The German student movement (also called 68er-Bewegung, movement of 1968, or soixante-huitards) was a protest movement that took place during the late 1960s in West Germany. It was largely a reaction against the perceived authoritarianism and hypocrisy of the West German government and other Western governments, and the poor living conditions of students. A wave of protests—some violent—swept West Germany, fueled by violent over-reaction by the police and encouraged by contemporary protest movements across the world. Following more than a century of conservatism among German students, the German student movement also marked a significant major shift to the left and radicalization of student activism.
In 1966, for the first time in fifteen years, the German economy went into a slight recession and the FDP finally withdrew from the Second Erhard cabinet (Ludwig Erhard'sCDU/CSU/FDP coalition government) in late October 1966. With the forming of the CDU/CSU/SPD coalition government under Kurt Georg Kiesinger (the first Grand coalition), the FDP (having 50 of 518 Bundestag seats) was the only voice of the opposition within the Bundestag. This led some students to conclude that this encouraged authoritarian and anti-democratic attitudes in government and therefore justified and indeed necessitated the transfer of opposition from parliament to bodies outside it (→ Außerparlamentarische Opposition). At the same time, the shock of realizing that the Wirtschaftswunder could not last forever led many in the student body, influenced by Marxist economic theory, to believe that the economic wealth of the nation, instead of improving the standard of living of the working class, would destroy it and lead to an ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor.
Through their critical work on many different topics and the reactions of the public and the government itself, these main goals formed in the minds of the students:
Reducing the influence of the right-wing press (especially publications from the Axel Springer publishing house) on the masses and its abuse of the freedom of press.
The first goal may have been the source of all the others and thus the most important in their minds.
To summarize, the students rejected traditional, parliamentary decision making-processes, social injustice and the inequalities of wealth. They felt the need to overcome and change these things.
The past
To the students, the German chapter of Fascism was not yet closed. Many former National Socialists were still working for the government or at the universities (in fact, then-Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger had formerly been a member of the NSDAP) and the newly formed right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was attracting more and more voters. In addition to that, the students had to deal with the fact that they were identified as Germans and blamed for the crimes committed by their parents' generation.
The students did not want to be held responsible for their parents' deeds. But their parents acted as if it were no concern of theirs; when the students tried to show the public that the anti-fascist idea of the constitution was not yet established in German society, the government and the press felt extremely offended, feeling they had formed a democratic society and did not want it to be attacked.
Students and universities
To support its new economic policies the government wanted to change the universities, producing graduates faster by introducing a time limit on courses and limiting the number of students. The students, however, did not want to adjust to the needs of the economy and the government. Rather, they wanted to adjust the universities to their own principles. They wanted more rights in the running of universities, better-equipped workplaces and the expulsion of the professors who had been active during the Third Reich. The university boards did not react to the students' protest and introduced the time limit for studying.
When this time limit was introduced at the Free University of Berlin during the summer holidays of 1966 the students were not there, and so were unable to protest against it; instead, the first big sit-in of the German student movement happened when they returned after the holidays, with about 4,000 participants.[1] The events at the Free University of Berlin are representative of the events at all universities in Germany, as the same events were quickly repeated elsewhere.
The war in Vietnam and political suppression
Protest against the Vietnam War in West Berlin in 1968
Through their increasing interest in politics the students quickly engaged in discussions concerning the war in Vietnam. They formed the opinion that the United States had no right to fight in Vietnam, not only because of the victims but mainly because of what they saw as an imperialistic foreign policy.
The government, however, supported the USA in the Vietnam War, and provided humanitarian and economic support to South Vietnam.[2] For this reason, university boards put a ban on political activities by students (e.g., discussions) at the universities. They explained this act by saying that science should always be neutral. The students wanted to be able to act politically, not only because of the war in Vietnam, but to protest against the conditions in the Third World as students and not only as individuals.
Emergency Acts
The students were strongly opposed to the German Emergency Acts which were due to be passed, which would allow the government to limit civil rights in the case of an emergency. Among other things, they would allow the government to restrict freedom of movement and to limit privacy and confidentiality of telecommunications correspondence.
Action and reaction
By 1966 the number of students that were interested in the conflict between the students and the authorities had increased. Many of those who had not been interested before became at least passively interested by now. This newly formed public took part in the demonstrations, sit-ins and other protest actions arranged by the students and their organizations, e.g., the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS).
The government tried to defuse the situation by decreasing the funds for universities and student organizations and by turning public opinion against the students with the help of the press. The view that students should study and not demonstrate grew stronger. The students were also repressed in the streets by the police. Yet, the more pressure the government put on the students, the more they came together.
