1968 - THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN GERMAN AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Eleanor Voak (OHS)

Using the term cultural revolution for what happened in Germany in 1968 requires some qualification. First, it needs to be pointed out that there is no similarity between the German cultural revolution of 1968 and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The latter was a successful (if catastrophic) attempt to restructure society radically from the top, using violent means where necessary in order to create a supposed egalitarian ideal. The former originated in an increasingly selfconfident demand by mainly the younger generation, from the bottom-up (and initially only by a small contingent of the student population), for fundamental change. Second, this revolution did not occur in a single year, 1968, but emerged over a number of years from the early 1960s to the early 1970s though it did escalate in 1968. Finally, while it is often called a revolution, there is a significant question mark as to whether it should be called a ‘Revolution’ or a ‘Kulturrevolte’.

At the very root of this revolution was the rejection of authority and authoritarianism, and the realisation that the problems of Naziism had been left largely unresolved after the Second World War. Often leading figures of Naziism had re-emerged as leading figures in all sectors of the new German republic, such as the judiciary, cultural and educational institutions escaping the Allies’ attempts of denazification. Furthermore, Germany’s moral code after the war had remained traditional, education continued to be based on authoritarian principles and universities expected respect rather than showing any willingness to embrace change.

1968 saw the culmination of protests against the involvement of the USA in the Vietnam War. Over 12 000 people marched through Berlin on 18 February to the Platz vor der Deutschen Oper. It was here that the assassination of the student Benno Ohnesorg in June 1967 by a Stasi informer during a demonstration against the visit of the Shah Reza Pahlavi to Berlin and his dictatorial regime had sparked off student revolts. These protest against the Vietnam War provided further fuel for the student revolts.

https://srv.deutschlandradio.de/media/thumbs/b/ bd6b75968e4e97e6451ae6ef6f583895v1_max_635x357_ b3535db83dc50e27c1bb1392364c95a2.jpg?key=402c87

Rudi Dutschke, the charismatic leader of the Sozialistischen Deutschen Studentenbund, opened the International Vietnam Congress in the Technischen Universität on 17 February 1968;. Dutschke himself barely escaped an assassination attempt by the anticommunist Josef Bachmann on 11 April 1968, in fact, he eventually died of the consequences of this attempt in 1979. This led to a further escalation. Moreover, the discussion and final passing of the Notstandsgesätze (emergency laws meant to give greater powers to the federal government in the case of Germany being, for instance, attacked) caused civil unrest, and the big coalition between the SPD and CDU was targeted with slogans such as ‘SPD and CDU: Lasst das Grundgesetz in Ruh’ (SPD and CDU leave our constitution alone), and a so-called Auβerparlamentarische Opposition (opposition outside parliament) formed. Famous writers like Heinrich Böll sympathised with the protests of the students and argued for a democratisation of the university system in Germany. This he hoped would also facilitate political change. Of course, it would be wrong to see the events in Germany in isolation. France saw its own student protests, the liberalisation of Czechoslovakia in the Prager Frühling ended in Communist supression and the anti-war movement in America gathered national significance.

While many of the utopian ideas of the 1968 movement were never realised and a radical change of the political structures did not happen, German democracy emerged from the 1968s more liberal and more open than before. Authoritarian trends in bringing up children were reigned in and corporal punishment was banned in school and at home. Unnecessary hierarchies were removed, with universities being reformed, and the ‘der Muff von 1000 Jahren’ (the mould from a thousand years) ‘unter den Talaren’ (under the academic dress) started being cleared out.

https://app.handelsblatt.com/images/image/20556088/2format4.jpg

Equal rights for women were hugely advanced, clearly expressed in slogans such as ‘Ohne Frauen keine Revolution’ (no revolution without women) and the proportion of women studying at university started to grow. The reformation of abortion law in Germany also finds its beginnings in this period. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1969. The anti-nuclear as well as the peace and the green movement find their origin in this period, leading to Joschka Fischer, one of the 1968 activists, becoming the first green minister of a Bundesland and the Greens moving into their first government coalition in 1988.

https://www.hdg.de/lemo/img/galeriebilder/biografien/fischerjoschka_foto_LEMO-F-4-200_bbst.jpg

Among the many positive effects of the 1968 cultural revolution, its darker offspring often remains unmentioned. A radical offshoot of the student protests started to carry out terror attacks under the name

of RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) or Baader-Meinhoff Gruppe (named after its most prominent leaders). These led to the cruel assassination of several important public figures in Germany. Eventually caught and imprisoned, several of the main leaders of this group such as Michael Baader and Gudrun Esslin committed suicide in 1977.

To return to the question from my introduction as to whether 1968 should be called a Kulturrevolution or Kulturrevolte, it is therefore probably more accurate to speak of a Kulturrevoltion than a Kulturrevolte. While this cultural revolution did remain below the level of a political revolution, it signified and initiated a deep social and cultural change which went hand in hand with increasing economic prosperity. Anon. ‘Helden? Wahrheit und Mythos von 1968 in Augsburger Allgemeine (23/03/2018)

Accessed on 18/04/2021 https://www.augsburgerallgemeine.de/kultur/Journal/Helden-Wahrheit-undMythos-von-1968-id50722476.html

Jens Kastner, ‘Der andere Blick auf ’68 - Die 1968erJahre als gobale Kulturrevolution, deutschlandfunk de (03.06.2018)

Accessed on 17/04/2021 https://www. deutschlandfunk.de/der-andere-blick-auf-68-die1968er-jahre-als-globale.1184.de.html?dram:article_ id=415965

Sven Felix Kellerhoff, ‘Nur eine Kulturrevolte, keine Revolution’ in WELT (11/08/2018)

Accessed on 19/04/2021 https://www.welt.de/ geschichte/article180948084/Mythos-1968-Nur-eineKulturrevolte-keine-Revolution.html

Hubert Kleinert, ‘Mythos 1968’ Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 19.03.08

Accessed on 17/04/2021 https://www.bpb. de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/68erbewegung/52034/mythos-1968

Wolfgang Kraushaar ‘1968: Ein Jahr verändert die Gesellschaft’ 08/05/2018 on deutschland.de

Accessed on 17/04/2021 https://www.deutschland.de/ de/topic/politik/1968-in-deutschland-ausloeser-undfolgen-der-protestbewegung

Detlef Siegfried, ‘1968’ - eine Kulturrevolution?’ in: Sozial. Geschichte Online 2 (2010), 12-36.

Accessed on 20/04/2021 https://duepublico2.unidue.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_ derivate_00024040/03_siegfried_1968.pdf