In East Germany after World War II, some 700,000 Social Democrats, influenced by feelings of comradeship for the Communists during the bitter struggle against Hitler, accepted the Communist slogan"Democracy v. Fascism"at its face value and joined a popular-front organization called the SED. Among them were hundreds of top Socialist leaders, including ex-Editor (of the anti-Nazi Brandenburger Zeitung) Friedrich Ebert, fat, pink-cheeked Max Feehner, onetime toolmaker, and gaunt, ambitious Otto Grotewohl. When skeptics called the SED a Communist maneuver, Grotewohl laughed and said that the Socialists, outnumbering the Communists three to one, would take over the SED.
A fortnight ago, as...
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