The enemy was left, actually as ever. The Second World War, in which Germany wanted to create Communism from world with Soviet Union at same time, was only four years ago, when guns were again put into position. This time (initially) only in metaphorical sense, yet it sounded again after war cries. In fact, it should be assumed that young Federal Republic had to do enough to rebuild materially and mentally destroyed land and, even more difficult, to create a functioning democracy. After conviction of many politicians and majority of German population, however, this could only succeed if “communist danger” was first eliminated. Konrad Adenauer (CDU), who was orwise so under-cooled first Federal Chancellor, wanted to have forbidden Communist Party “until Fall of world”, full of pathos. His Justice Minister Thomas Dehler (FDP) saw a “Trojan horse in our midst”, and even SPD persecuted by Nazis, as well as KPD, warned against “who chooses KPD, chooses KZ”.
There were innumerable collusion of judges with government–even in an inn
Josef Foschepoth, until 2013 professor of contemporary history in Freiburg and a profound connoisseur of KPD history, has penetrated so-called “cold Civil War” of German-German postwar history, unvarnished and given complicated subject Also described as exciting for non-lawyers. His main sis is that proceedings before Federal Constitutional Court (BVG), which ended with a ban on KPD, was itself unconstitutional, it demonstrates with numerous hirto unpublished documents.
As is currently case, decision of Federal Constitutional Court of last January shows. BVG President Andreas Voßkuhle explicitly dissociated himself from a “belief and ideology ban”, as applied to proceedings against KPD 1956. That is why NPD has now been classified as unconstitutional. A ban has been waived, however, since, according to human judgement, re is no prospect that party “will be able to realize its unconstitutional intention in foreseeable future”.
61 years ago, this same dish was quite different. To point, process, which only closed after 55 months (!) 1956 with banning of KPD, confiscation of ir assets and prosecution of ir members, was a single scandal. The principle of separation of powers, which was actually self-evident in a democracy, was trampled on. There were innumerable agreements between Karlsruhe constitutional judges and federal government, although plaintiffs and refore “process Party” could not interfere at all. The opposite was even case. Chancellor, Justice and Home Affairs ministers constantly put a massive pressure on court, with down to smallest detail of procedure. According to Foschepoth, whole thing was “a political and judicial disaster.” Later, some of sharpeners, such as Thomas Dehler, also saw that: “My conscience beats hard”. And n “Ober attorney” (now called General Attorney) Max Güde criticized political judiciary in an interview: They speak right “out of same broken backbone”, as was already case with National Socialist Court of Justice was case.
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The young new German state was also largely characterised by support of Nazi regime, which was again powerful in ministries, in courts, and partly even in Federal Constitutional Court. Thus, First Amendment to Law on criminal law, which was primarily intended to combat communism, was written by Josef Schafheutle, who was also involved in Nazi laws such as “Backstab ordinance” or in formation of special tribunals. And even now re were “Sonderstrafkammern”, although such exceptional courts had been abolished by occupying powers and were actually banned under Basic Law. Embarrassingly, se courts, which were exclusively responsible for political crimes, were in many cases housed in exactly same buildings in which NS special tribunals had imposed ir wrong sentences.
The author speaks of a “highly judicially falsified interrogation protocol”
The feeling for embarrassment was, of course, very underdeveloped anyway, which was also evident in alleged trifles: so Federal Constitutional Court, of course, provided representatives of federal government with rooms in court. The communists did not have such a privilege, as y never heard of intense collusion of federal government and court, whose protocols were all “secret” or “Top Secret”. In order to save furr paths, president of Federal Constitutional Court and Chairman of first Senate responsible for KPD process were initially housed in same pension as a member of federal government’s process representation. Thus, important things were practically regulated between door and angel.
In this so-called state process-a concept of constitutional Judge Erwin Stein-was not only gekungelt, disadvantaged, law times broken and independence of Federal Constitutional Court permanently disregarded, but also falsified. The aforementioned Erwin Stein, formerly Hessian Minister of Culture, had heard former GDR official Georg Wilhelm Jost as a witness and sworn as an important “rapporteur” of first Senate 1952. The “defendant”, i.e. KPD, was not informed about this date by law, even interrogation was kept secret for almost two and a half years.
But not only that. As Foschepoth could now document for first time in his book, Stein had written only part of interrogation protocol himself. Ten pages, i.e. half of his alleged conversation with Jost, was simply written off from a previous interrogation. This was also kept secret because this first interrogation had been carried out six weeks earlier by Federal Office for Protection of Constitution. However, this authority is not to be heard by anyone but only to obtain information, which is why, as in or cases, this has been referred to as a mere “questioning” and “personal declaration”. All this and furr detailed inconsistencies are called Foschepoth a “highly judicially falsified interrogation protocol” and an “unlawfully procured evidence”.
Only in year 1968, after 6900 communists had been convicted (for comparison: Until n re were 961 NS processes), many had lost ir jobs or even ir compensation payments for detention periods in “Third Reich”, came federal Republican turn: for All political crimes committed until n, Bundestag decided to grant an amnesty, a second legal recourse was introduced, principle of legality was replaced by opportunity principle. This meant, unfortunately, far too late, end of German sentiment law.
Josef Foschepoth : Unconstitutional! The KPD ban in cold civil war. Verlag Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017.492 pages, 40 euro. E-book: 32.99 euro.
