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Workers' strikes on Stalinallee, protests in the government district, devastated party offices, fires, rolling in Soviet tanks, summary shootings - the first popular uprising in a Soviet-controlled state after 1945 began in Berlin.
Image gallery
Museum Köpenick
On June 17, 1953, around a million people in hundreds of cities and villages took part in protests against the SED regime. The trauma of losing control that day haunted the GDR leadership until its collapse during the Peaceful Revolution of 1989/90.
The iconic images of the June Uprising are now part of cultural memory. However, they almost exclusively show scenes that took place in the center of East Berlin. As an important industrial, media and military location as well as a place of work and residence for important players, Treptow - as a border district in divided Berlin - and Köpenick also played a part in the events of that time.
The special exhibition "State of Emergency! The 17th June 1953 in Treptow and Köpenick" is presented in the Museum Köpenick and highlights local historical references to this significant event. The increasing relevance for the culture of remembrance in Treptow-Köpenick since the 50th anniversary of the uprising was the starting point for dealing with the topic. Since 2013, a memorial stone at the Rübezahl restaurant has commemorated the legendary steamboat trip on Lake Müggelsee on 13 June 1953. This excursion by dissatisfied construction workers marked the first documented call to strike, which then led to the uprising of the following days.
