Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. Today we're taking

you back to an uprising against communist rule in East Germany.

It's June 17, 1953 and there are tens of thousands of people marching in a divided Berlin.

The physical wall has not been built yet, but the city is split into two halves. The West

controlled by the American's French and British, the East inside by the Soviet Union and

East German GDR.

Demonstrators from East Berlin are singing We're on our way to Pankow, home of the communist

East German government. This is where their protests are directed.

A reporter from Radio Berlin is among the crowds and describes the scene.

There are women, men, teenagers, some of them have open shirts and they're coming directly

from work. That's at least what it looks like. They have briefcases. Come over here.

They're all very friendly. Nothing is happening here in the West sector, so they don't have

to demonstrate. They're all walking past so quickly, nobody wants to have a conversation

with me. They're all in a hurry to get to Pankow.

This huge show of protest is sparked after a decision from Moscow to increase production

quotas for East Germans without increasing their wages. A worker explains.

The situation is that tools have been downed in all factories, in started with the construction

industry, the main street for building work in East Berlin, the Stalin alley, started

all this. We the colleagues have, of course, declared our solidarity with them and downed

our tools too.

So that was in 1953 and I lived in Berlin. I lived in the middle of the city.

Helmut Strecker is 21 years old. He's a student finishing his high school degree and planning

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