Socialist Wardens and Guards in Czechoslovakia and East Germany: The Replacement and Political Indoctrination of Prison Staff

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the replacement of prison staff in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, later the German Democratic Republic after 1945. The main focus is on the question of how the replacement of prison staff took place, what strategies Czechoslovakia and East Germany used to accomplish this task, and the extent to which local conditions and the overall evolution of the prison systems of the two countries played a role in the process. The other aim of the article is to understand the place of political indoctrination in the staffing of prisons in the two socialist countries and to show how the system of teaching new members of the prison staff changed over time. Comparing the replacement of prison staff shows that although both states were under Soviet influence and transformed their prison systems according to the Soviet model, the implementation of staff changes greatly depended on the distinct political, economic and social conditions of the two states.