Commemorative event on 17 June
Wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to the victims of Stalinism, Hohe Straße 23
On Monday 17 June at 11 a.m., the City of Chemnitz, together with the Association of Victims of Stalinism and the Kaßberg Prison Learning and Memorial Site, will commemorate the popular uprising in the GDR in 1953 at the memorial stele on the site opposite the district court (Hohe Straße 23). In addition to Lord Mayor Sven Schulze, Holker Thierfeld, Chairman of the Association of Victims of Stalinism / Chemnitz District Group, Jürgen Renz, Chairman of the Kaßberg Prison Learning and Memorial Centre and Dr Steffi Lehmann, Academic Director of the Kaßberg Prison Learning and Memorial Centre, Alexandra Titze, Vice President of the Federal Archives responsible for the Stasi Records Archive, will also take part.
Interested citizens and representatives of the media are cordially invited to attend. Members of the Bundestag, members of the state parliament and members of Chemnitz City Council will also be present. The administrative buildings of the City of Chemnitz will be flagged accordingly on this day.
After the wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to the victims of tyranny between 1945 and 1989, Lord Mayor Sven Schulze, Federal Archives Vice President Alexandra Titze and a pupil from Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Gymnasium will address those present. This will be followed by a minute's silence.
The event will be accompanied by music from the oboe trio of the Chemnitz Music School.
The memorial event is dedicated to the victims of persecution in the Soviet occupation zone between 1945 and 1949 and later in the GDR, as well as to all victims of Stalinist dictatorships after 1945. Around 17 June 1953, there were numerous strikes, mass demonstrations and political protests in almost all East German cities, which led to bloody clashes with the GDR security forces and were violently ended by the military and police.