The GDR’s Westpolitik and everyday anticommunism in West Germany

Abstract

West German anticommunism and the SED's Westarbeit were to some extent interrelated. From the beginning, each German state had attemted to stabilise its own social system while trying to discredit its political opponent. The claim to sole representation and the refusal to acknowledge each other delineated governmental action on both sides. Anticommunism in West Germany re-developed under the conditions of the Cold War, which allowed it to become virtually the reason of state and to serve as a tool for the exclusion of KPD supporters. In its turn, the SED branded the West German State as 'revanchist' and instrumentalised its anticommunism to persecute and eliminate opponents within the GDR. Both phenomena had an integrative and exclusionary element.

‘Make life for communists as difficult as possible’ State-run anticommunism and ‘psychological warfare’ in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany

“…What audiences wanted was light entertainment and distraction. Anticommunist topics were not popular (For more detail see Classen, 2014;Hoffmann, 2017). This is a first indicator that anticommunism in the Federal Republic underwent a change from the early 1960s onwards.…”

“…The so-called 'communist clause' provided an unambiguous basis for courts ruling on restitution for victims of Nazi persecution at both Federal and Land levels: communists, even those who could prove that they had suffered under National Socialism, were disqualified from official restitution (For a more detailed discussion see Spernol, 2014;Hoffmann, 2017). The intent behind this highly questionable measure was to prevent Federal welfare payments from benefiting the KPD or its sympathisers.…”

“…Like the BMG, to which it stood in a subordinate relation, it chose to meet communism on the battleground of journalism. Its jurisdiction included political education; it also trained disseminators whose job it was to raise awareness among the West German public of the dangers of communist infiltration from the East (For a more detailed discussion see Hoffmann, 2017).…”