West German student movement

Last updated

West German student movement
Part of the Protests of 1968
Ludwig Binder Haus der Geschichte Studentenrevolte 1968 2001 03 0275.0008 (16474725704).jpg
Protest march in 1968 West Germany
Date1968
Location
West Germany
Caused by
  • New political alliances in West Germany
  • Various leftist political movements
Resulted inQuelling of protests

The West German student movement (German : Westdeutsche Studentebewegung), sometimes called the 1968 movement in West Germany (German : 1968 Bewegung in Westdeutschland), was a social movement that consisted of mass student protests in West Germany in 1968. Participants in the movement later came to be known as 68ers. The movement was characterized by the protesting students' rejection of traditionalism and of German political authority which included many former Nazi officials. Student unrest had started in 1967 when student Benno Ohnesorg was shot by a policeman during a protest against the visit of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The movement is considered to have formally started after the attempted assassination of student activist leader Rudi Dutschke, which sparked various protests across West Germany and gave rise to public opposition. The movement created lasting changes in German culture. [1]

Contents

Background

Political atmosphere

The Spiegel affair of 1962, in which journalists were arrested and detained for reporting on the strength of the West German military, worried some in West Germany that there was a return of authoritarian government. In the fallout of the affair, the suddenly-unpopular Christian Democratic Union formed a political coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), known as the grand coalition. [2]

Critics were disappointed with the parliament's appointment of Kurt Georg Kiesinger as chancellor of West Germany, as he had participated in the Nazi Party during the Nazi regime. [3]

New political movements

Social movements grew as younger people became disillusioned with the political establishment, worrying it was reminiscent of Germany's Nazi past. West Berlin became a center for these movements since many left leaning people would take residence in West Berlin to avoid the military draft that was in effect in the rest of West Germany. [2]

These social movements were also becoming popular among the youth of West Germany. The movements included the opposition to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, opposition to consumer culture, liberation for the third world, and criticisms of middle class moral values. Some were embracing communal lifestyles and sexual liberation. [4] All these various social movements and the non-parliamentary organizations that hoped to spearhead them, grouped together as the Außerparlamentarische Opposition. [5] The more leftist wing of the SDP in the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (Socialist German Students Union - SDS) split from the party line and joined the Außerparlamentarische Opposition.

In 1965, Rudi Dutschke was elected to the political council of the West Berlin SDS. [6] With Michael Vester, SDS vice-president and international secretary, Dutschke imported ideas from the American SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and New Left, such as direct action and civil disobedience. [7] Drawing inspiration from Herbert Marcuse, Dutschke sought to build a coalition of marginalized identity groups to be a vanguard for socialism in Europe. Finding that Germany had no population group with revolutionary potential comparable to America's Black Power movement, Dutschke sought to mold Germany's student movements into seeing themselves as an oppressed minority. His plan for accomplishing this was to provoke violent confrontations with government authorities. He wrote in 1965, "Authorized demonstrations must be guided into illegality. Confrontation with state power is essential and must be sought out." [8]

Protests 1966–1968

The West German parliament had proposed to expand government powers in the Emergency Laws, as well as to reform universities. On 22 June 1966, 3,000 students from the Free University of Berlin staged a sit-in to demand involvement in the reform process of universities, included democratic management of colleges. [3] [9]

Echoing Marcuse, Rudi Dutschke considered the politically complacent working classes to be a lost cause when it came to revolutionary agitation. Instead, he hoped to build a coalition between Western intelligentsia and third world communist revolutionaries. To that end, Dutschke organized the event "Vietnam – Analysis of an Example" ( German : Vietnam – Analyse eines Exempels) at the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research with Marcuse as the headline speaker. SDS president Walmot Falkenburg privately requested that Marcuse emphasize solidarity with the Vietnamese on the basis of traditional Marxist concerns with labor and material interests, which would have been a rebuke of Dutschke and his associates in the West Berlin SDS chapter. Unsurprisingly, Marcuse did the opposite in a speech emphasizing "solidarity of sentiment". [10] The event was followed by street demonstrations which led to the arrests of Dutschke, his wife, and 84 others. [11]

In June 1967, during a state visit by the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the SDS organized a protest of his visit, criticizing him as a brutal dictator that should not have been welcome in West Germany. The protest was repressed by police and Iranian agents who beat protesters and resulted in the fatal shooting of Benno Ohnesorg. The police officer involved, Karl-Heinz Kurras, was acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. Protests against police brutality erupted across the country and led the mayor of Berlin and the police chief to resign. In the fall of 1967 students established "Critical Universities"; students occupied classrooms and gave critiques of university structure as well as educating other students in New Left thought. [3] [1] It was revealed in 2009 that Kurras had been a Stasi informant. Prosecutors revisiting the evidence concluded Ohnesorg had been murdered as a premeditated act, but not enough evidence survived to evaluate whether Kurras was acting under official orders. [12]

