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East Berliners pelt a Russian tank with stones during the uprising of June 17, 1953

In East Berlin, which remained the center of the upheaval, the protesters began marching from the Stalinallee to the center of the city at about ten o’clock. Revealingly, they bore aloft one of the signs that the Soviet occupiers had erected on the border of their sector; it read, “End of the Democratic Sector.” As the demonstrators poured down Unter den Linden they sang workers’ songs and chanted anti-Ulbricht slogans. Some paused before the Soviet embassy to sing the strictly verboten German national hymn, which called for “unity, law, and freedom.” Even more provocatively, a gang of youths clambered atop the Brandenburg Gate, tore down the red flag that flew there, and shouted: “We want freedom, we want bread, we will beat all the Russians dead.” As the day wore on the crowds became increasingly unruly, smashing windows and overturning cars. Flushed with the confidence that mob action often brings, some of the demonstrators apparently believed that the “first socialist state on German soil” was about to come to an end.

But the GDR leaders were not about to concede defeat. On the previous evening Ulbricht had appealed to Moscow for help, and Beria flew immediately to Berlin to take command of the situation. While the Kremlin blamed Ulbricht for the crisis, it could not afford to let his government fall victim to popular insurrection. This might encourage similar uprisings elsewhere, perhaps even in the USSR itself. Beria therefore ordered the Soviet commandant in East Berlin, Major General Pavel Dibrova, to employ all necessary force to disperse the demonstrators. At noon dozens of T-34 tanks, the same models that had rumbled into Berlin in April 1945, began rolling through the city in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate and the Potsdamer Platz. When a few would-be East German Davids tried to stop the armored Soviet Goliaths by throwing stones at them, the tanks opened fire, killing several courageous but foolhardy young men. Upon reaching the sector border the tanks took up positions to block egress to West Berlin, but did not fire directly into the crowds. At this point the East German Volkspolizei appeared in force and began beating demonstrators with clubs, even shooting people in the back as they tried to flee. (Most observers noted that it was the German police, not the Russians, who were most anxious to draw blood.) After a few hours it was all over. When night fell the only people remaining in the streets were policemen enforcing a strict curfew and martial law. In other East German cities, too, the uprising had been crushed almost before it began.

If one of the weaknesses of the uprising was a lack of clear or unified goals, another was an absence of support from the country’s intelligentsia. A few artists and academics joined in the protest, but most preferred to sit on the sidelines, and some even cheered on the regime. Among the latter faction was East Germany’s most prominent writer, Bertolt Brecht. When the protest began he dashed off letters of support to the authorities, including one to Ulbricht stating: “Valued Comrade Ulbricht, history will pay its respects to the revolutionary importance of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Large-scale discussions with the masses on the subject of the tempo at which socialism is being built would lead to recognition . . . and consolidation of socialist achievements. I need to express to you at this moment my allegiance with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.” As the Russian tanks rumbled into position, Brecht watched from the Brandenburg Gate, waving to the soldiers. During the shooting he was back at the Berliner Ensemble, blaming the uprising on “doubtful elements” from the West. Four days later Ulbricht published Brecht’s letter of support, leaving out his advice to negotiate with the workers. This irritated the dramatist, for it was certain to damage his reputation in the West, but he said nothing in public against Comrade Ulbricht. Rather, he privately vented his spleen in a poem written in response to a broadcast from the secretary of the GDR Writers Union admonishing the nation’s workers to win back the confidence of their government. The Brecht verse reads:

After the uprising of June 17

the secretary of the Writers’ Union

Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee

In which it was said that the people

Had lost the government’s confidence

Which it would only be able to regain

By redoubling its efforts. In that case, would it