Graphite on hand-made paper

31.5 x 23.2 inches

reproduction by Marco Wittkowski

An archivist appeared and greeted me with the words:

"So, so, you are the gentleman from the NPD." Quite irritated, I explained that I had asked to see files on the KPD. "NPD, KPD for me they are the same and in general we have nothing on this." [...]

I asked to at least be able to speak to this employee, whereupon the archivist left the user room red-faced and loudly scolding. [...]

In retrospect, when asked what I had actually written my doctoral thesis about, my answer still sometimes triggered reactions that surprised me. For example, a leading local party had considerable doubts as to whether a "communist" – because anyone who writes a doctoral thesis about the KPD must be a communist himself – could actually be entrusted with his own holdings for indexing. […]

die KPD promoviert muss selbst Kommunist sein — tatsächlich den eigenen Bestand zur Verzeichnung überlassen könne. […]

In contrast, I came to the conclusion that people who, after twelve years of fascist dictatorship, refused to accept the new Stalinist dictatorship should be treated with the same respect as those who, out of their own social disadvantage, continued to cling to the communist solution

weiter am kommunistischen Lösungsansatz festhielten.

From: Tales from 1001 Doctorates, "Are You Actually a Communist?" by Klaus Becker, 2006, Klinkhardt Verlag