HAVEMANN CASE
By Ludwig Dtirer
HAMBURG -- The process of de=Stalinization is developing more slowly in the German Democratic Republic than in the other East European countries, In addition, at least up to now, the successive stages and thrusts have come as by-products of events in the neigh- — boring countries, These aspects testify to its inner dynamic and . driving forces,
On the one hand, the ruling bureaucracy is aware that the stupidity and short-sightedness characteristic of Stalinist methods have become a serious obstacle to any further social development,thus threatening its own interests, On the other hand, the moods and resistance of the masses reveal a tendency that could lead to explosions similar to the workers uprising of June 17, 1953.
To reduce the pressure, the Ulbricht group has been forced to make certain concessions along the lines of de-Stalinization, ‘The group. hopes in this way to stabilize the foundations of its rule, But the maneuver can meet with only temporary success, since each step toward "liberalizing" the regime, each reform of its absolute rule creates at the same time new starting positions for further strengthening the antibureaucratic, anti-Ulbricht forces.
The inner dynamics of the process has been clearly shown in the Havemann case,
‘Dr, Robert Havemann, a specialist in theoretical chemistry, is one of the world's top scientists, Born in 1910, he studied chemistry at the universities in Munich until 1933, For him, however, scicntific knowledge extended far beyond the laboratory and the professor's chair, His socialemindedness led him to join the Communist party in 1932 on the eve of Hitler's victory. From 1937 to 1943 he was an assistant at the University of Berlin, His extracurricula activities included helping Soviet and French workers, deported to Germany, to form an opposition group, For this the Nazis condemned him to death on December 16, 1945, Even the Nazis understood the value of his theoretical work, however, and they defcrred his execution twice in order to permit him to continue working in prison on research in chemical theory,
The American occupation authorities took him out of jail and placed him in charge of the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in -West Berlin, - However, his outspoken opposition to the U.S. nuclear war policy and his courageous stand in favor of social and economic developments in East Germany did not meet American specifications, and he was fired in January 1948,
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Siace then he has been a professor of chemistry at the Humpoldt University of East Berlin, In 1950 he became a member of the. People's Assembly of the German Democratic Republic and won high. respect among leading circles of the SED (the East German Stalinist party). In 1960, Ulbricht personally decorated Havemann for his great merits in hehe building of socialism,"
It is of special significance that a man of such standing should become the. spokesman for antibureaucratic sentiments against the Ulbricht regime,
On occasion in the past, Prof, Havemann opposed bureaucratic dogmatism and the antidialectical, mechanistic pseudoscience of the Stalinists in the field of science. His latest actions appear to have been inspired by the "thaw" in Czechoslovakia (e.g., the discussion. around the writer Franz Kafka), Sindermann, the member of the SED Political Bureau who started the polemic against Havemann, stated: "One should not fail to understand the connection between his revisionist. theories and the conceptions emanating from Czechoslovakia that are spreading among us,"
Ideological relations between the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia were very close until recently since these were the two countries in which the bureaucratic leaderships had succeeded in keeping the de-Stalinization process under strictest control. In recent months the situation has changed considerably in Czechoslovakia, A "Slovak spring" has been spreading rapidly across the country, and the atmosphere in more than one respect resembles - 1956' in Poland
and Hungary on the eve of the uprisings.
