Flüchtlinge als politisches Instrument - Chilenische Emigranten in der DDR 1973-1989
TD: volume 2, issue 2005, 2, page 343–374
Abstract / Full text
Es folgt die Zusammenfassung in englischer Sprache following the article short description
After the military coup against the leftist government of Chile on September 11th 1973, some 2000 Chileans fled to the GDR. This article shows that the SED-leadership hardly pursued humanitarian motives in welcoming them. Honecker and his functionaries rather wanted to strengthen both the position of socialism in Chile as well as their own power in Eastern Germany. Therefore they used the refugees for their propaganda, manipulated their political parties and helped "revolutionaries" to hide and organize themselves in Chile. The GDR authorities forced the Chilean refugees - who were mostly intellectuals - to work in jobs well below their professional qualifications, restricted their freedom of travel and suppressed possible dissent among them through means of the secret police.