This story from Germany is thought-provoking:
BERLIN — It was called “the shot that changed the republic.”
The killing in 1967 of an unarmed demonstrator by a police officer in West Berlin set off a left-wing protest movement and put conservative West Germany on course to evolve into the progressive country it has become today.
Now a discovery in the archives of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, has upended Germany’s perception of its postwar history. The killer, Karl-Heinz Kurras, though working for the West Berlin police, was at the time also acting as a Stasi spy for East Germany.
It is as if the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard had been committed by an undercover K.G.B. officer, though the reverberations in Germany seemed to have run deeper.
...The most insidious question raised by the revelation is whether Mr. Kurras might have been acting not only as a spy, but also as an agent provocateur, trying to destabilize West Germany. As the newspaper Bild am Sonntag put it in a headline, referring to the powerful former leader of the dreaded East German security agency, Erich Mielke, “Did Mielke Give Him the Order to Shoot?”
Mr. Kurras admits that he had been a member of the Communist Party but denies being a spy an claims the shooting was an accident.
Instead of shooting some hapless student what we did was more mass murder by voting.
Posted by: Jack is Back! | May 27, 2009 at 01:24 PM
We have our own agent provocateur in the White House, he is working to destabilize America to remake it in his own image. The only problem is apparently he has never read a history book.
Posted by: Mickey | May 27, 2009 at 01:26 PM
" ... The only problem is apparently he has never read a history book. ..."
I would argue that he has, indeed read history ... and learned its lessons well. He knows the mistakes that other tyrants have made, and has resolved to avoid making the same mistakes himself.
It's the rest of the country - those who elected him and who continue to support him - that has neither read history or learned its lessons.
Thus, as Santayana said, we are doomed to repeat it, and allow the rise of yet another tyrant.
Posted by: fdcol63 | May 27, 2009 at 02:33 PM
Mr. Kurras admits that he had been a member of the Communist Party but denies being a spy an claims the shooting was an accident.
... but had no problem with spending the bonus.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | May 27, 2009 at 02:57 PM
I'm too lazy to doublecheck, but I'm not sure he denied being a spy. I thought that he denied being paid by the Stasi. It wouldn't be surprising if some handlers kept money for themselves. I could be wrong in my interpretation however.
Posted by: Bobar | May 27, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Indeed, the Reichstag Fire still smolders.
Posted by: comatus | May 27, 2009 at 04:44 PM
Actually, Kurras can't really deny that he spied for the Stasi, as the historians found also his committment contract. But he didn't admit it anyhow, all he said was "and even if it was true that I worked for the Stasi - what's the difference? It doesn't change anything"
In a way, it's true that it doesn't change a lot - for the people that always knew that the leftist "fight against the authoritarian state" (which started with the Student Ohnesorg being killed by policeman Kurras) was just a pretext for violence, and those escapists who believe in "myth of 1968" have lost their senses long ago.
However, the discovery of the documents finally brought about a mainstream debate about leftist violence that should have taken place long ago. Furthermore, the current observations of increasing leftist aggression adds some importance to the topic (this year's may 1st "demonstration" in Berlin was much more violent than in the years before, and today the "Verfassungsschutz" (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution), which is usually a little blind on the left eye, published a new report about islamist and leftist aggression).
But - as always, those debates are about "extremists", none of this concerns the conscience of the "moderate" leftist journalists...
Posted by: berlinoise | May 27, 2009 at 04:53 PM
Good time to recommend that any who have not seen The Lives of Others
, do so. Important to keep in mind just who Karl-Heinz Kurras worked for.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | May 27, 2009 at 05:00 PM
Thank goodness Germany has "evolved into the progressive country it has become today":
"They are young, well-educated and ready for adventure. And they are sick of Germany. More and more are leaving the country to try their luck abroad, and they often find that coming back is not always easy.
"Christian Vogt wants out of Germany as soon as possible.
"'I've had it up to here,' he said with his hand next to his chin. The 37-year-old architect has been working full time for six years. He has a good job at an architectural firm, but that hasn’t stopped him from wanting to leave.
"Vogt speaks of feeling exploited, of enduring bad working conditions for too little money with a lot of overtime.
"At the end of the year, Vogt plans to move to Australia, a country he has never visited. But he knows that architects there are highly sought after. The Australian government put his occupation on a list of those most urgently needed to fill the labor shortage Down Under.
"Many educated Germans are doing the same thing as Voigt. The country's statistics office estimates that more than 160,000 people emigrated last year, a level that hasn't been topped since 1954."
Posted by: Danube of Thought | May 27, 2009 at 06:09 PM