EAST GERMANY IN FERMENT

...The invasion of Czechoslovakia ten years ago showed the East Germans just how trigger-happy the Soviets can be...

...Today the restaurant is maintained by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a memorial to the early days of socialism in Germany...

...We have a state machine like the one Marx and Engels wanted to smash," according to the renegade theorist...

...East Germany is one of the least hospitable environments imaginable for the Eurocommunist- inspired ideals of Bahro and many others who are critical of' 'socialism as it really exists...

...We want our state to be better...

...Initial reactions in the other Germany were mixed...

...Although the SED denounced the manifesto as a product of West German intelligence, its efforts to delegitimize the new group came too late...

...The SED has not faced such a challenge since the early 1950s when spontaneous brushfire demonstrations broke out in Berlin and other cities as a result of the government's announcement of increased production quotas in core industries...

...The manifesto also calls for the abandonment of Democratic Centralism "because it is centralism against democracy...

...Leftists in the West are finding new allies among the East German critics...

...The GDR grew tired of being perceived by the rest of the world as the second-class bastard brother of West Germany during the 1960s...

...Last September, 2,000 representatives from a wide spectrum of groups, including unions, youth organizations, and political parties, took part in an international congress for Rudolf Bahro to discuss ways of increasing cooperation among radical socialists in East and West...

...Like the Eurocommunists with whom he identifies, Bahro criticizes what he calls the politbureaucratic dictatorship which has created a nationwide ethic of dependency or, as he calls it, "subalternity...

...The continued growth of an independent left movement in the GDR depends in some measure on the help it gets from outside its borders...

...The appearance of public opposition in the mid-1970s at first embarrassed the Socialist Unity (SED) government...

...Bahro's book has evoked an enthusiastic response in West Germany, and his views have been the subject of debate since it appeared...

...In the end, however, the survival of the dissident Marxist movement depends on its ability to find the right mix of audacity and tactical common sense — a finely tuned strategy that will continue to pressure the government and create new forums for the discussion of alternatives, but will fall short of provoking a major crackdown or intervention by the Soviets...

...The recent influx of dissidents from the GDR into West Germany has revitalized the West German Left's interest in the GDR...

...In private, the Socialist Unity Party is referred to as "the big club...

...One observer claimed the manifesto was fabricated by the East German state security agency and leaked to the West to give the GDR a pretext for cracking down on known dissidents...

...Several solidarity committees for East German Marxist dissidents have sprung up in major West German cities...

...Stultified and bureaucratized as it is, the East German system has been the closest and most concrete example of socialism West German leftists have been able to point to...

...Although an amazingly large number of people belong to the SED — two million out of a population of sixteen million — party membership is no longer a guarantee of political conformity...

...International scrutiny and public support from socialists in other countries will help maximize the East German dissidents' playing room...

...Until a few years ago, the GDR was practically the only Eastern European country within the Soviet sphere without a visible level of dissent...

...Groups of intellectuals, workers, and students like the Jena group reportedly now exist in several cities...

...The GDR's postwar accomplishments are astounding by any standards...

...The group remained anonymous but it does claim to have a "press office" which publicly taunted the SED with an embarrassing request to legalize the new movement and announce its existence in the party daily, Neues Deutschland...

...While paying nominal obeisance to Lenin, the group makes a clear break with the Leninist concept of the party, calling instead for a more pluralist government with an independent legislature and judiciary...

...Incidents of open opposition to the government in the GDR are seldom reported outside Western Europe but they are on the increase...

...To avoid suspicion, the conference masqueraded as a gathering of naturalists and was held at a large vegetarian restaurant...

...For those on the West German Left who favor a democratic version of socialism, the East German model has been intensely embarrassing...

...Thousands of East Germans heard about the declaration on western radio and television, and several hundred copies of the document were reportedly circulating through the country within days after it was published in the West...

...But the growth and persistence of the dissident movement has since put the GDR's ruling elite under considerable pressure...

...Unsurprisingly, Neues Deutschland did not follow up on the dissidents' demand for free publicity, but they got it elsewhere...

...The group of dissidents has since disbanded...

...Party membership can open doors to university study, career advancement, and other opportunities...

...The thirty-page mimeographed document is loosely constructed around four themes covering military matters, reform communism, inter-German relations, and domestic issues...

...Leftists in the West are finding new allies among the East German critics' The League and other critics of the SED identify strongly with political theoretician Rudolf Bahro, who made one of the most significant contributions to Marxist thought in East Germany with his book, Die Alternative, published last year...

...East Germans undoubtedly appreciate being able to buy many things that are unavailable elsewhere in Eastern Europe, but access to consumer goods has not satiated the East Germans' appetite for something the SED won't provide: a democratic role in a debureaucratized government which guarantees individual and collective rights...

...many of its members were arrested and subsequently expatriated...

...Those who sport the party emblem on their lapels are said to "weigh one gram more...

...After an unsuccessful attempt to have Die Alternative published in the GDR, he made arrangements with the largest trade union publishing house in West Germany...

...Dissatisfaction among young people is especially high, and in its most extreme manifestation has erupted in pitched battles between non-conformist youth and police at public gatherings in Frankfurt/Oder, Altenburg, Werder, Berlin, and Erfurt during the past three years...

