Beschreibung:
The East German People's Police, 1952-1958: A micro-study on state socialist governmentality.T. Lindenberger. What is the significance of ordinary "policing" outside the realm of the secret police and its activities of surveillance and repression under communist rule? The study sets out to delineate the institutional, ideological and practical aspects of a key character in East Germany's Deutsche Volkspolizei during the first years of construction of socialism, namely its omnipresent "precinct commissioners" (Abschnittsbevollmächtigte). Deployed on the countryside, they had to bear out the double significance of "security " in state socialism referring both to the aggressive expansion of the Party's grip on society and to "public safety" in the sense of traditional police work. The extensive reports and debates, in which both the police leadership and the rank and file officers adressed the ingrained dilemma of state socialist rule, are scrutinized in order to single out some key features of state socialist governmentality.