Social transformation studies and human rights abuses in east Germany after 1945

This paper offers a qualitative, and, in part, quantitative account of human rights violations undertaken by the ministry of state security of the German Democratic Republic. Arguing that this subject has not always received proper attention, consideration is given to the role that these violations played in the governance of the GDR, so as to define it as a state without genuine constitutional protection of civic rights. For the purposes of current social science research into German transformation today, and in order to evaluate competing methods for converting yesterday's injustices into tomorrow's stability and consensus, it concludes that in contrast to the Federal Republic, which was always a constitutional state, or (Rechtsstaat), the GDR was at all times an Unrechtsstaat.