this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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Your avatar is from the national emblem of East Germany, right?
Fun fact: publicly, the East German government opposed Apartheid. We now know that behind the scenes IMES, run by the East German deputy foreign minister and Stasi employees, sold dozens of shipments of weapons to Apartheid South Africa.
Source: Van Vuuren, H. (2018). Apartheid guns and money: A Tale of Profit. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Nice fairy tale, but fortunately history isn't swayed by anti-communist vermin making up myths. West Germany and Apartheid South Africa had nuclear cooperation while Democratic Germany armed and trained the ANC.
Not just West Germany:
That includes western governments, but also the USSR and China.
I assume you're still quite young or a bit naive. But even at the time it was all a bit of a farce. Towards the end of the cold war, it was common knowledge that the elite of both sides only really cared about making money. That's also why the nomenklatura were often in an excellent position to become rich from the fall of the USSR. More things change, more they stay the same. Bleibt alles anders. The propaganda was one thing, but when it came to trade and the national interest, pragmatism often beat ideology for both sides.
Of course, in the case of East Germany, it was partly because they were desperate for hard currency. Which is probably also why the sold prisoners' blood to West Germany and tested drugs for companies like Bayer, Pfizer or Roche on their own citizens:
No one comes up smelling of roses from all this of course.
I assume you'll think this is just more 'anti-communist vermin making up myths' to undermine East Germany. But the DDR is dead, the Stasi's records are open to the public, and if anything all these revelations are far more damaging to western companies and countries which still exist, so whatever.
Thats not fun at all!