On the occasion of Ohnesorg's funeral, a conference was held which is most remembered for a debate between Rudi Dutschke and Jürgen Habermas. Dutschke argued that the time was ripe for students to engage in direct action. Habermas, although generally sympathetic to the student movements, criticized Dutschke's plan as action for its own sake without regard for consequences. When Dutschke would not clarify his stance on employing violence, Habermas accused him of Linksfaschismus ("Left fascism"). [13] [14] [15] Later, during the German Autumn of 1977, Habermas said the charge of fascism had been an overreaction. [14]

At a conference in September 1967, Dutschke and Hans-Jürgen Krahl called for the creation of "action centers" at universities to organize "urban guerrillas". [13] The International Vietnam Congress (German : Internationaler Vietnamkongress) was an event that took place in West Berlin on 17 and 18 February 1968 to oppose the Vietnam War. It was organized by Rudi Dutschke and Karl Dietrich Wolff, with an estimated 3,000–4,000 people attending the conference and a total of 12,000–15,000 people involved in the following demonstration. [16] At the congress, Dutschke and his Chilean friend Gaston Salvatore presented their translation of Che Guevara's letter to the Tricontinental Conference, which called for bloody guerrilla warfare against the United States. Holger Meins presented an instructional film on making Molotov cocktails. [13]

Attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke

On 11 April 1968, Rudi Dutschke was shot by the far-right Josef Bachmann. Dutschke was injured but survived the shooting. The attempted assassination of Dutschke would be later regarded as the formal beginning of the West German student movement. [1] Dutschke had previously been labeled an "enemy of the people" in the Axel Springer-owned tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung . Student activists believed the shooting was inspired by critics of the student movement such as Springer's tabloids. Demonstrations and clashes later occurred outside Springer offices in reaction to the shooting. [2] In the aftermath of the shooting, student leaders became more willing to embrace violent tactics in their movements. [5] With Dutschke incapacitated, many in the SDS looked to Hans-Jürgen Krahl for leadership. Krahl however favored theory to direct action. [17]

Emergency Acts protests

In May the West German government considered using the Emergency Acts in response, allowing the Cabinet to suspend parliamentary rule and enact laws in times of crisis. On May 11 protesters gathered in the West German capital Bonn to demand that the laws not be used. The government agreed with protesting labor unions to only use limited concessions, passing the laws on May 30. This agreement dealt a blow to the growing student movement and signaled its demise. [3] The SDS formally dissolved on March 21, 1970. [17]

Aftermath

Terrorism

On 22 May 1967, a fire at the L'Innovation department store in Brussels killed hundreds of people. Kommune 1 issued a leaflet celebrating the fire and calling for more such occurrences to bring parity between Western countries and Vietnam. The leaflet was widely condemened and caused a split between Kommune 1 and the SDS. On 2 April 1968, members of the Außerparlamentarische Opposition, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin committed arson at a department store in Frankfurt to protest the Vietnam war. Although convicted, they were released while pursuing an appeal and went underground when it was denied. They were joined by Ulrike Meinhof in forming the Red Army Faction, which continued to engage in arson and other terrorist acts for more than a decade. Dutschke, Enzenberger, and Nirumand wrote an apologia for terrorism based on Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence and Herbert Marcuse's Repressive Tolerance . [14]

Political consciousness

Despite the failure of the student movement a change in political consciousness lasted throughout the country. Criticisms of West German officials' ties to the old Nazi Party brought the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past) to the forefront of political discussion. Other various left-wing causes also gained popularity and helped solidify a protest culture in Germany. [18]

Those who were involved in the protests of 1968 in West Germany would come to be known as the "1968 generation". Some would develop unique political paths, with some finding roles in government, while others embraced terrorist activities of the Außerparlamentarische Opposition. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Army Faction</span> Far-left wing militant organization from West Germany

The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term faction when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF a terrorist organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spaßguerilla</span> Part of the 1960s German student protest movement

The Spaßguerilla or Spaßgerilja 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 actions such as attacking politicians or the police with custard pies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankfurt School</span> School of social theory and critical philosophy

The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical philosophy. It is associated with the Institute for Social Research founded at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1923. Formed during the Weimar Republic during the European interwar period, the first generation of the Frankfurt School was composed of intellectuals, academics, and political dissidents dissatisfied with the contemporary socio-economic systems of the 1930s; namely, capitalism, fascism, and communism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudi Dutschke</span> German student activist (1940–1979)

Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke was a German sociologist and political activist who, until severely injured by an assassin in 1968, was a leading charismatic figure within the Socialist Students Union (SDS) in West Germany, and that country's broader "extra-parliamentary opposition" (APO).

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Albertz</span> German Protestant theologian and politician (1915–1993)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oskar Negt</span> German philosopher (1934–2024)

Oskar Reinhard Negt was a German philosopher and critical social theorist. He was a professor of sociology in Hanover from 1972 to 2002, regarded as one of Germany's most prominent social scientists.

The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Students' Union or Socialist German Students' 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 the SPD expelled all members of the SDS from the party in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kommune 1</span> Political student commune in late-1960s West Berlin

Kommune 1 or K1 was a 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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Kraushaar</span> German political scientist and historian

Wolfgang Kraushaar is a political scientist and historian. After a residency at the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung from the 1980s until 2015. In 2015 he continued his research at the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture also in Hamburg, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl-Heinz Kurras</span> German police officer (1927–2014)

Karl-Heinz Kurras was a West German police inspector, known primarily for fatally shooting unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg in the back of the head during a demonstration on 2 June 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dieter Kunzelmann</span> German left-wing activist (1939–2018)

Dieter Kunzelmann was a German left-wing activist.