. While the conference of historians of literature at Liblice was taking up the question of Kafka, Prof, Havemann opened an attack in Leipzig on certain philosophers in the Soviet Union, accusing | them of having discredited dialectical materialism among scientists by their mechanistic approach, The scientists under attack sent a sharp protest to the Academy of Science in the German Democratic Republic, accusing Prof, Havemann of having slandered them, Various party, and. student papers published the protest, thinking it an auspicious occasion for opening an attack on Havemann, cee
-‘To their discomfort, prominent scientists in the Soviet Union of higher standing than those attacked by Havemann, expressed solidar~ ity with the German professor,
Support from such well-known figures, encouraged Havemann to take bolder moves. He gave a series of rather wide-ranging lectures at the Humboldt University beginning in October 1963, These came to an abrupt end when he was fired on March 13, 1964,
In.the series, Prof, Havemann, starting from his professional knowledge, developed important concepts about freedom, socialist democracy, bureaucratic distortions and Bonapartist tendencies in the
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period of transformation from bourgeois society to socialist society, the social foundations of understanding and morality among the masses in the transition period, :
The conclusion was soon drawn that through this discussion with party ideologists, Havemann was trying to bring the "thaw" in the German Democratic Republic up to the level it had reached in the Soviet Union and other East European countries, The lectures met with a big response, The auditorium was always packed, students coming from all parts of the country to hear him, They began to : reproduce the texts of the lectures. It appeared that the students, who in the German Democratic. Republic are linked much more closely to the working class and to political life than is the case in the Western countries, were looking for a frame of reference for the dis+ content of the broad layers of the population against the ruling regime, The concepts they sought had to be in strong opposition to the bureaucratic methods of rule practiced by the leadership of the state and party without bringing into question the socialist founda~. tions of society or without violating communist principles, In fact... they should demonstrate that it is precisely the bureaucratic methods that cause serious damage to the socialist foundations and that stifle the dynamic nature of Marxism with dogmatism,
This development brought a reaction from the party leadership. During conferences of active members of the SED, sharp discussions broke out between official party ideologists and Prof, Havemann, who . was supported by some followers he had won among the ranks of the SED youth cadre, The very fact that the party bureaucracy had to accept such a discussion instead of "solving" it in the customary administrative way showed that it was on the defensive, Its position became all the more difficult inasmuch as colleagues and friends of Havemann in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union could publicly express and defend ideas similar to his without incurring punishment and in some cases even with support from the party leadership, oo - ot
In this uncomfortable situation, the SED leadership received — an unexpected assist from the Western press, The newspaper Hamburger Echo des Abends published an alleged "interview with Havemann™ claimed to have been conducted by one Ness, The “interview” was based on notes taken by Ness during a personal discussion with Havemann, As if on order, this newspaper thus furnished the SED officialdom with . "proof" that Havemann had "publicly slandered the workers and peasants state of Hast Germany in interviews granted to the Western press, arm abused the responsibilities which he held as a professor and head of conferences at the university." This was sufficient for expulsion from the. party and revocation of his post in the university,
It is not yet clear how the "discussion" between Havemann and Ness was set up, It is not impossible that Ness acted as a conscious agent of the SED leadership to secure a pretext for taking administrative measures against Havemann, Whatever the truth may be,: Ness
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objectively played such a role nonetheless, The role of the Hamburger :Echo des Abends, a Social=-Democratic paper, in. this, and the failure of any. official paper to denounce the open help given Ulbricht, prove once again that the press of Western Germany and the. political forces .behind it do not in reality favor weakening the Ulbricht regime, at least in the direction of even the mildest. de~- Stalinization,
The Social-Democratic editors of the Hamburg newspaper have reciprocated here with a method used for many years by the SED in relation to left and progressive forces in the German Federal Republic. The SED press commonly publicized their activities in such a way as to discredit and isolate them in West Germany. The Social-~ Democratic and trade=union bureaucracies, and also the West German political police ("Verfassungsschutz" ), were thus publicly tipped off, the SED knowing perfectly well that the result would be repres« sion of those who had been cited. The SED papers thus gained propa~_ ganda advantages and at the same time weakened the left forces in. the Weat German labor movement.
The Havemann case shows that the West German bourgeoisie does. have something in common with the Ulbricht. bureaucracy =~ a joint interest in blocking the rise of a Communist opposition in the German Democratic Republic, In reality a victory by antibureaucratic forces over Ulbricht would deal a heavy blow against the rulers of the Federal Republic, ‘since such a development would lead -rapidly to rebirth of the West German Labor movement, The West German bour= © geoisie understands very well the difference.in principle between chatter about "democratic socialism" that amounts to all intents and ‘purposes to adaptation to the ideology of the ruling class, and Havemannts demand for socialist democracy <= which is synonymous with workers! democracy,
Havemann lost the possibility to defend his opinions publicly. In distinction to the custom of the past, however, he was not put on trial, nor was he accused of treason, Over the objections of the SED he was even given a research grant by the Soviet Union, This is an indication of the difference in atmosphere among some of the East European countries, It shows that the democratization process is further advanced in the Soviet Union than in the German Democratic Republic and that steady pressure is being exerted by the Soviet Union on the SED and the government of the German Democratic Repub= lic, This could be of great importance in further strengthening the antibureaucratic opposition in the German Democratic Republic. More and more forces will be inclined to act openly as it becomes clear — that voicing open criticism no longer means the risk of arrest and long years in prison, and as it becomes clearer that in other countries of the "socialist camp" the same ideas can be expressed with a certain degree of legality.
The Havemann case occurred within the confines of a university and took the form of a controversy over issues in: the social sciences,
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In reality the discussion was. d-political debate involving the most important political problems of:the transition period between capitalism and socialism, It implied the whole struggle against bureau- — cratism in the party, state and society which Lenin led during the. last years of his life and which the Left Opposition, under Trotsky!s leadership, carried on after his death, . :