roup 1 has clearly misunderstood the German phrase Partei ergreifen as der Partei dienen. In a sentence that contained the words Staat and Partei and re ferred to events in the communist GDR, these American students had auto matically inferred that Partei had to do with the communist party and that Anton was refusing to serve in the Party. They believed that, like Plenzdorf 7s Edgar, Brussig's Anton was revolting against communism. How can I make them understand, the instructor asked, that many young people of the time in the GDR were not revolting against socialism, indeed, did not wish to do away with socialism, only to reform it from the inside? How can I make them ac cept for a moment that one might even wish to be communist or a better com munist