Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey speaks at the Seestraße cemetery.
© dpa
On Friday (June 17, 2022), the state of Berlin and representatives of federal politics commemorated the victims of the GDR uprising of June 17, 1953.
Among others, Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz and Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey took part in a memorial service at the Seestraße cemetery.
"It was workers from Berlin and Brandenburg who started the strike movement that led to the uprising against the SED regime in East Berlin and throughout the GDR on June 17, 1953," Giffey said in advance. The strikers were demanding better living standards, the resignation of the SED government, free elections and the unification of Germany 69 years ago. The SED regime violently put down the uprising, with more than 50 to more than 250 people estimated to have been killed, it said. "For our future, we learn the lesson that freedom must always be fought for," Giffey warned.