Right-wing extremism in the GDR

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Right-wing extremism in the GDR showed since its founding in 1949 until its end in 1990, in various forms, stayed there but because of the state doctrine raised Antifaschismus a taboo subject. The phenomenon has beenscientifically researchedsince the reunification of Germany in 1990 and iscounted amongthe development factors of right-wing extremism in the new federal states (see also the article right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic of Germany ).

SBZ

Braunbuch - propaganda publication of the GDR from 1965

In the Soviet Zone , the Soviet Union carried out denazification measures until 1947/1948 . The dismissal of former National Socialists concentrated on the public service , especially schools and the judiciary, and their top cadres were used for forced labor. So-called "hostile elements" were detained in special camps. In February 1948, SMAD Order 35 declared denazification in the Soviet Zone to be over. As in the western occupation zones, the setting took place against the backdrop of the Cold War. However , there was no rehabilitation like there in the sense of a return to public office.

On June 15, 1946, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) opened to former members of the NSDAP ; its central secretariat overturned a corresponding incompatibility decision . As a result, many people who were classified as “ followers ” during the denazification process were accepted into the SED. According to internal party analyzes from 1954, 25.8 percent of all SED members in the GDR had a Nazi past. In individual party organizations, they made up more than 85 percent of the members. In the early years of the GDR, the majority of local, operational and regional SED leaderships were made up of former National Socialists.

GDR

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) legitimate since it was founded in 1949 as a state which respects the economic and social causes of fascism have overcome and eradicated (July 1950 III. SED party). Former NSDAP members entered into other in the GDR approved organizations, including the the " National Front counting" block party National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD). There they were able to be politically active and increasingly integrate into GDR society. West German publications that reacted to the GDR's Brown Books referred to the National Socialist past of GDR state and party functionaries such as Arno von Lenski , Franz Fühmann and Erhard Mauersberger . Olaf Kappelt's Brown Book GDR - Nazis in the GDR from 2009 listed 1000 former NSDAP members by name who served the GDR. In 1959, the "burden file" kept by the West Berlin investigative committee of freedom lawyers recorded around 115,000 GDR functionaries.

The revised GDR constitution of October 7, 1974 claimed in Article 6 that the GDR had "true to the interests of the people and international obligations in their area, exterminated German militarism and Nazism". The GDR authorities therefore denied any continued existence of right-wing extremism in the GDR, concealed right-wing extremist incidents or linguistically ascribed them to "rioters", " hooligans " or "negatively decadent young people".

Particularly young people and members of the armed GDR organs but committed demonstrably right-wing extremist offenses, including around 1960 swastika -Schmierereien, collecting propaganda materials and weapons. Anti-Semitic , xenophobic and pro-Nazi incidents are documented in all phases of the history of the GDR . In the People's Police there were permanently organized and unorganized neo-Nazis who used weapons. Up until the Wall was built in 1961, the perpetrators avoided prosecution mostly by fleeing and moving to West Germany . The release of prisoners operated by the federal government also benefited neo-Nazis who became known later , including Uwe Behrendt , Frank Hübner and Arnulf Priem . Organized and unorganized neo-Nazis were the main actors on the racist scene in the GDR.

As in the Federal Republic of Germany, groups of right-wing extremist skinheads emerged in the GDR from 1980 onwards , and from 1985 they existed in all major cities in East Germany. They gained popularity due to the dissatisfaction with the GDR system, formed a culture of protest against its anti-fascist self-image and had contacts with West German and Eastern European organizations.

Since right-wing criminals were almost always referred to as “hooligans”, “rioters” or “negatively decadent young people”, the exact number of right-wing extremist crimes is unknown. From 1982/83 such acts increased dramatically in football stadiums. In the late 1980s, there were many violent attacks by right-wing extremist skinheads. The State Security was surprised by their extent and severity. The violent attack by around 30 right-wing extremist skinheads on October 17, 1987 at a concert in Berlin's Zionskirche was also noticed by the GDR media. An internal overview of the State Security (MfS) from December 1987 assigned a total of around 800 GDR citizens between the ages of 16 and 25 to skinheads “by their external appearance and behavior”.

After right-wing extremist skinheads demolished a restaurant in Velten in 1987 and attacked intervening police officers for the first time , a wave of state repression against right-wing extremists began. They were increasingly called up for the National People's Army (NVA). West German right-wing extremists were banned from entering the country. In addition, more skinheads were allowed to move to the Federal Republic.

