STRATEGIES OF COMPLAIN: INTEREST ORGANIZATIONS OF GDR STAATSSICHERHEIT COWORKERS AFTER GERMAN REUNIFICATION

This article looks at the strategies of former GDR state, security service, and army personnel interest groups unified in the East German Board of Associations (0 KV). The largest of these, the Joint Initiative for the Protection of the Social Rights of Former Members of Armed Bodies and the Customs Administration of the GDR (ISOR), aims to achieve the full restoration of the original pension rights of these groups and especially of former Stasi members. Since its establishment in 1991, ISOR has chosen legal complaints as its main form of action. This strategy is accompanied by petitioning and sending letters to politicians. I argue that ISOR's choice of strategies is largely motivated by the organization's isolated position in German society, which makes successful political action unlikely. ISOR's demands are also directly linked to specific laws that can be protested in court. Yet the quickness with which a legal strategy was taken up in 1991 is remarkable and suggests that earlier experiences with legal procedures and petitioning in the GDR also influenced this choice. The paper is based on a broad survey of 0 KV publications, as well as on personal observations of OKV meetings and 29 interviews with members of different OKV organizations in Berlin in 2012 and 2013.