Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYsions which we would not want to abandon. But how are we to changeour views if we are not confronted by arguments but by mere violence?That really is not a convincing way. Thusly tagged with a unpropitioussocial prognosis, we political prisoners can never enjoy early releasesfrom prison after spending half or two-thirds of our terms, as is grantedto drug dealers, robbers, thieves, and murderers. No, as incorrigibles wehave to spend our terms to the last minute. To top it off, we arewhacked with all kinds of security measures in prison, which exacerbatelife in prison even more. I have still not received any comprehensibleexplanation why that is so, though. Do the other prisoners have to beprotected from our thoughts? Or are we taken into protective custody inorder to safeguard us against the other prisoners whose hatred against ushas been fanned by media reports? Be that as it may, fact is that the reasonoccasionally given to the public for the harsh punishment meted outagainst us is that it is meant to be a deterrent in order that no underlingin this country will dare to utter an opinion divergent from that of thegovernment. In legalese this term is called “general prevention.” Accordingto Solzhenitsyn such verdicts in the late Soviet Union werecalled “social prophylaxis,” 138 which probably amounts to the samething.III. Development of the LawNow I want to turn to the development of the law in Germany underthe aspect of the increasing deterioration of civil rights. I may start witha quote from the speech of the late German political scientist CarloSchmid, who, as a Social Democrat, was a member of Germany’s ParliamentaryCouncil in 1948, which at that time was debating the BasicLaw for the fledgling Federal German Republic. On the question of restrictionsto civil right by general laws Schmid said on 8 September1948: 139“We also do not want that one equips these civil rights [in theBasic Law, GR] with restrictions by general laws, as it is the case insome constitutional guidelines of the [East German communist]138 Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, op. cit. (note 131), p. 42.139 Deutscher Bundestag, Bundesarchiv (ed.), Der Parlamentarische Rat 1948-1949, Oldenbourg,Munich 1996, pp. 22ff.116