Changes

On June 16, 1953, workers in East Berlin rose in protest against government demands to increase productivity. Within days, nearly a million East Germans joined the protests and began rioting across hundreds of East German cities and towns. In order to prolong the uprising and win support for the West, the United States established an aid program to feed East Germans. The program, which continued until October 1953, proved very popular with East Germans and highlighted the repression and privations of life under communism.

The uprising was a product of Soviet and East German reaction to West Germany’s formal alignment to the West. In May 1952, Western powers signed the General (Bonn) and European Defense Community (EDC) treaties. These treaties were, in essence, a rejection of Stalin’s March 1952 offer to agree to a unified Germany on the condition that it remained unarmed. In response to West Germany’s absorption and rearmament by the Western powers, the Soviets and the regime of East German General Secretary Walter Ulbricht decided to unequivocally transform East Germany into a Soviet satellite state.