...The loose-knit group consisted of Marxist workers and writers who met to discuss politics, circulate unofficial literary and political tracts, and contact other dissidents in the country...

...Prominently placed banners in every city remind citizens of the "fraternal and unbreakable bonds" between their country and the Soviet Union...

...Bahro claims that Marxism is a facade in the GDR and contends that the country is in the grip of an elite group which exercises control through a system of reward and intimidation...

...Another observer claimed that the manifesto was written by embittered exiles from the GDR now living in the West...

...Yet despite the government's crackdown, public dissidence in the GDR has grown...

...Bahro's book is a galling critique of "socialism as it really exists," but it goes far beyond the works of other independent Marxists who blame Stalin for institutionalizing terror and oppression in Eastern Europe...

...the Supreme Court later upheld the verdict...

...By contrast, much of the opposition in the 1970s is broader-based, more deliberate, and decidedly Marxist...

...Citing the existence of a privileged bureaucratic caste as a travesty in a socialist society, the League calls for an end to wage differentials between workers and managers as a step towards equalization...

...Western Eurocommunist parties in particular can play a helpful role in the development of a democratic opposition movement in East Germany by drawing attention to those dissidents who are out of the closet and by encouraging discussion and debate of their ideas in the West...

...A number of explanations were offered...

...Still another explanation even put the responsibility for the manifesto on the Chinese, or, at least the Chinese-oriented communist party in the Federal Republic (FRG), which was allegedly trying to stir up trouble between Moscow and Berlin...

...Carrying forth the tradition, for several months in the mid-1970s the museum again served as the gathering place for dissident socialists who were allowed by a sympathetic caretaker to meet in one of the rooms...

...The manifesto, which was first published in West Germany by the news weekly, Der Spiegel, infuriated the GDR leadership...

...The feelings of many East Germans who support the GDR but would like to see a more participatory government are well summarized in the words of one citizen who said, "We don't want a better state...

...Says the group, "It is our goal for all of Germany to work towards a democratic-communist order in which all human rights are completely realized for every citizen...

...Even if pressure from within the SED for a move toward democratization continues to grow, any change in the GDR is likely to come gradually...

...Measured by almost any indicator — the per capita number of cars, television sets, or washing machines — the GDR is the most affluent country in Eastern Europe, surpassing even England...

...The initial speculation about the authenticity of the manifesto has subsided...

...Nearly every other country in the Warsaw Pact has had to grapple with domestic critics...

...Thomas Conrad, a Philadelphia-based writer, has traveled widely in both East and West Germany and has written about German affairs for The Progressive, In These Times, Seven Days, and other publications...

...Under the tutelage of the Soviet Union, according to the authors of the manifesto, the GDR has developed a system which rewards unthinking conformity and benefits an "inscrutable army of no-good parasites...

...Bahro's hopes for democratizing the economic and social life of his country were kindled by the Prague Spring...

...One of the chief reasons for the emergence of the new discontent is the failure of the government's effort to buy political stability by raising the standard of living...

...Social and economic problems in the Soviet model predate Stalin, according to Bahro, who claims that the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries are stuck in a "pro-tosocialist" phase of development...

...West German commentators spent nearly as much time speculating about the authenticity of the declaration and who wrote it as they devoted to discussing its substance...

...Rudolf Bahro joined the SED when he turned eighteen...

...East Germany in ferment A challenge to the ruling Communists Thomas Conrad The city of Jena was the site of an important secret meeting of socialists from all over Germany during Easter in 1916 while World War I was raging...

...The GDR — probably the Soviets' most loyal and certainly their most affluent ally — was the last...

...Der Spiegel claimed that the manifesto was written by members of the SED who had become disenchanted with the much trumpeted "socialism as it really exists" which is the slogan the government currently uses to describe its brand of organization...

...Bahro, poet-singer Wolf Biermann whose expulsion from the country in 1976 set off a wave of protest, and Robert Havemann, the patriarch of East German dissidents, all started out in the SED...

...Thousands of other lesser-knowns, including a growing number of younger party members, would like to see a major change...

...The Berlin Municipal Court sentenced him to eight years...

...everyone knows that sudden, highly visible changes in the GDR would result in swift countermeasures of some kind from the Soviet Union...

...Bahro was subsequently fired, arrested, and charged with "anti-state agitation" and revealing government secrets...

...As a member of the up-and-coming postwar cadre, he was groomed for party leadership and served in several significant posts, including a stint as the associate editor of Forum, which at one point was a major ideological publication in the GDR...

...Regardless of its authors, the manifesto undoubtedly echoes the views of many citizens who want to make socialism work in their country...

...When that was crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, he quietly began working on his critique of bureaucratized socialism in the GDR, a project that would last ten years...

...Most of the leading critics in the GDR have emerged from the ranks of the SED...

...One of the high-water marks of the recent wave of opposition was the emergence of the "League of Democratic Communists" which came out of the closet in 1977 with a manifesto criticizing Erich Honecker's Socialist Unity Party and calling for widespread structural reforms...