Commemorative event on 17 June
Wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to the victims of Stalinism - 11 a.m., Hohe Straße memorial stele
A public memorial event will be held in Chemnitz on Sunday, 17 June 2018, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the popular uprising in the GDR in 1953. The event is dedicated to the persecuted and victims in the Soviet occupation zone in the years 1945 to 1949 and later in the GDR, as well as to all victims of Stalinist dictatorships after 1945. The event is organised by the Association of Victims of Stalinism.
The public memorial event, to which the people of Chemnitz are cordially invited, will begin at 11 a.m. with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial stele on the site opposite the district court (Hohe Straße 23). The Halmstadt gneiss memorial erected there in 1999 bears the inscription "To the victims of tyranny 1945 - 1989".
Holker Thierfeld, Chairman of the Association of Former Political Prisoners, Association of Victims of Stalinism / Chemnitz District Group, welcomes those present.
Words of remembrance were spoken by Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig, members of the Bundestag Frank Heinrich and Frank Müller-Rosentritt and member of the state parliament Hanka Kliese. Jörg Petzold will speak as a contemporary witness.