COMMUNISTS IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27056, 3 June 1953, Page 3

COMMUNISTS IN GERMANY

COURT TO CONSIDER BAN ON PARTY

ALLEGED SUBVERSIVE ■ ACTIVITIES

(From a Reuter Correspondent.) KARLSRUHE.

The West German Constitutional Court here is to decide soon whether the Communist Party is to be outlawed as unconstitutional. Hearings' in public will start on June 8. Hopes in Government circles for an early ban on communism rose steeply last October when the Court, on the application of the Government,'banned the neo-Nazi Socialist Reich Party (SRP).

A study of the Court’s verdict on the SRP shows, however, there will be great differences between the two cases. Government lawyers will have to work far harder to prove their case against the Communists, for, as lawyers point out, much of the evidence against the SRP was ready-made. The basic difference is that all Germany has experienced a Nazi dictatorship and the Court was able to regard that condi-

tion, without argument, as the antithesis of democracy. On the other hand, West Germany has not known a Communist regime. In the SRP case, Government lawyers won their battle simply by proving that the SRP was a faithful copy of the Nazi Party. That was enough for the judges, since most of them had learnt by bitter experience that it was a party of terror. It will be far harder to prove in law that the West German Communist Party wants to substitute a terrorist one-party regime for the present Federal Republic.

For years now the West German Communist Party has constantly proclaimed its intention to reunite divided Germany and make it into a peaceful democracy which would harm no other nation and would give equal rights to all its citizens. Anti-Communists say that this is mere lip-service to and a flagrant abuse of the word “democracy.” They claim that East Germany is proof that communism can only produce a terrorist one-party State where democratic elections on Western lines do not exist. But can the Constitutional Court conclude from this that the West German Communist Party wants to make all-Germany a t ,police State? The Communist programmes as published do not mention concentration camps, the overthrow of the current legal system or forced farm collectivisation, nor do Communist speakers and writers advertise such things as party aims.

Constitutional Guidance The Government applications for both party bans were based on Article 21 of the Constitution. This allows the Court to ban “parties which, according to their aims or the behaviour of their members, want to damage or destroy the free and democratic order or endanger the existence of the Federal Republic.” That is all the guidance the Constitution gives to the Court on the grounds on which to base a party ban. The SRP case last October was the first application of this article and the Court interpreted it at some length when judgment was given. For instance, the Court extended the grounds for banning a party to groups which “do not recognise the basic principles of democracy” and “abpse the technical means of democracy to destroy it.” It explained that this abuse might well consist of subversive activities carried out under the cloak of legality and even of express declarations of loyalty to the Constitution. The revolutionary aim, said the Court, might not become apparent until one viewed together a whole series of unconstitutional acts which, individually, might be considered insignificant. It is almost certain that Government lawyers will try to show in June that the Communist Party was constantly indulging in such subversive activities. Hundreds of raids on Communist offices and homes throughout West Germany in recent months have yielded masses of documents. Investigators have been going through them for evidence of subversive and revolutionary intentions. The very lack of success of the party in West Germany may make the task of the Government lawyers difficult. Observers here cannot recall a single Communist campaign which has in fact resulted in any notable damage to the State or even to individuals. Nearly all its strike calls for political motives have fallen flat. Nor has it been possible, so far, to prove before a court that the West German Communist Party as such has ever directly supported Communists accused of spying for Soviet satellite States. It may well be, however, that Government investigators are purposely holding back such evidence for the big case against the party, rather than fire their heaviest guns at minor Communist officials. The Karlsruhe hearings in June will show. -The same 11 purple-robed judges who outlawed the SRP last October will decide on the Communist Party ban. They are the first chamber of the Court, which the law has made responsible for deciding if a party is legal. Their verdict is final. If the Communist Party is banned, its 14 deputies in the Federal Parliameant will automatically lose their seats. The ban will be binding on the police forces and courts of all States, who will have the duty not only to prosecute and punish offenders against the ban, but also to dissolve all camouflaged Communist organisations which might be set up as successors. If the court’s verdict on the SRP serves as guide, the court will also hdve the power to order confiscation of Communist Party funds. All Communist newspapers and other propaganda outlets would have to cease 1 work. Attempts to thwart any of the • court’s order will be publishable with a minimum of six months’ imprison- • ment.

The West German Communist Party has an estimated 150,000 members and in the last Federal Elections in August, 1949, secured 1,360,000 votes. Since those elections, however, its fortunes at State and local polls have sagged. If the party is not banned in June, it will probably count itself lucky if it can raise 1.000,000 votes in the next Federal Elections, due late this summer.