Young people in resistance
FGY-March for the third anniversary of the GDR on October 7, 1952 in East Berlin.
Young people in resistance
With 293 convicts, the proportion of young people among those shot in Moscow was particularly high. High school students, apprentices and university students tried to resist the appropriation by mass organizations such as the Free German Youth (FGY) and defend their ideas of freedom and democracy. As a result, they were targeted by the GDR authorities or the Soviet occupying power and its secret service.
Some young people formed informal circles that sought contact with organizations and media critical of the GDR in the West. These included the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) and the Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor (RIAS).
Among other things, the young people protested against the sham elections to the People’s Chamber in autumn 1950 and criticized the living conditions in the GDR. Many fled from the repression to West Germany. They continued their activities there after fleeing and organized leaflet campaigns and protests against the SED dictatorship with the help of the KgU and the eastern offices of the political parties.
“Some rule – the masses doze – some grab the spokes of history and break their paws in the process, that is the course of this godforsaken world…”
[Letter from Hans-Joachim Näther to “Dankwart” dated October 23, 1949 (excerpt)./ Private]
The cult of personality surrounding Joseph Stalin reached a new peak on his 70th birthday in 1949.
On December 20, 1949, four young people from Altenburg used a homemade transmitter to disrupt Wilhelm Pieck’s speech on Stalin’s 70th birthday. Here: Reconstruction of the transmitter by a group member for the filming of “Four pupils against Stalin”, 2005 / T&G Films, Berlin / Thomas Henkel
High school student Ludwig Hayne (1931-1951) was a member of the resistance group around Hans-Joachim Näther. During a wave of arrests in Altenburg in March 1950, he initially managed to escape to West Berlin. From there, he continued his activities against the SED regime. The MfS arrested him at the sector border on Potsdamer Platz during a KgU leafleting campaign.
The sector border ran right across Potsdamer Platz in Berlin-Mitte, April 1951 / Landesarchiv Berlin / Bert Sass
Documents from Günter Beggerow’s student file of at the Free University of Berlin
Slogans on the main building of Humboldt University on the occasion of the 3rd World Youth Festival in East Berlin, August 1951. / Landesarchiv Berlin
Documents from Hans Frankenfeld’s student file at Humboldt University Berlin