During Adenauer’s tenure he:

1- knowingly appointed multitudes of "former" nazis into government positions such as ministers, ambassadors, judges, police, secretaries, etc.

2- banned all socialists / communists from public service

3- outlawed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the Free German Youth organisation (FDJ), the Federation of Victims of Fascism (VVN) and the German-Soviet Friendship Society(DSFS)

4- passed a special amendment to the constitution (Ausfuhrungs-Gesetz zu Artikel 131 des Grundgesetzes) that gave all former nazis, apart from the few top culpable individuals, the right to return to their posts in the public service. This effectively ended West Germany’s pursuit of prosecuting Nazis.

5- remilitarized West Germany by having it join NATO.

6- opposed and prevented the reunification of Germany.

7- reinstated and continued the Nazi’s persecution of communists with arrests and imprisonment. By the mid-1960s, around 250,000 judicial investigations had been undertaken against suspected communists. Of these, around 10,000 were actually imprisoned.

8- extended this program to include socialists, those opposed to a remilitarisation of Germany, and members of organisations working to promote diplomatic ties with the GDR.

9- funded the Schnez-Truppe, an illegal clandestine paramilitary organisation formed by veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Growing it from 2,000 members initially to at least 40,000 at its peak

These are just some highlights, there is so much more.

Denazification didn't actually happen in the west.

Concrete examples of this + sources in the comments.

  • FidelCastro [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    In the 1950s more than 77% of all West German judges and justice ministry officials were "former" nazis, which is an even higher percentage than during the actual Third Reich itself:

    https://archive.is/5xm6G

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Between 1949 and the early 1970s, 90 of the 170 top ministry officials were former Nazi party members, and many had served as Holocaust-era judges who had handed down death sentences, said former justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who initiated the study in 2012.

      jesus fucking christ

      • FidelCastro [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Meanwhile the GDR purged the absolute fuck out of anyone attached to the nazi government.

        For more info, read page from 10 on here:

        https://archive.org/details/StasiStateOrSocialistParadise

        • ZZ_SloppyTop [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I love how people like to compare Operation Paperclip to Soviet use of Nazi scientists.

          The difference is that the west appointed the Nazis head of NASA while the Soviets worked them to the bone in Siberia

          • FidelCastro [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            The soviets literally locked them up and made them do science at gunpoint lol

              • FidelCastro [he/him]
                ·
                3 years ago

                Similar energy: that story about the soviet soldiers who made an SS officer play piano for them and then shot him after he eventually became to exhausted to keep going.

                I know it was originally meant as anti-communist propaganda, but it’s still hilarious.

          • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            The difference is that the west appointed the Nazis head of NASA while the Soviets worked them to the bone in Siberia

            hell, not just NASA, but NATO as well

    • CyborgMarx [any, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      which is an even higher percentage than during the actual Third Reich itself:

      History is often stranger than fiction

      • LibsEatPoop [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Thanks!

        Edit - in the 1950s, more than 70 per cent of West Germany's top judges also had former Nazi connections.

        Between 1949 and the early 1970s, 90 of the 170 top ministry officials were former Nazi party members,