Where Have the Commies Gone?

The old party elite is out of work and out of sorts

On the morning of May 5, some 400 people gathered in a park near Berlin's Alexanderplatz and scattered flowers at the base of the Marx-Engels memorial to commemorate the 173rd birthday of the philosopher who prophesied the ultimate triumph of proletarian revolution. Karl Marx, proclaimed a speaker, should not be blamed for the errors of the former Socialist Unity Party, which for 40 years had ruled East Germany. WE'LL DO BETTER NEXT TIME read a slogan someone had chalked at the base of the memorial. WE'RE NOT GUILTY said another. A third graffito was sardonically realistic: SEE YOU AT THE UNEMPLOYMENT...

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