Civil Rights and Women's Rights in the Federal Republic of Germany Today

In the Federal Republic of Germany today, the phenomenon of terrorism is being used by those in power as an excuse to cast aspersions upon and actively suppress criticism of the government coming from liberal, leftist and feminist sectors. Accompanying legislative overreaction to the terrorist events of fall 1977 in the enactment of the KontaktsperregesetzI was a broadly based campaign of invective against so-called "sympathizers," whose alleged moral and intellectual support made terrorist actions possible. "The Blls are worse than the BaaderMeinhofs" 2 was typical of the tenor of such accusations, in this instance vilifying the Nobel Prize winning author Heinrich B611. The Springer press, whose journalism "has yet to reach the level of the gutter," 3 also attacked authors Giinter Grass and Luise Rinser, the liberal news magazine Spiegel, intellectuals and the universities. Political leaders joined in the hyperbole. For the Christian Democratic (CDU) and Christian Socialist Parties (CSU), the Social Democrats (SPD) and their leaders were suspect. SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was less specific in naming names, but found intellectual forerunners of terrorism lurking in "many areas of our society, in many of its various institutions and media."4 Assessing such reactions, Spiegel considered the term "sympathizer" an empty concept "hurled at someone's head daily, brimming with suspicion and lacking in any precision."5 The arbitrary nature of the accusations confirms Margarete Mitscherlich's observation that: