Quote of the Day (Brecht)

“After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?”—Bertolt Brecht, “The Solution”
(Brecht’s poem satirized the response of the Soviet Union and its East German satellite regime to an 80-worker construction strike on June 16, 1953 that, by the next day, had swelled into a 100,000-strong national uprising against the Communist government. Walter Ulbricht, East Germany’s First Secretary, called on Soviet military might to crush the revolt, and in due course 16 Soviet divisions with 20,000 soldiers arrived. At least 55 people were confirmed killed in the crackdown, though Western estimates ran a couple of hundred higher. Executions and harsh prison sentences added to the fallout from the crackdown. Brecht—who had fled to East Germany after his interrogation by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947—had initially written a letter to Ulbricht supporting the crackdown, but perhaps the bodies lying in the street led to a necessary attack of the conscience.)