Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYPeople’s Council and in several constitutions of the states of theeastern zone. If I can restrict every civil right with a law, then it isworthless to guarantee it by means of the constitution, then it is amere declamation and has no effective reality. Restrictions by generallaws devalue the civil right, reduce it to naught.”Yet exactly that which Carlo Schmid wanted to prevent happenednot even 20 years later, namely the introduction of restrictions to civilrights by general laws in the course of the Cold War and the thusly justifiedenactment of the so-called emergency laws (Notstandsgesetze).This onslaught against the civil rights was one reason for the formationof the left-wing extra-parliamentary opposition (APO), and it is tragicthat it was the extremist wing of this APO, of all groups, who, withtheir terror in the 1970s under the acronym RAF, gave the authorities anew pretext to further restrict civil rights in order to facilitate dragnetstylepolice investigations against these very terrorists. And it is at leastas tragic that the very generation which in their youth took to the streetsin protest against this undermining of the civil rights did not reinstatethese civil rights after their “march through the institutions,” but quiteto the contrary undermined them even further.The next wave of restrictions of civil rights came in the early 1980sin the course of the battle against organized crime. Critics, however,emphasized that the problem of fighting organized crime was not a lackof legal possibilities but inappropriate equipment, staffing and institutionalas well as public support for the police. 140This pattern of not tackling societal problems at their roots but bypassing declamatory laws, which further restrict civil rights yet merelycure symptoms superficially, continued in 1983, when in a swift movethe right to demonstrate was restricted as a reaction to the huge demonstrationsagainst the NATO deployment of middle range nuclear missilesin Germany, against the erection of new nuclear power plants, andagainst various large industrial construction projects like for instancethe new western runway for the Frankfurt airport. After decades of discussions,the first tightening of penal law against historical dissidentswas passed in 1985, triggered by an increased activity of revisionistsworldwide. 141 In this law, also nicknamed “Lex Engelhardt,” 142 revi-140 Cf. Dagobert Lindlau, Der Mob. Recherchen zum organisierten Verbrechen, 4th edition, Hoffmannund Campe, Hamburg 1987.141 Primarily due to the book by Wilhelm Stäglich, Der Auschwitz-Mythos, Grabert, Tübingen1979; Engl.: The Auschwitz Myth, IHR, Newport Beach, CA, 1986.117