The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as feminism, gay rights, drug policy reforms, Statism, Neo-Marxism and the rejection of traditional family values, social order, and gender roles. The New Left differs from the traditional left in that it tended to acknowledge the struggle for various forms of social justice, whereas previous movements prioritized explicitly economic goals. However, many have used the term "New Left" to describe an evolution, continuation, and revitalization of traditional leftist goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Marcuse</span> German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist (1898–1979)

Herbert Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and then at Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research – what later became known as the Frankfurt School. In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism, and popular culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long march through the institutions</span> Strategy of building skills and counterinstutions

The long march through the institutions is a slogan coined by socialist student activist Rudi Dutschke around 1967 to describe his strategy to create radical change in government by becoming part of it. The phrase "long march" is a reference to the physical Long March of the Chinese communist army.

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 Students' Union, and subsequently became an author specialising in professional education and training.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gretchen Dutschke-Klotz</span> German-American author

Gretchen Dutschke-Klotz is a German-American author and former activist. In West Berlin and West Germany in 1960s she was active with her husband Rudi Dutschke in the Socialist Students Union (SDS) and the Federal Republic's broader "extra-parliamentary opposition" (APO).

Hans-Jürgen Krahl was a West German philosophy student and political activist who came to wider prominence as a participant in the '68 Student Protest movement of which, in the eyes of admirers, he was a leading ideologue. His admirers included Rudi Dutschke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K-Gruppen</span> Term referring to communist organizations in West Germany

K-Gruppen is a term referring to various Marxist organizations that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS). They included the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists (KPD/ML), the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Aufbauorganisation) (KPD-AO), the Communist League (KB) and the Communist League of West Germany (KBW). In 1971 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimated that Germany had around twenty active Maoist groups, with 800 members between them. A few of these groups went on to join the Green Party in the late 1970s, while others eventually formed the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mund, Heike (4 May 2018). "1968: The year of cultural revolution in postwar Germany". dw.com.
  2. 1 2 3 Steigerwald, David; Albarran, Elena; Davidson, John (4 May 2018). "Time It Was: 1968 Around the World". origins.osu.edu. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Medeiros, Susana (16 November 2012). "German students campaign for democracy, 1966–68". nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
  4. 1 2 "Germany in 1968". mtholyoke.edu.
  5. 1 2 Merritt, Richard (1969). "The Student Protest Movement in West Berlin". Comparative Politics. 1 (4): 516–533. doi:10.2307/421493. JSTOR   421493.
  6. ↑ Zündorf, Irmgard. "LeMO Biografie: Rudi Dutschke". www.hdg.de (in German). Lebendiges Museum Online, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  7. ↑ Hilwig, Stuart (2011). Klimke, Martin (ed.). "The SDS, a Transatlantic Alliance, Red and Black Panthers". Diplomatic History. 35 (5): 933–936. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2011.01002.x. ISSN   0145-2096. JSTOR   44254548.
  8. ↑ Slobodian, Quinn (21 March 2012). Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany. Duke University Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN   9780822351849.
  9. ↑ "GHDI – Document".
  10. ↑ Slobodian, Quinn (21 March 2012). Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany. Duke University Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN   9780822351849.
  11. ↑ Ulrich Chaussy (2018), Rudi Dutschke, Munich, Droemer, ISBN   978-3-426-27752-2, pp. 181-213.
  12. ↑ "Police Covered Up Truth Behind Infamous Student Shooting". Spiegel Online International. spiegel.de. 23 January 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 De Groot, Gerard J. (25 September 2014). Student Protest: the Sixties and After. Taylor & Francis. pp. 104–106. ISBN   9781317880493.
  14. 1 2 3 Gerhardt, Christina (12 July 2018). Screening the Red Army Faction. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 91–97. ISBN   9781501336690.
  15. ↑ Berman, Russell A. "From 'Left-Fascism' to Campus Anti-Semitism: Radicalism as Reaction" (PDF). Democratiya. Summer 2008: 14–30.
  16. ↑ Philipp Gassert: Antiamerikanismus und Antiimperialismus um 1968:Proteste gegen die US-Außenpolitik. In: Gerrit Dworok und Christoph Weißmann (Hrsg.): 1968 und die 68er. Ereignisse, Wirkungen und Kontroversen in der Bundesrepublik. Böhlau, Wien/Köln/Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21016-8, S. 153–170, hier S. 166 (retrieved via De Gruyter Online).
  17. 1 2 Massimiliano Tomba (14 April 2018). "Hans-Jürgen Krahl: New Emancipative Desires (1943–1970)". Anti-authoritarian Movements in Late Capitalist Society. Viewpoint Magazine. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  18. ↑ Dilley, Ana (16 July 2019). "Explained: What sparked the protest culture of modern Germany?". thelocal.de.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.