austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

122 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
gerous. Just labeling them communists is usually enough, since most
employers are fairly affluent, very anticommunist, and averse to having
communist workers, especially given the fact that the West German
government even made it illegal fo r those with communist views to
work fo r the government in any way (von Schnitzler, 1992). The number
of victims ofWest German secret police surveillance and harassment is
estimated to be in the millions (Schulz, 1982).
The differences in philosophy may have made the East German secret
police more transparent, while many people (except those with radical
left views) are not even aware of the existence of the West German
secret police. In addition, like their USA counterparts (Stich, 1994),
the West German secret police actively engages in weapons and nar­
cotics smuggling as well as other illegal activities (Schrnidt-Eenboom,
1995), and the supplemental income from these activities combined
with higher government spending per capita on security certainly could
help the West German secret police to afford the technology needed to
engage in their tasks more secretly. Moreover, I have also been in contact
with several West Germans who allege that the West German secret
police, like the USA secret police, engages in brainwashing and torture
through the use of drugs, hypnosis, and electronic equipment, which are
ideal methods fo r secret repression because they are extremely difficult
to prove or find evidence of, and the very damage to the victim's mental
health inflicted by this fo rm of repression represents a perfect means of
discrediting the victims and their stories as well as distorting their own
memories (Bowart, 1978).
To assist the secret police fo rces, various laws were passed in both
East and West Germany to permit the imprisonment of anyone perceived
to be an enemy of the state (Furian, 1991 ). These laws as well
as other political legislation, were · used in varying degrees to maintain
establishment control of the system.
For instance, the West German government outlawed numerous organizations
that promoted opinions which it did not want the people to
have, including various antiwar groups and a popu lar communist party
that had fought against (and had also been prohibited by) Hitler (Angeri­
fo rt, 1996). West Germany also made membership in (or assistance to)
any political organization connected with East Germany to be illegal .
The latter prohibition was extended not only to the East German com-
CHAPTER 3
123
munist party but also to the Free German Youth, which was a cultural
organization charged with the goal of ensuring the East German youth's
right to "happiness" (among other socially constructive goals), and to
which about 75% of all East German youth belonged (Edwards, 1985).
Moreover, the candidate lists from which West German voters are actu­
ally allowed to choose are undemocratically selected by bureaucrats
in the established, rich, and powerful West German political parties
(Rohwedder, 2000), and write-in votes, or otherwise voting against the
system, have never been permitted in West Germany.5 In addition, the
West German people were never even allowed to vote on their own con­
stitution which was effectively imposed on them by their USA occu­
piers after World War II (and they still haven't been able to).6 As if
all these things were not enough, West German laws exist t�at essen­
tially allow the West German secret police to engage in absolutely any
activity (no matter how illegal or immoral) without fear of any chance
of prosecution, and this power has effectively given the West German
secret police the right to control even the "elected" government officials
as opposed to vice versus in East Germany (Schulz, 1982).
As documented in Chapter 2, despite being perceived as much more
totalitarian than West Germany, East Germany had many democratic
characteristics, including some attributes of democracy that West Ger­
many didn't have, such as the legal right to cast a secret ballot against
all the . different candidates of the established political parties. The rules
for domg so were publicly written at all East German polling locations,
and thousands did register a recorded vote against the party slate in each
East German election (as will be explained in this chapter, this right to
:te against the system was not meaningless). In addition, there were
. 0 aspec� of East German democracy that were to be particularly
::O:Ot m the peaceful revolution of 1989: the right to engage in lim­
and� � t (as long as one was not trying to overthrow the government)
politi
e ngbt � make changes to the country from within the established
cat parties and government.
COLD wAR ECONOMICS
The most im
.
portant tool
its
used by the USA m the Cold War was to help
all'
ricbe/::-ow and prosper economically. By making West Germany
East Germany, the USA was able to support its position that
capital' •sm was better. Financial aid and capital from the USA was espe-