17. Juni – June 17, old Day of German Unity
June 17 used to be a public holiday in the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany as Day of German Unity, a distant utopia in cold war times. West Germany was probably the only country in the world that had a national holiday to commemorate events which happened outside the own borders. On June 17, 1953, riots against the Socialist regime started in the German Democratic Republic. The attempted revolution was quickly and violently suppressed with the help of Soviet military within two days. In the East the memory of those events was suffocated. The West, however, established the date as public holiday.The holiday has disappeared from the calendar since 1990, though. It was substituted by October 3, the date the reunification was executed. June 17 is a normal work day now.It si still in the media, though, and politicians like making speeches about it.
