Word: ulbricht
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When Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia last August, dissent erupted in a most unlikely place: Walter Ulbricht's rigidly controlled, Stalinist East Germany. The demonstration of protest was admittedly brief and feeble and went almost unnoticed by the out side world. Yet after years in which any kind of rebellion was virtually unknown among East Germans, a handful of students scarcely out of high school demonstrated solidarity with the Czechoslovaks and pleaded with their countrymen "not to remain silent...
Their protests were short-lived. Within hours, Ulbricht's efficient security agents hunted down and arrested the demonstrators. After eleven weeks in custody, at least seven of an estimated ten protesters were tried on "anti-state activities" charges last October and received prison sentences of up to 36 months. Two weeks later, however, they were paroled - apparently because the regime wanted to avoid making martyrs of them. But at least 200 similar cases are still reported pending before East German courts...
...days before the Czechoslovak crisis, Foreign Minister Willy Brandt held that West Germany should allow the Communists to operate as a legal party if it expected his new Ostpolitik to achieve its goal: establishing normal relations with the East bloc. But at that time, East German Boss Walter Ulbricht stonewalled Brandt's plan by ordering West German Reds to stay underground. Ulbricht feared that the West German diplomatic initiatives would isolate his unpopular satrapy; therefore he wanted to be able to denounce Bonn throughout Eastern Europe by pointing out the Federal Republic's "persecution" of Communists at home...
...that the Soviets have effectively halted, at least for the present, Bonn's diplomatic and economic penetration into Eastern Europe, Ulbricht has cleverly seized upon West Germany's earlier permissive attitude to set up a new party. By so doing, he and his Soviet superiors have accomplished two important goals: they have 1) founded a new, hard-lining party in Western Europe at a time when the major Western European parties have split with Moscow over the Czechoslovak invasion, and 2) created an instrument for stirring up political strife in the Federal Republic...
...Volksarmee, G.S.T. seems to be worth the expense: this summer 200 of its graduates went directly into the army as noncoms. More than half of all recent army trainees have learned their basics in G.S.T. courses. Just as important to Ulbricht's hopes of keeping the lid on in East Germany was another lesson taught at G.S.T.: how to take orders. "G.S.T. training," said Defense Minister General Heinz Hoffmann, "must also accustom the young continually to firm discipline and order, and teach them to follow orders of the trainers with respect and without discussion." That...