Word: ausgrenzung
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...Democratic Socialism, it has a scant 250,000 adherents, the majority of them former communist functionaries who, says one observer, "cannot believe they can hang up the socialist dream like a soiled coat." They remain loyal even though thousands have lost their jobs because of what Germans call Ausgrenzung, or discrimination against those linked to the communist hierarchy or the Stasi...
Egon Krenz, who succeeded Honecker as communist leader for 50 tumultuous days in 1989, contends that "not all 2.3 million party members were villains." If Germany opts to deal with them only through Ausgrenzung, he says, "we will never have a peaceful unification." Krenz is a victim of that policy, although some might argue that he had it coming. Both he and Keller fear that the shunning -- combined with hardships caused by the collapse of the socialist economy -- could encourage a popular tide of nostalgia for the good old, bad old days. Politically, of course, there is no going back...
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