Thread by @Rail_splitter1

It’s 1982. Moscow has just invaded Afghanistan and deployed nuclear missiles threatening Europe. What was the biggest threat for a large group of Germans? “No Subordination to American Imperialism!”
Look who’s in attendance. The deputy chairman of Juso, the Young Socialists.

That same year, Scholz wrote: “For the progressive forces in this country, there can only be a decisive NO to rearmament. A turn to the right means complete subordination to the offensive global strategy of US imperialism. A turn to the left means revoking the NATO decision.”

While Scholz was deputy chairman, the chairman of Juso was one Gerhard Schröder. Gerhard and Olaf had a special fondness for Party functionaries from the GDR and the Soviet Komsomol. One was Egon Krenz, head of the GDR’s version of Komsomol, the FDJ.

These officials from the GDR and Moscow reciprocated the fondness. They especially targeted Scholz because he was the head of the so-called Stamokap wing of Juso, the avowed Marxists who wouldn’t let daylight between them and their idols to the east.

In 1983, a GDR delegation visited Juso. Afterwards, a secret report prepared for Stasi gloated about “the success in forging a growing unity among the Young Socialists in opposition to American missiles and unanimously blaming the USA for the escalation.”

Later that year, Juso returned the visit. Olaf and friends spent 6 days in Potsdam at an “International Youth Camp” entitled “No to Euroshima!” where Scholz was noted in a Stasi report for spending time in the sauna with FDJ leaders.

Despite the fever-pitch active measures the GDR, Moscow and their SPD buddies unleashed, the Bundestag voted to station the U.S. missiles. Scholz was livid. He wrote that the question of Germany’s NATO membership must be revisited.

This earned Scholz special praise from the GDR’s Central Committee. He was gifted records with communist songs and GDR propaganda books. Juso now demanded that in GDR they be allowed to meet with Central Committee officials of the ruling SED party, not just FDJ “youth” leaders.

The high-profile visit by Juso in GDR happened on Jan. 4, 1984. It should be viewed as one of the shameful pages in German history. Scholz met with Egon Krenz, who had moved up to SED leadership, and ended up featured on the main media organs of the GDR.

An internal GDR report states that Juso had promised that they would essentially maintain a permanent active measure in West Germany by “creating a public climate of fear of U.S. missile deployment and advocating for a referendum on such missiles.”

But what’s even more shameful about the conduct of Scholz and other Juso leaders has to do with two very brave women, the GDR dissidents Bärbel Bohley and Ulrike Poppe, who had been imprisoned for speaking out for reforms and against Soviet militarism.

During the visit, the West German newspaper Tagesspiegel ran a story claiming sources in Juso had said the GDR would be open to freeing Bohley and Poppe. GDR officials angrily denounced the story as a lie. Scholz and his colleagues “distanced themselves from the story.”

There were a dozen more visits across the border until 1989. Each time, Scholz sided with communiques that blamed the West German government and the U.S. for the “escalation in the international situation.” Scholz even denied that there was “an open German question.”

Scholz, who regularly participated in GDR propaganda events like below, was viewed by GDR and Moscow as one of the most loyal and promising individuals that played a key role in the large-scale “peace movement” active measures against the West.

What bothers me most about this, apart from the abandonment of actual dissidents, is that I haven’t been able to find a single documentary evidence that Scholz & Co. ever expressed even an acknowledgment of the 1 million plus Afghan civilians murdered by Moscow over 10 years.

And a reminder that the commonly reported story that “Scholz was under Stasi surveillance,” like below, is a mischaracterisation. Scholz wasn’t spied on. He also wasn’t a paid agent of Stasi. He was an open book. A willing collaborator. p.dw.com/p/45Uro

The fact that his name and activities appear in numerous Stasi reports doesn’t mean he was a victim of surveillance. Stasi reports were commonly done on such activities for internal purposes. By all accounts, Scholz and other Jusos were enthusiastic collaborators.

Sources used in the thread.
1982 article by Scholz and Beling, “Thesen zur Perspektive von marxistischen Sozialdemokraten,” p. 213 spw.de/wp-content/upl…

Report by the FDJ group that visited the extraordinary Juso Congress in 1983 on “Gegen die NATO-Rüstung! Gemeinsam für Frieden und Arbeit”

Announcement by the FDJ of the upcoming conference in Potsdam under the slogan “Frieden ist unser erstes Menschenrecht. Europa darf kein Euroshima werden!”

Article by Scholz and Sauer on “Aspekte sozialistischer Friedensarbeit.” 1984.

Reports about the Juso visit in Neues Deutschland, SED’s paper, and Junge Welt, FDJ’s paper.

Preparatory GDR report for the Juso visit with profiles of Juso leaders.

Preparatory report continued

1984 GDR report on what Juso had promised to undertake regarding maintaining opposition to NATO missiles.

Second part of 1984 report.

@AskUrLoclGerman Here swr.de/swrkultur/wiss…

@AlexAliKuehn You don’t have to have the explicit intention of aiding Moscow. All it takes is for certain hesitations, inhibitions and fears to be triggered. Normally these might not matter but in a situation that requires urgent actions, they may end up being decisive.

@Dottysaccount Incidentally, or not so incidentally, Putin was the main handler of the RAF terrorists while he was posted in East Germany. Though, somehow, western governments still find it too impolite to confirm this.