In chapter 4 of The Breakthrough : Human Rights in The 1970s the author discusses the front put on by the SED that seemed to quell fears in East Germany after WWII. The idea was to create propaganda or a narrative that placed a dictatorship as a necessary way to achieve human rights. However, the author quickly points out that this idea is purely just propaganda and that the SED government had no intention of having human rights be a cornerstone of the regime. The author quotes the SED leader at the time, “As SED leader Walter Ulbricht said upon his return to Germany from exile, ‘it should look democratic, but everything must be in our hands'” (Little, 51). From what Ulbricht says it is clear that the SED really only cares about having power and pushing forward their own agenda. Continually, the author goes onto talk about how the idea of human rights are not really seen in socialist literature but in liberal literature which is more so associated with capitalism. This part of the chapter led me to wonder why the SED was not pursuing actual human rights in order to keep their citizens happy? Also, it made me consider a bigger question. Can human rights and dictatorship exist at the same time? Doesn’t the nature of socialism seem to lead to human rights, or are they in fact not related?
Through the Iron Curtain
