Viadrina Research Project on Dealing with GDR Injustice Takes Stock

For more than three years, members of the working group "Aufarbeitung und Recht" (Reappraisal and Law) of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) have scientifically investigated how the rehabilitation of victims of political persecution in the GDR was and is implemented. In a workshop on Thursday, April 27, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., they take stock of their project "Legal consequences of political persecution in reunified Germany" at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).

It is a sub-project of the research network "Landscapes of persecution", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Interested parties can participate in the entire workshop or individual program points after registration.

The subject of the investigations by the working group "Reappraisal and Law" in the study and research focus Media Law at the Viadrina was not only on which legal basis the victims of political persecution were compensated and which financial means were provided for this. Of particular relevance was how these legal norms were implemented in practice, where there were problems and deficits, and whether and to what extent reparations contributed to a sense of satisfaction within the group of the politically persecuted.

The workshop will also present the results of a hitherto unique representative survey on the effects of dealing with SED injustice on the present-day legal consciousness of the population, particularly in the eastern German states. In the context of a concluding round of talks, among others with Evelyn Zupke, SED victims' commissioner at the German Bundestag, the workshop will address questions still to be clarified about coming to terms with SED injustice.