After numerous arrests, right-wing extremists in the GDR tried to infiltrate the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the Society for Sport and Technology (GST). The scene began to organize itself more tightly and differentiated itself. Skinhead groups tightened their admission rituals and gave themselves names (“ Lichtenberger Front ”, “Oranienburger”, “Ostkreuzler”). A Fascho scene developed from the end of 1987, first in East Berlin , Magdeburg , Potsdam , Cottbus and Guben . In addition, a right-wing extremist hooligan scene emerged since the late 1970s , which musically oriented itself more towards the metal sound than the traditional Oi! and ska of the skinheads. Some of the supporters organized themselves in military military sports groups .

The "working group to combat right-wing extremist crime and vigilante justice" set up at the East Berlin criminal police recorded over 1,000 violent neo-Nazis by name, plus 6,000 right-wing extremists organized in comradeships and similar groups. With the sympathizers, a total of about 15,000 people were assigned to the right-wing milieu.

According to the Central Institute for Youth Research (ZIJ; study from 1988), 12 percent of 14 to 18-year-old GDR youths agreed with the statement “National Socialism also had its good sides”. This proportion rose to 14 percent by May 1990, to 19 percent by November 1990, and to 24 percent by 1992. The thesis that extreme attitudes in East Germany are a legacy of the authoritarian SED state is controversial. There is broad consensus that the small proportion of foreigners in the GDR, mostly isolated contract workers, favored xenophobic attitudes. Because of this and the severely restricted freedom of movement , the population was barely able to experience other cultures, so that a monocultural provincialism and a paradoxical “xenophobia without foreigners” developed. According to a September 1990 ZIJ poll, there was significant hostile potential against Russians, Vietnamese, Romanians, Poles and Turks. Polish and Vietnamese contract workers often encountered xenophobic defamation and violence in the GDR, which was further promoted by state-sponsored segregation and ghettoization, as well as state-sponsored social integration that was weaker than in the West. The open or covert intolerance of the authoritarian, socialist state had additionally encouraged intolerant ways of thinking and behavior among its citizens.

Turning point 1989/1990

The latent xenophobic tensions became evident with the collapse of the SED regime and its forced discipline. The hardships associated with the adjustment crisis in the East also reduced the willingness to integrate foreigners. Right-wing extremism and neo-Nazism had never completely disappeared in the GDR, but neither were they a mass phenomenon. Right-wing extremists also benefited from an amnesty for political prisoners on December 6, 1989. They increasingly gained influence on the Monday demonstrations . During the turning point , right-wing extremists in West Germany discovered the new federal states as a place of agitation. From the East Berlin skinhead group "Lichtenberger Front", which emerged in the 1980s, the Nationale Alternative (NA) emerged in East Berlin at the end of January 1990 and was registered as a political party by the Presidium of the People's Chamber of the GDR. NA was excluded from participating in the local elections in the GDR in May 1990.

The political right interpreted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the GDR as the "global implementation of the national principle". From the 1990s onwards, it benefited from an increase in power as a result of the cooperation between West and East German skinheads and neo-Nazis.

