It began in East Berlin and spread out across the German Democratic Republic. Over half a million workers went on strike, and around a million East Germans — close to 10 percent of the population — joined the protest. [...]
But what was most surprising was how quickly workers radicalized. A routine strike in East Berlin grew into a nationwide rebellion. In some towns, inter-factory strike committees and embryonic soviets formed. [...]
Police files were opened, and the names of collaborators read out to a mass meeting. Meanwhile, they directed the fire brigade to rid the town walls of regime propaganda, and ensured that food and energy supplies were in rebel hands. [...]
With the partial exception of small strike waves in 1956, 1960–61 and 1970–72, barely any significant struggles spilled beyond individual workplaces between 1953 and 1989. [...]
The defeat of 1953 and the decades of repressive rule that followed ensured that the heights achieved in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Merseburg, and Görlitz in just one day in 1953 would not be repeated over months of protesting in 1989.
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