Socialist law and socialist jurisprudence are closely linked to the socialist idea. Particularly, the development of criminal law can only be understood in connection with the evolution of legal concepts, legal ideas, and legal applications. The aim of this work is to demonstrate how and why this legal system was able to function in this way. When dealing with a dictatorial state, one is tempted to demonize the state as a whole and dismiss ideologies as mere ideological waste. However, this does not do justice to a historically necessary reflection, as every system is supported by and through its citizens. The desire to leave National Socialism behind and to make amends united the people in the SBZ/GDR. However, the prescribed antifascism increasingly became a facade for the politically dictatorial development. The unfortunate close ties to the Soviet Union from the beginning prevented a more successful German path, as the GDR remained a Soviet enclave on German territory until the end.