Opening the iron curtain - the East Germany's day of dissent

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It’s the summer of 1953, and, across East Germany, angry people take to the streets. 

This isn’t a polite street protest. 

This is a furious, red flag ripping, police beating, office burning rampage. 

The crowds demand: 

- better living conditions; 

- the reunification of Germany; and 

- free elections. 

Instead, they would get: 

 - Trabants; 

 - the Berlin Wall; and 

 - another 35 years of hardline Communist government. 

Could the 17 June 1953 uprising have ever been successful at bringing down Soviet-dominated eastern Europe? 

Or were the people’s protests doomed to fail before they even started? 

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Music credits 

The theme music is Newsroom by Riot. 

The other music featured in this episode was Cylinder Seven and The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch, both by Chris Zabriskie and Sunset by Kai Engel. All tracks are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).