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Two years after German reunification, the Commission of Inquiry for the Assessment of History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany, which was a truth commission that lasted from 1992 to 1994, was established by the German government with the objective of looking at the history and the consequences of the former East German communist government. It released its report in 1994, but some felt that more could be investigated. This resulted in the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry on Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in the Process of German Unity lasting from 1995 to 1998, which had the same objective, but investigated more thoroughly.

Both commissions had to look at the dictatorship itself and the human rights violation under the rule of the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED). The second commission, however, was more focused on the effects on everyday life than on the human rights violations.

The idea of a commission was brought up by the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch. There were many issues over racism and human rights violation after the unification in 1989, and Human Rights Watch therefore recommended the creation of a commission that would look at human rights violations in the former East Germany. In the same year the first commission was created for “the purpose of truly unifying Germany”

Germany after World War II

Main article: History of Germany (1945–90)

After World War II, Germany was divided in two parts, East Germany which was called the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and was led by the Socialist Unity Party (SED), and West Germany which was called the Federal Republic of Germany and was governed by the Allied powers (USA, England, France, USSR).

East Germany

East Germany was communist and the Soviet Union was in charge of the East. The leaders of East Germany had a good relation with the USSR. In the GDR, everyone worked and as Sue Lawson said, “even the lowest earners could manage a reasonable, if modest, standard of living. Poverty, homelessness and dependence on benefits hardly existed.” East Germans were used to being safe in their money. They did not worry about finding a job. “In the old GDR you were never unemployed.”

There was demographic issue because of the low birth rate which caused an employment’s issue, and for that reason the GDR decided to create laws that would help parents to have children and to work at the same time. There were advantages for people who got married under thirty. They could have interest-free loans, and the repayment of the loan would diminish every time they had a child. This led to an increase in child birth and many kindergartens were built. The population of East Germany increased and it also created new jobs because of all the new kindergartens.

Women were important in East Germany. They worked as men did and they had children. These were the two priorities of the GDR. Almost all women that could work were able to have a job at the same time than having children. It does mean though that they liked the jobs they had or that they were happy to do both because they also had to take care of their family after work.

Time passed and the GDR started to have demands for freedom of expression and freedom of travel and freedom of assembly. As East Germans started to see other communist country getting rid of their oppression as Hungary who decided to take off the barber at their border, GDR citizens started to protest and in 1989, the peaceful revolution started. In August 1989, many East Germans went the West Germany embassies because they wanted to leave the GDR. In September 1989, many went to Hungaria because it had opened its door to Austria, and from Austria, they could reach the West Germany. They started the Monday demonstrations: every Monday, people would manifest in the street and they would ask for freedom. Their slogan was “Wir sind das Volk” which means “we are the people”. In October, Erich Honecker, the leader of East Germany, had no choice but to resign and he was replaced by Egon Krenz. On 9 November 1989, the cabinet member Günter Schabowski announced the “immediate freedom of travel for East German citizens”. All These protests and demonstrations led to the unification of both Germanies on 3 October 1990.

West Germany

West Germany had a similar demographic problem to the one in the East, but implemented a different solution. Rather than attempting to increase birth rates, Wester Germany focused on foreign workers. There was no attempt to further integrate women into the economic system. If a woman was a mother, she would work part-time or not at all, until the child reached the age of sixteen. West Germany's priority was its economy, rather than maternity and childcare, and for that reason people that were unemployed had benefit because they needed to have money to survive.

After Unification

Economy

After the Unification, Germany realized that absorbing the GDR would be costly. East Germany did not have a competitive economy, therefore they did not have as much money as West Germany, who now had to ensure that both countries were living well under the new, unified government. By 1991, the government did not have another choice than to increase taxes because Germany was in deficit. Unemployment in the East Germany became a major problem and differences were more visible because the West had a lower percent of unemployment than the East.

The unification also affected Europe's economy. Though East Germany began using West Germany's currency, it was not enough to save the economy and caused “a European currency crisis in 1992.”

Women

The women seemed to be more affected by the unification and the transition than men. In the old East Germany, women had more advantages to combine work and children. Some women in the East could have accessed to “unpaid child care leave until the child started school, and then return to a similar job.” Once both Germanies were unified, women lost all these advantages which changed their everyday lives. Their economic situation was not as secure as before because there was not enough job for everyone and many women faced early retirement. Women lost their security because for East Germans it was something unusual and frightening to lose their jobs and being unemployed.

Human Rights Watch

In 1992, the Human Rights Watch organization went to Germany to analyze existing racism and human rights violations that occurred in the country following the unification of the East and West, and suggested that Germany created a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate these current problems as well as East Germany's past. As a result the Commission of Inquiry for the Assessment of History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany was established in 1992 by the German government.

Commission of 1992 (Commission of Inquiry for the Assessment of History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany)

The commission was created on May 14, 1992 and released its report in June 1994. It was set up by member of the German Parliament in March 1992. In the early 1990s, all archives of the GDR as well as the SED were made available for the scholars. When the commission began, the commissioners had access to all the records that could be found.

The commission had 27 members which was led by the East German Parliamentarian and human rights activist Rainer Eppelmann. Other members included Markus Meckel, Gerd Poppe, Dr. Dorothea Wils, Dirk Hansen, and Dr. Dietman Keller.

Why a commission?

Germany established a truth commission as a result of ongoing social tensions and problems affecting the country, in hopes that it would be a solution. Additionally, many Germans wanted answers about the SED dictatorship and the effects it had on "the possibilities of political and moral rehabilitation of the victims." The German government and parliament also felt strongly about the commission, believe that it was essential to unify Germany.