Protest against Shah of Iran
On 2 June 1967 the conflict would finally escalate. Students had organized demonstrations against the official visit by the Shah of Iran. In their opinion, the German government was demonstrating a positive attitude towards a dictatorial government that was suppressing and torturing its own people.
During the first demonstration in front of the Opera House, which the Shah was visiting, the police of Berlin and the Iranian service attacked the protestors. In the turmoil, the unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the head from behind and killed by Polizeiobermeister (Police Sergeant) Karl-Heinz Kurras (in fact, Karl-Heinz Kurras was an agent of the East German secret service, the Stasi, but apparently he acted on his own and not following Stasi orders).[3][4]
The following days saw many demonstrations throughout the whole republic against what was perceived as police brutality. The students in Berlin, however, were anxious and in a desperate situation. The police were preventing them from gathering in public, the universities had submitted their authority to the government and the press wrote that the students were the brutal and aggressive component of the demonstrations and that they had provoked the death of Benno Ohnesorg. Even though there were some students groups supporting the idea of a violent revolution the protesting students were mostly peaceful.
For the following days the students took over control of the Free University of Berlin. Finally being able to meet again, they used the time to discuss and reflect on the events of the past days.
The revolt continues
1968 student protest
The spirit of the students in Berlin spread across the whole country. In autumn 1967 there were organized protest groups at nearly all universities in Germany. In the following months some of the largest and most brutal demonstrations in the history of the German republic happened. The press, especially the tabloidBild-Zeitung newspaper was telling the public what to think about those protesters[citation needed]. Its publisher, Axel Springer, did not publish any positive articles about the students. Springer supported the government and was spreading the government's views among its readers[citation needed].
At Easter 1968, there was an attempted assassination of one of the most important members of the SDS, Rudi Dutschke. The students were outraged because the "Springer" press and the government had named Rudi Dutschke their "public enemy". Overnight students all over Germany organized actions to block the delivery of the Bild-Zeitung by building blockades and protesting in front of "Springer" buildings. During these actions about 400 students were injured and two died. Rudi Dutschke died in 1979 of the late after-effects of his injury.
The climax and the decline
The revolt against the government reached its climax in May 1968. Students, schoolchildren and members of workers' unions formed a group of 80,000 people who demonstrated in the capital Bonn against the emergency legislature. Despite the protest, the students could not stop the Bundestag from passing the new law.
This failure marks the beginning of the end for the student movement. The former union of many small student groups representing different theories on the same topics was falling apart because they were blaming other groups' theories and thinking for the failure of the whole movement. By the end of the year even the SDS, the strongest of all student organizations, was falling into pieces.
Effects
Through their political work women came to the conclusion that they were being suppressed by a patriarchal society, and that they had to change this condition. In addition to that the student movement brought up many theories on education and the raising of children which have influenced the modern forms of these processes. These changes and the huge influence on culture and art were probably the most important effects of the student movement.
An indirect effect was the "radical decree" which was passed in 1972. It allowed the government to prevent the employment of people in the public services if there were grounds to believe that they did not support the free and democratic principles (freiheitliche demokratische Grundordnung) outlined in the constitution (Grundgesetz). Under the decree, which gradually fell into disuse after 1976, around 3.5 million individuals were investigated and 10,000 refused employment (fewer than 0.3%); 130 were dismissed.[5]
A number of ministers in the Gerhard Schröder government were student activists in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A black bloc is a tactic used by groups of protesters who wear black clothing, ski masks, scarves, sunglasses, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing and face-protecting items. The clothing is used to conceal wearers' identities and hinder criminal prosecution by making it difficult to distinguish between participants. It is also used to protect their faces and eyes from pepper spray, which is used by law enforcement during protests or civil unrest. The tactic allows the group to appear as one large unified mass. Black bloc participants are often associated with anarchism, anarcho-communism, libertarian socialism, anti-globalization movement or antifascism.
The Spassguerilla was a grouping within the student protest movement of the 1960s in Germany that agitated for social change, in particular for a more libertarian, less authoritarian, and less materialistic society, using tactics characterized by disrespectful humour and provocative and disruptive actions of a minimally violent nature. Events organized by the groups included such actions as attacking politicians or the police with custard pies. One of the main proponents was Fritz Teufel, sometimes referred to as the political clown of the Extraparliamentary Opposition. The lack of respect for traditional, "bourgeois," "repressive" forms of authority and ritual, countered by irony and humour, was typified by Fritz Teufel's reply when told to stand for the judge at a trial: "If it helps the search for the truth".
Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke was a German Marxist sociologist and a political activist in the German student movement, and the APO of the 1960s.
Benno Ohnesorg was a West German university student killed by a policeman during a demonstration in West Berlin. His death spurred the growth of the left-wing German student movement.
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political events.
Heinrich Albertz was a German Protestant theologian, priest and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Governing Mayor of Berlin from 1966 to 1967.
Protests against the Vietnam War took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The protests were part of a movement in opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and as such took place mainly in the U.S.
The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Student Union or Socialist German Student League — was founded in 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the collegiate branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the 1950s tensions between the SDS and the main party surfaced, particularly over the party's support of West Germany's rearming, until in 1961 the SPD expelled all members of the SDS from the party.
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began with demonstrations in 1964 against the escalating role of the U.S. military in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years. This movement informed and helped shape the vigorous and polarizing debate, primarily in the United States, during the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s on how to end the war.
Georg von Rauch was a member of the left-radical Blues-Scene in West-Berlin at the end of the 1960s during the German student movement.
Kommune 1 or K1 was the first politically motivated commune in Germany. It was created on 12 January 1967, in West Berlin and finally dissolved in November 1969. Kommune 1 developed from the extraparliamentary opposition of the German student movement of the 1960s. It was intended as a counter-model against the small middle-class family, as a reaction against a society that the commune thought was very conservative.
In 1968, a series of protests at Columbia University in New York City were one among the various student demonstrations that occurred around the globe in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as their concern over an allegedly segregated gymnasium to be constructed in the nearby Morningside Park. The protests resulted in the student occupation of many university buildings and the eventual violent removal of protesters by the New York City Police Department.
Axel Springer SE is a European digital publishing house which is the largest in Europe, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as Bild, Die Welt, and Fakt and more than 15,000 employees. It generated total revenues of about €3.3 billion and an EBITDA of €559 million in the financial year 2015. The digital media activities contribute more than 60% to its revenues and nearly 70% to its EBITDA. Axel Springer’s business is divided into three segments: paid models, marketing models, and classified ad models.
The Außerparlamentarische Opposition, was a political protest movement in West Germany during the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, forming a central part of the German student movement. Its membership consisted mostly of young people disillusioned with the grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Since the coalition controlled 95 percent of the Bundestag, the APO provided a more effective outlet for student dissent. Its most prominent member and unofficial spokesman was Rudi Dutschke.
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against military and bureaucratic elites, who responded with an escalation of political repression.
The Mexican Movement of 1968, known as the Movimiento Estudiantil was a social movement. A broad coalition of students from Mexico's leading universities garnered widespread public support for political change in Mexico, particularly since the government had spent large amounts of public funding to build Olympic facilities for the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.
John Gregory Jacobs was an American student and anti-war activist in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was a leader in both Students for a Democratic Society and the Weatherman group, and an advocate of the use of violent force to overthrow the government of the United States. A fugitive since 1970, he died of melanoma in 1997.
Karl-Heinz Kurras was a German police inspector, known primarily for fatally shooting unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg during a demonstration on June 2, 1967, outside Deutsche Oper against the state visit of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Kurras was acquitted of any wrongdoing in a series of controversial trials, due to which he became a prominent hate figure of the left-wing German student movement of the 1960s as well as the German New Left. They suspected that Kurras was under protection from many right-wing figures in the West German police and justice system and who were resentful towards the left-wing students. The incident is considered pivotal for the rise of left-wing terrorism in West Germany during the 1970s, culminating with the Movement 2 June and the Red Army Faction.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships and parliamentary procedure, the founders conceived of the organization as a broad exercise in "participatory democracy." From its launch in 1960 it grew rapidly in the course of the tumultuous decade with over 300 campus chapters and 30,000 supporters recorded nationwide by its last national convention in 1969. The organization splintered at that convention amidst rivalry between factions seeking to impose national leadership and direction, and disputing "revolutionary" positions on, among other issues, the Vietnam War and Black Power.
Sigrid Damm-Rüger was a German feminist activist who initially came to prominence in September 1968 through a tomato throwing incident at the 23rd congress of the German Socialist Student Union, and subsequently became an author specialising in professional education and training.
References
Peter Dohms, Johann Paul. Die Studentenbewegung von 1968 in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Siegburg: Rheinlandia, 2008 ISBN978-3-938535-53-0
Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth (eds.). 2007. 1968. Ein Handbuch zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Studentenbewegung. Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN3-476-02066-5
Tony Judt. 2005. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. New York: Penguin Group ISBN1-59420-065-3
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