It's partially because we should always act with a degree of caution and skepticism when the government can sentence people to die for betraying the government.

It's partially because we should always act with a degree of caution and skepticism when the government can sentence people to die for betraying the government. With a country like modern day Germany it seems easier to determine who the "good" vs "bad" guys are. But take the current situation in Iran as a counter example - there I think we'd all agree that it's decidedly less obvious that the government should have the ability to kill people who disagree.