27 TRATEGIES OF COMPLAINT: SINTEREST ORGANIZATIONS OF GDR STAATSSICHERHEIT COWORKERS AFTER GERMAN REUNIFICATION Laboratorium. 2014. 6(3):27–54 Laboratorium. 2014. © Amieke Bouma Amieke Bouma is a PhD researcher in the Department of Art and Culture, History, Antiquity (AHA), VU University Amsterdam. Address for correspondence: De Boele- laan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands.
[email protected]. I am grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful comments and sug- gestions. I would like to thank all OKV activists in Berlin who were willing to share with me their personal views and experiences. My particular thanks go to Siegfried Mechler, former president of the OKV (2005–2013), for his help in contacting activ- ists and arranging interviews. This article looks at the strategies of former GDR state, security service, and army per- sonnel interest groups unified in the East German Board of Associations (OKV). The larg- est of these, the Joint Initiative for the Protection of the Social Rights of Former Mem- bers of Armed Bodies and the Customs Administration of the GDR (ISOR), aims to achieve the full restoration of the original pension rights of these groups—and especially of former Stasi members. Since its establishment in 1991, ISOR has chosen legal com- plaints as its main form of action. This strategy is accompanied by petitioning and send- ing letters to politicians. I argue that ISOR’s choice of strategies is largely motivated by the organization’s isolated position in German society, which makes successful political action unlikely. ISOR’s demands are also directly linked to specific laws that can be pro- tested in court.