Watching the West

Abstract

While the SED kept a tight rein on the content of its official account of 17 June 1953, it could not control the West’s evaluation of the uprising. West German media and politicians quickly seized on the uprising as a positive event amongst many negative ones in recent German history, as well as an invaluable weapon in the propaganda war with the SED. On 23 June 1953 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer declared in West Berlin that he regarded the unrest as a plea from the citizens of the GDR to the Federal Republic not to forget them. The executive committee of the opposition SPD also stated that the ‘demonstrations for freedom’ in the GDR had shown that German unity in freedom was the most pressing concern for all Germans (Eisenfeld et al., 2004, pp. 384–5). The preamble of the law that accompanied the declaration on 4 August 1953 of 17 June as a national holiday in West Germany stated that ‘on 17 June 1953 the German people in the Soviet Occupation Zone [GDR] rose up against communist tyranny … in an expression of their desire for freedom. Therefore, 17 June has become a symbol of German unity in freedom’ (Brockmann, 2006, p. 253). The ‘Day of Germany Unity’ was observed as a national holiday on each 17 June up until and including 1990.