“Human rights demagoguery hostile to détente”: the German Democratic Republic and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1975–89

Abstract

What role did the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) play in the collapse of communism in the German Democratic Republic (GDR)? Did it play a role at all? Or did it contribute more to the stabilization of the East German regime? First, it must be said that the CSCE policies of the GDR and the effects of the CSCE process on the GDR cannot be viewed in isolation from the other former Soviet-bloc states for the following reason; both were part of the general struggle between East and West over the interpretation of the CSCE. It was not the provisions of the CSCE itself but also – and mainly – Soviet concessions in the CSCE process that affected the GDR. In general, the Soviet Union made purely formal and later truly substantive concessions at the various CSCE conferences with regard to human rights and human contacts in order to achieve its larger political goals in Europe.1 These concessions contributed to the destabilization of the GDR. The following analysis consists of four parts. First, it sketches the struggle between East and West regarding the interpretation of the CSCE Final Act and the Soviet Union’s CSCE policy from 1975 to 1989. Second, it analyzes the effect of the CSCE process with regard to the opposition in the GDR from the end of the 1970s until 1986. A particularly important question is why there was no human-rights movement (or, more popularly, “Helsinki group”) in the GDR before 1986. Third, it analyzes the area in which Moscow’s CSCE policy contributed most to the GDR’s destabilization: the immigration of East German citizens to the West [Ausreise]. Although German-German agreements and negotiations perhaps created greater pressure in terms of stimulating East German efforts to emigrate, the CSCE negotiations led to changes in the GDR’s laws in this area. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Mikhail Gorbachev’s CSCE policy and the collapse of the GDR. In general one can say that, initially, the CSCE process contributed to stabilizing the GDR; but over the long term, to its collapse. The most destabilizing aspect of the CSCE process for the GDR did not come from domestic opposition in the form of a human rights group citing “Helsinki,” but in the form of pressure from citizens seeking to immigrate to West Germany.