literature

  • Olaf Kappelt: Brown Book GDR - Nazis in the GDR. 2nd expanded and completely revised new edition, Berlin-historica, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-939929-12-3 .
  • Bernd Eisenfeld : Right-wing extremism in the GDR - causes and consequences. In: Manfred Agethen (Hrg.), Eckhard Jesse (Hrg.), Ehrhart Neubert (Hrg.): The abused anti-fascism: GDR state doctrine and life lie of the German left. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, ISBN 3-451-28017-5 , pp. 221-226.
  • Bernd Siegler: Risen from the ruins: right-wing extremism in the GDR. Edition Tiamat, 1998, ISBN 3-923118-87-2 .
  • Norbert Madloch: Right-wing extremism in the GDR and in the new federal states: selection bibliography with extensive index. dip, 1996, ISBN 3-931003-06-X .
  • Frank Schumann: Bald on Alex. Right-wing extremism in the GDR. Fischerinsel, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-910164-08-0 .
  • Peter Ködderitzsch, Leo A. Müller: Right-wing extremism in the GDR. Lamuv, 1990, ISBN 3-88977-245-5 .
  • Bernd Wagner : Right-wing radicalism in the late GDR: on militant-Nazi radicalization. Effects and reactions in the GDR society. Edition Widerschein, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3945529-02-7 .
  • Harry Waibel : Right-wing extremism in the GDR until 1989. Papyrossa, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89438-109-4 .
  • Harry Waibel: The brown seed: anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in the GDR. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-89657-153-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Herbst , Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 2, Rowohlt, Hamburg 1994, especially p. 714.
  2. ↑ Contemporary history: For honest cooperation. In: Der Spiegel 19, May 9, 1994, pp. 84-91.
  3. ^ Norbert Madloch: Right-wing extremism in Germany after the end of Hitler's fascism. (PDF; 1.0 MB) In: Klaus Kinner, Rolf Richter: Right-wing extremism and anti-fascism. Historical and current dimension. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2000, pp. 63-67.
  4. ↑ Michael Ludwig Müller: The GDR was always there: SED, Stasi & Co. and their influence on the Federal Republic. Lau Verlag & Handel KG, 2010, Section 6.4.
  5. ^ Richard Stöss : Right-wing extremism in a united Germany. (PDF; 814 kB) Friedrich Ebert Foundation , 2000, p. 61 ff. , Accessed on March 8, 2020 .
  6. ^ Harry Waibel: Right-wing extremism in the GDR until 1989. Cologne 1996
  7. ↑ Fabian Virchow (ed.), Martin Langebach (ed.), Alexander Häusler (ed.): Handbook right-wing extremism (right-wing extremism edition). Springer VS, 2017, p. 60.
  8. ↑ Harry Waibel: The failed anti-fascism of the SED: Racism in the GDR. Peter Lang GmbH, International Science Publishing House, 2014, p. 19.
  9. ^ Armin Pfahl-Traughber: Right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic. Munich 2001, p. 58.
  10. ↑ Harry Waibel: The failed anti-fascism of the SED: Racism in the GDR. Peter Lang GmbH, International Science Publishing House, 2014, p. 18.
  11. ^ Mathias Brodkorb, Thomas Schmidt: Right-wing extremism in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - an overview. (PDF; 888 kB) In: Mathias Brodkorb, Thomas Schmidt (Ed.): Is there a modern right-wing extremism? Rostock 2002, p. 67.
  12. ↑ Walter Süß: On the perception and interpretation of right-wing extremism in the GDR by the MfS. Berlin 1993, p. 17.
  13. ^ Tobias Moorstedt: The brown legacy of the GDR. Findings from Stasi files. In: Spiegel online, February 22, 2001
  14. ↑ Walter Süß : On the perception and interpretation of right-wing extremism in the GDR by the MfS. Berlin 1993, p. 23.
  15. ^ Norbert Madloch: Right-wing extremism in Germany after the end of Hitler's fascism. ( Memento of October 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.0 MB) In: Klaus Kinner, Rolf Richter: Right-wing extremism and antifascism , Berlin 2000, pp. 74–77
  16. ↑ Oliver Reinhard: Brown blooming landscapes. Saxon Newspaper, December 21, 2011
  17. ^ Walter Friedrich: Is right-wing extremism in the East a product of the authoritarian GDR? (PDF; 67 kB) In: From Politics and Contemporary History (B 46/2001), p. 21 f.
  18. ^ Michael Lausberg: The extreme right in East Germany 1990-1998. Marburg 2012, pp. 81–84.
  19. ↑ Michael Lausberg: The extreme right in East Germany 1990–1998 , Marburg 2012, p. 20.
  20. ^ Walter Friedrich: Is right-wing extremism in the East a product of the authoritarian GDR? (PDF; 67 kB) In: From Politics and Contemporary History (B 46/2001), p. 19f.
  21. ↑ Klaus J. Bade: Foreigners, resettlers, asylum. An inventory. Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37462-X , p. 178.
  22. ↑ Wilfried Schubarth: Strangers as scapegoats. In: The Profile of Germans - What unites them, what divides them. Spiegel Spezial 1/1991, p. 47ff.
  23. ↑ Klaus J. Bade: Foreigners, resettlers, asylum. An inventory. Munich 1994, p. 182.
  24. ^ Norbert Madloch: Right-wing extremism in Germany after the end of Hitler's fascism ( Memento of October 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.0 MB). In: Klaus Kinner, Rolf Richter: Right-Wing Extremism and Antifascism , Berlin 2000, pp. 89–93.
  25. ↑ Antonia von der Behrens: The network of the NSU, contributory negligence of the state and prevented clarification. In: No closing words. Nazi Terror - Security Authorities - Support Network. Pleading in the NSU trial. VSA, Hamburg 2018, p. 201.