Karl-Heinz Pahling

Karl-Heinz Pahling shortly after his release from prison, around 1962

Karl-Heinz Pahling (born February 5, 1927 in Vinzelberg ; † March 16, 1999 in Uchtspringe ) was one of the strike leaders in the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 in the German Democratic Republic . He was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released in November 1960, but was only fully rehabilitated after the end of the GDR.

Life

Karl-Heinz Pahling was the son of a wheelwright for the railway. He grew up in Stendal , where he also attended school. Shortly before the end of the war, he was drafted as a 17-year-old and was taken prisoner by the Americans. He was released in 1947 and initially stayed in West Germany. In 1951 he returned to Altmark, which was now part of the GDR. He went to the construction union of the Reichsbahn as a track worker. There he was working near the small town of Niemegk in the Potsdam district when, on June 16, 1953, news of the beginning unrest among construction workers in the capital Berlin leaked to other parts of the country.

The strike leader Karl-Heinz Pahling

In the early morning hours of June 17, 1953, the track construction workers of the Deutsche Reichsbahn gather on the former site of the brickworks in Niemegk. They show their solidarity with the demands of the striking construction workers in Berlin and decide to send a delegation with their demands to the SED district leadership in Belzig. Little by little the workers of the brickworks and large parts of the population of Niemegk join the demonstration. A demonstration of around 1000 people is formed and goes to a rally on the market square. Here the demonstrators decide to drive to Belzig closed at 2 p.m. in order to emphasize their demands with a demonstration march through the city.

The 26-year-old track construction worker Karl-Heinz Pahling, better known to most of his colleagues by the nickname "Tom Brack", is elected to the four-person strike committee. This compiles a list of demands that a delegation of the committee is supposed to present to the city council of Belzig. The workers' demands include, among other things:

• Her Bau-Union work colleagues convicted of political offenses are released from prison
• Degradation of norms
• Abolition of the informant system
• Free elections and withdrawal of all occupation troops throughout Germany

Karl-Heinz Pahling initially stays with the waiting demonstrators in Niemegk. But there are more and more voices calling for the demonstration to continue directly in Belzig in support of the demands.

Pahling feels responsible for the organization of the demonstration. He organized a special train consisting of open freight wagons, procured a closed wagon for the participation of two school classes, formed the demonstration march in Belzig, prevented riots against SED functionaries, negotiated with the Russian commander of a team car, whose crew sheltered the demonstration train at the level of the Wiesenburg Bridge Want to blow up warning shots, and thereupon demands escort protection for the demonstrators by the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP). In front of the council of the Belzig district, the demonstration from Niemegk unites with the demonstrating farmers from the area and parts of the Belzig population. Karl-Heinz Pahling explains the 19-point demands to the demonstrators from a wall. Then he goes to the council of the district with a negotiating delegation. After further Soviet personnel carriers arrived, the delegation was expelled from the council by two Soviet officers. The demonstrators are urged unequivocally to vacate the seat in front of the council, and Pahling resignedly announces: "The Russians have kicked us out."

The condemnation

At first he was able to hide for a few days before he was finally arrested on June 25, 1953 and taken to the remand prison in Potsdam. For many months he did not know where he was because he was taken to the prison with his eyes closed and no one told him where he was.

As the only one of the four-member strike committee, he was sentenced on August 19, 1953 by the First Criminal Senate of the Potsdam District Court to a prison sentence of 10 years for crimes under Article 6 of the GDR Constitution. He thus received the highest prison sentence that was pronounced in the Potsdam district in connection with the events of June 17, 1953. Despite several requests for clemency, Karl-Heinz Pahling was not released from the Brandenburg prison until November 19, 1960.

After discharge

Karl-Heinz Pahling at the inauguration of the memorial plaque in front of the JVA Brandenburg in October 1996

After his release from prison he went back to Stendal. He marries and becomes a father of two.

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, he worked in the East German social democratic movement. He later became an active member of the Social Democratic Party. He was also a (founding) member of various organizations of political prisoners in the former GDR. In the following years he came into contact with organizations of former political prisoners around the world.

Pahling was fully rehabilitated in 1991.

Web links

• Homepage of the strike leader Karl-Heinz Pahling - memories, documents, pictures etc.
• Karl-Heinz Pahling - A strike leader from Niemegk (BStU Potsdam)
• "Contemporary witness report by Karl-Heinz Pahling"