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In East Berlin in the 1950s, May Day was an occasion when workers and political leaders would demonstrate side by side, in the strained climate that accompanied the establishment of the dictatorship. Whereas the organisers were trying to set up a unified march and to transform the ritual into a ceremony of allegiance to the regime in a city which was the showcase of the communist block, the participants were reluctant to follow any such instructions: they wanted to make themselves heard and didn’t want to be deprived of their share of the ritual. Nonetheless, efforts to appropriate May Day became increasingly rarer through the 1950s, first making use of indirect means, and then vanishing altogether, without being successful at forcing participants to obey instructions. The political power managed to occupy the entire public space, but it didn’t manage to direct the people. It showcased its domination more than it managed to have it recognized as legitimate. The political dimension of May Day disappeared in favour of a purely festive one which was expressed through the fairs on the edge of the main march.