QUESTIONS ANSWERS QUESTIONS: From the Biography of a German Marxist

Havemann's persistent adherence to socialism prevents this memoir of tribulations under the East German bureaucracy from becoming an appendix to Richard Crossman's The God That Failed. Though a member of the German Communist Party, he loses his eminent university post after the takeover, is interrogated, harassed, and framed for expressing his views on democracy. Undaunted, he forecasts revolutionary upheavals in the West, placing his hopes on labor-management ""co-determination"" schemes and phenomena like youth revolt and women's liberation. For Eastern Europe he foresees Dubcek-style transformations: give or take a few red labels, the solutions offered would probably be agreeable to any liberal Western reformer. Unfortunately, there is little drama in the account of interrogations, and Havemann could have made a bigger contribution by reviewing his experience as a party member, since, as historical evidence shows, the party had degenerated long before it assumed power. Lacking this full autobiographical and political reflection, the book will chiefly interest academic specialists, and those whose personal experience intersects with Havemann's.