Instead of retributive justice, the German Parliament opted for a focus on restorative justice because of the existing social problems, as well as having a non-violent reconciliation solution.

Mandate

The mandate had two main objectives. The first was to help the victims of the GDR and the SED. The second was about reconciliation. Germany needed to be reconciled with its past so it needed to develop a common political culture. To do so, the commission had to look at human rights violations. It had to look at every aspect of the dictatorship, how it functioned, what was its ideology and theology, what responsibilities it had for human rights violations, and what role it played in the destruction of the environment. The commission also had to investigate which groups were oppressed and to think about ways they could give restitution to these oppressed groups. The commission needed to look at the opposition in the East Germany and look at how they opposed the SED. The Parliament also wanted to know the influence the Church had in the SED. The influences of “international framework conditions” (more precisely, Soviet politics), needed to be investigated, as did the relation between both Germanies. The commission's mandate included research covering the years from 1945 until 1989.

The commission also needed to include scholarly expertise, public hearings and forums, as well as discussion with citizens.

Recommendations

The commission recommended the creation of national holidays. The unification date (3 October) could be one national holiday. Another recommendation was to have documentary centers and a map of the governing building used by the SED so people would be aware of their past and could achieve reconciliation, writing that would also help to build a common political culture and shared historical knowledge to have a real unified Germany. The commissioners also recommended to exchange information with Eastern European countries. Finally, they proposed a permanent foundation to implement the recommendations and try to help victims from the SED period.

Conclusions

The most notable impact the first commission had wad the establishment of the second commission to further investigate matters that the first one did not. The parliament waited for the report of the second commission before taking any decisions on the recommendations of the first commission.

Criticism

“However, a great deal of criticism was voiced by victims of the GDR dictatorship that the support rendered by the state came late, was too limited, and did not cover all groups of victims.” There were also some victims that talked about victor’s justice. For example, “At the universities, a comprehensive screening took place. Many professors and lecturers were dismissed on the basis of Stasi documents and other evidence showing that they had worked as informers for the Stasi or were SED members. There were number of protests by the accused and their supporters who felt that these dismissals were unjust and constituted revenge.” Media also criticized without knowing the facts. The commission was criticize by many and was seen as being useless because it did not change any things. The commission was also criticized for the length of the report, which was 18 volumes.

Commission of 1995 (Commission of Inquiry on Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in the Process of German Unity)

The second commission ran from July 1995 to June 1998, and focused primarily on aspects of the mandate that had not been looked at in the first, such as the everyday life of the East German citizens. Rainer Eppelmann stayed on as chairman of the commission, but the number of commissioners increased to 36, which were later divided into 9 groups. All commissioners were chosen by the German Parliament.

Mandate

The second commission followed the same mandate as the first one, but focused more on aspects of everyday life under the SED dictatorship, such as discrimination against women, education and economic effects. The mandate also analyzed social effects, science and culture in East Germany as well as unified Germany, focusing on both past and present.

Recommendations/Reparations and Aftermath

The recommendations from the second commission were essentially the same as the first one but it also added the need to educate the people about their past, but not from a foundation. Maybe the people could learn about their past in schools, the commissioners wrote. They also asked again for a permanent and independent foundation that would follow up the recommendations, investigate on the past, and keep the archives. The foundation would also give assistance to the victims of the SED.

Hohenschönhausen

As opposed to the first commission, this one convinced the Parliament as well as the government to create the independent foundation that would, in a sense, continue the work of both commissions. This foundation was called the “Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur”. It was created on 5 June 1998. There was also a memorial that was created in Berlin. Another foundation was created and was named “Hohenschönhausen”. The mandate of the foundation was to investigate the history and to tell the public about it. In 2007, there was a law that was created to give reparation to the persons that were prisoners during the SED dictatorship.

The Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur helped creating the law to give reparation to the victims of the SED. They expanded the reparations to other victims groups than just the political group.

Bibliography

• Epstein, Catherine. “East Germany and Its History since 1989.” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 75, No. 3 (September 2003) : 634 – 661. Accessed February 4, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/380240.
• Forsythe, David P., editor. Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 5, Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Hayner, Priscilla B. Unspeakable Truths Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions. New York: Routledge, 2011.
• Krieger, Joel, editor. The Oxford Companion to politics of the World, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2001. Accessed 3 March 2016. http://www.oxfordreference.com.proxy.ubishops.ca:2048/view/10.1093/acref/9780195117394.001.0001/acref-9780195117394-e-0281?rskey=TMboDP&result=2.
• Lawson, Sue. “Social Provision.” In Modern Germany, edited by Peter James, 85-100. New York : Routledge, 1998. Accessed February 4, 2016.
• Peterson, Trudy Huskamp. Final Acts A guide to Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions. Baltimore : John Hopkins University Press, 2005. Accessed February 4, 2016.
• Rössner, Dieter. “Mediation as a Basic Element of Crime Control: Theoretical and Empirical Comments”, Buffalo Criminal Law Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (April 1999): 211-233.
• Rotfeld, Adam Daniel, and Walther Stützle, trans. Germany and Europe in Transition. New York : Oxford University Press, 1991.
• United States Institute of Peace. “Truth Commission : Germany 92.” Accessed February 5, 2016. http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-germany-92.
• United States Institute of Peace. “Truth Commission : Germany 95.” Accessed February 5, 2016. http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-germany-95.
• Weil, Frederick. “Ethnic Intolerance, Extremism, and Democratic Attitudes in Germany since Unification.” In Antisemitism and Xenophobia in Germany After Unification, edited by Kurthen, Hermann, and Werner Bergmann, and Rainer Erb, 110 – 141. New York : Oxford University Press, 1997. Accessed February 4, 2016.

External links

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