By Francesca Davis
Discrimination, marginalisation and persecution of former citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in unified Germany have reached alarming proportions, according to a declaration signed by representatives of all political parties of the former GDR.
Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs simply because they were employees of the former republic. Most of these people have been blacklisted for life.
In east Germany, since 1990, special police administrations, prosecutors and courts, staffed mostly by west German personnel, have been established to prosecute what has been called "GDR government criminality". More than 60,000 penal investigations have been initiated .
Politicians, jurists, border guards and parliamentarians are just some of those who have been indicted for charges such as:
- "manslaughter" either because they hindered illegal border crossings or participated in the legislation of the border security regulations.
- participation in espionage activities — on the basis that espionage carried out against the GDR was legal but espionage for the GDR was a "crime"
- perversion of justice and unlawful imprisonment due to applying the penal law of the GDR in court proceedings.
The declaration is an appeal to the international community against the violation of international law and the Unification Treaty in these trials. The persecution reached new heights with the conviction and sentencing in August 1997 of the former head of state, Egon Krenz, by the Superior Court of Berlin.
The trials are clearly political and, according to the declaration, are being used to posthumously "delegitimate and stigmatise the GDR as an 'unlawful state'", as had been demanded of the courts and prosecutors in 1991 by Klaus Kinkel, then minister of justice. This is made clear by the convictions of judges for having officiated in trials against Nazi war criminals in the 1950s.
Accusations based on the premise that the border regulations of the GDR were "criminal" ignores the fact that the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in May 1949 preceded the establishment of the GDR in October 1949, that the security measures on the GDR border were no different to those along the other external borders of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation and that normal international regulations applied.
Moreover, the FRG's current judicial enterprise is breaching basic norms of international law, most specifically the prohibition on retroactive law, which stipulates that no-one can be punished for an act that was not punishable by law at the time the act was committed. The courts are also basing themselves on the legal norms of the FRG even though they were not previously applicable to the GDR and, according to the Unification Treaty, are not applicable to the GDR now.
Demonisation of the former East Germany is resulting in tens of thousands of innocent people and their families being criminalised and exposed to social marginalisation. Attempts to place the former state on a par with Hitler's regime are ahistorical, ignoring the clearly anti-fascist nature of the GDR. The signatories to the declaration state that the FRG's actions are only broadening the chasm dividing Germany today.