- 08 Oct 2009 15:10
#13191590
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_D ... st_Germany)
Reading this article made me wonder even more than usual about the political system in the German Democratic Republic. As I have understood it all other parties in the Volkskammer, besides the SED, functioned as a form of puppet parties - designed to form an illusion of all aspects of society joined together in building the country etc.
I just don't understand why, even under this illusion, the SED would want a party like the NDPD - designed to represent former members of the NSDAP and the Wehrmacht. I would have thought that the communists, as the major enemy of Hitler and the NSDAP, would have wanted to completely denazify the country.
Also, can anyone recommend any good fairly neutral and objective books on the GDR? Especially on everyday life, living conditions, peoples thoughts etc. It seems all I can find is either written by western communists who, while critical, are also a bit naive and biased - or even worse, by anti-communist propagandists who don't even take time to think about what might actually have been good sides of the country.
Reading this article made me wonder even more than usual about the political system in the German Democratic Republic. As I have understood it all other parties in the Volkskammer, besides the SED, functioned as a form of puppet parties - designed to form an illusion of all aspects of society joined together in building the country etc.
I just don't understand why, even under this illusion, the SED would want a party like the NDPD - designed to represent former members of the NSDAP and the Wehrmacht. I would have thought that the communists, as the major enemy of Hitler and the NSDAP, would have wanted to completely denazify the country.
Also, can anyone recommend any good fairly neutral and objective books on the GDR? Especially on everyday life, living conditions, peoples thoughts etc. It seems all I can find is either written by western communists who, while critical, are also a bit naive and biased - or even worse, by anti-communist propagandists who don't even take time to think about what might actually have been good sides of the country.