In Communist East Germany, "anti-fascism" as interpreted within the Communist movement was part of the official ideology and language of the Communist state, and the original Antifaschistische Aktion ("Anti-Fascist Action") of the Communist Party of Germany was considered an important part of the heritage of the governing Socialist Unity Party of Germany; Eckhard Jesse, director of the Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research on Totalitarianism, notes that the term "anti-fascism" was ubiquitous in the language of the East German Communist party, and used to justify repression such as the crackdown on the East German uprising of 1953. "Antifascism" in East Germany generally meant the struggle against the western world and NATO in general, and against the western-backed Federal Republic of Germany and its main ally the United States in particular, which were seen as the main fascist forces in the world by the East German Communist party. For example, from 1961 to 1989, the East German regime used the term "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall" () as the official name for the Berlin Wall.