The "Enemy Within"-The Case of the Berufsverbot

Abstract

The word "Berufsverbot" stands for the refusal to access to or exercise of employment in the public sector, which includes the whole educational system, social services, and most of the infrastructure services (railroads, post office, etc). Somewhat more than 15% of the working population of the FRG are employed in the civil service. A declaration of war on the "enemy within", considered to be radical democrats and socialists, has become the basis for refusing admission into the civil service. The practice of the Berufsverbot has given birth to its own apparatus and has long since proliferated into the private sector. The first half of the year 1978 saw two events carefully demarcated from each other, both, however, concerned with the same issue: the practice of "Berufsverbot" (professional ban) in West Germany in the 70's. In early April, the Third International Russell Tribunal on the situation of human rights in the Federal Republic of Germany commenced its proceedings. The sole topic under investigation for the first session another one will follow at the beginning of next year-was the question: "Is the right to practise their professions denied to citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany?"