Wehe den Besiegten – Der 17. Juni 1953

Filmstill Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953

Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953

Wehe den Besiegten – Der 17. Juni 1953
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
DEFA Matinee 2023
Documentary Film
GDR
1990
87 minutes
German

“17 June 1990, East Berlin. The GDR will exist for another three months. No more time to commemorate all those who stood up in ’53, showed civil courage and were vanquished. This film is dedicated to them.” This is what we hear from offscreen as the film opens, to images of a rally for the victims of 17 June.

Right after the collapse of the GDR regime, director Andrea Ritterbusch searched the western archives for sources for a reappraisal of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953. She discovered a wealth of valuable original footage which she combined with newly shot interviews with contemporary witnesses of the revolt. In her documentary film she reconstructs the weeks before and after the countrywide unrest, sheds light on propaganda and, with the help of her interview partners, interprets the progress, cause and political contextualisation of the strikes and demonstrations over time. The SED regime was on the brink of collapse during those days and may well have been toppled without the intervention of the Soviet army. This review of an event that was already 37 years in the past when this film was made is true to reality and at the same time testifies to the excitement and reorientation of the East German population in the years of political change.

Linda Söffker

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
Script
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
Cinematographer
Toralf Teschner, Andreas Bergmann, Alexander Laschet, Niko Pawloff
Editor
Petra Barthel
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Horst Piel, Lutz Laschet, Andreas Walter, Rainer Pape
Score
Eckardt Enkelmann