die Sowjets darauf reagiert und die Studenten danach in Schach gehalten? (neu abonniert).

13:20 -> There are everywhere people with a conscience who refused to carry out heinous orders, whatever the consequences for themselves. In the early hours of June 5th 1989, sustained gunfire could be heard coming from the forbidden city in Peking according to on the spot reports by the Western news agencies. With the repression, it was quickly forgotten. In fact it was the purge by shooting of the courageous PLA officers & men who protested the orders of shooting on the students. The second to fall were the workers in the little streets leading to the central place, who tried to block the passage of the tanks and troops.

Stalin died the fifth of March in 1953. Wonder if the change in course in the DDR ordered from Moscow in June 1953 had anything to do with that...

Thank you. It was interesting to see the 2 memorials. Both of which I had no idea of. Is it true this uprising led to the creation of Wandlitz? Where SED leadership lived in a gated community protected from the people?

Read about it in a book 4 or 5 decades ago.

All of the factories were located in the west, with the east being a primarily agricultural base dating from the time of the Prussian state. German theft of European wealth and the large scale destruction of livestock by German forces in Russia necissitated the reparations imposed on Germany by Russia. Given the fact that the mendacious West refused to extend the Marshall Plan to the actual victors over the Wehrmact left Russia little choice but to enforce austerity on the conquered people. Given what the German "herrenvolk" had planned, and got up to in the former USSR these Germans got off lightly.

The beginning of the end for the DDR was Brezhnev

The narrator in picture has something to hide.Why books in the shelves on the left side are blurred?

👍

One thing I don't like is that an English voiceover is added so it's impossible to hear the original German. I personally much prefer subtitles. Besides that, this is a great video.

I'd be curious to hear a video on the extent of CIA involvment in this uprising.

Sadly, back in the 80´s this was not taught in schools in Finland.

If one million went on strike who said they were a proof of no support for SED? If people was so negative why didn't half of the population leave?

Really the EU is slipping🙄

As a german who went through the german public school system i can tell you that australian painter bad, but this is the first time ive heard of this incident...

Democratice ? NJET !😮

Demonstrations in finland were forbitten beacuse invisble of some thing.

Were this east german stalinists commies worse than the nazis? What do you think, guys?

13:44 -13:45 " seeing them ( Russians" ) as a monsters " ? The Nazi monsters started WWII and attacked Russians and treated captured Russian sodiers as "Untermenschen". And not just Russians , also Polish , isn't it true?

they were lucky that they did not live in Israel, or in Iraq or in any country occupied by the US. Actually nothing happened, given the fact that the Soviets had just lost 23 million people fighting the nazis. Rising up, as a German, under such circumtances, was pretty bold. And not very clever.

buUU huuu poor nazis subjected to terror oh so sad, let me cry my imaginary tears

Excellent and concise like all the videos on this channel. Keep up the good work!