Thesis: The student movements that took place in the sixties in Germany and America had some similar origins and goals, but each also used unique methods to produce change in their societies

Courtney Novotny

Dr. Esa

German 1125

15 October 2004

Students of the Sixties: A Fight for Change

The sixties were a time of great civil unrest in Germany and America - students found that their societies did not measure up to their ideals of peace and freedom. Many did their best to change those aspects that they found to be flawed using various methods, both peaceful and nonviolent. Several of these aspects were common to both Germany and America, and students from both nation-states found a universality in their objectives. The student movements that took place in the sixties in Germany and America had similar origins and goals, but each had unique situations that they wanted to change as well.

The student movements of both nation-states were the products of many shared factors. The students involved in the movements were baby boomers, children of those who had survived the Great Depression and World War II. Because millions of men were forced to leave their homes, jobs, and families in order to fight in the war, women became responsible for providing for their families, taking jobs in order to do this. Because this was untraditional, the government attempted to return women to their places as wives and mothers after the war (Mabry). They also promoted the growth of families with many children (Mabry). Suddenly, with government encouragement, children became the most important aspect of family life, and they were even spoiled and showered with money (Mabry). According to Wikipedia, the children had never known hunger or want, so they did not share their parents’ values of “hard work, frugality, conformity, and self-discipline,” which were formed in the hard times of their childhoods (The Sixties). Instead, the baby boomers came to value their own liberty and individuality, and questioned those who tried to curb it (The Sixties). This struggle to find personal identity became a major part of the movement. For American students, the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties revealed the hypocrisy of their democratic society, and incited them to try to rectify its problems (Mabry). Other forces behind the movements were the resentment of authoritarian institutions, particularly universities, opposition to the Vietnam War, and disgust at society’s highly materialistic values (Hoffmeister 163). Specifically in Germany, students believed that the educational system, the press, and the government needed to be purged of all remaining Nazis (Esa). These factors were enough to incite the students to attempt to change the injustices they found in their world.

Students in Germany and America had common concerns that they addressed similarly, and they also dealt with matters unique to each nation-state. One of the most important issues was the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. Both Americans and Germans felt that the United States military had no place in Vietnam, where thousands of soldiers and civilians were dying (Hoffmeister 163). This image was reinforced daily through the television, which portrayed images of the war that outraged many (The Sixties). American students opposed the draft, which required young Americans to fight in a war which they did not support morally (Peskin). They burned their draft cards (which was not technically illegal) and gathered in nonviolent demonstrations, often shouting the now-famous slogan, “Hell no, we won’t go” (Peskin). For example, 300,000 students gathered in New York City and 100,000 in Washington, D.C. in 1967 in order to voice their opposition to the war (Mabry). There were also 221 large-scale demonstrations on the campuses of more than one hundred American universities in the first half of 1968 alone (Mabry). Germans also held protests and rallies that attempted to inform people of the horrifying truths of the war, including many in Berlin (Hoffmeister 163). Another problem was the structure of the university system. They were massively overcrowded because of the influx of baby boomers (Esa). In Germany, students were dissatisfied with the structure of classes and their lack of power in decision-making (Esa). Lectures were given, with hundreds of students in each class, but the students really wanted smaller, more personal group discussions to foster individual thought and learning (Esa). In America, political freedom was practically nonexistent at universities (The Sixties). In both nation-states, students held demonstrations, sit-ins, and rallies in order to try to change this system, including those at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and Berlin and Munich in 1968 (Hoffmeister 163). Many German and American students also wanted to change their capitalistic societies into Marxist societies where the working class would not be exploited (Esa). The American student organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a major force in the student movement, and they focused their efforts on both the war and the educational system (Peskin). They effectively used teach-ins, where members educated fellow students about the horrors of the war (Peskin). Another organization that went by the name SDS (but was unaffiliated with the American organization) was the Socialist German Student Organization (Esa). It was once affiliated with the SPD as its student division, but the SPD detached itself from the SDS when the SDS began campaigning against the use of nuclear weapons (Huffman). Members also worked to stop the war in Vietnam by using demonstrations to make their position known (Rudi Dutschke). Later in the movement when students realized that their nonviolent protests were not accomplishing much, some resorted to violence (Peskin). A faction within the American SDS called the Weathermen seceded from the group in order to attempt to accomplish their goals in a more militant manner (Peskin). Another group that used physical force was the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a violent German organization which wanted to reform the German government (Hoffmeister 175). The Weathermen and the Baader-Meinhof Gang attacked symbols of political importance, such as banks, military targets, and the German Parliament (Esa). In 1977, the Baader-Meinhof Gang even kidnapped and killed Hanns Martin Schleyer, the leader of an employer association, to coerce the West German government to meet its demands (Esa). But the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Weathermen, along with other militant factions in Germany and America, were also unsuccessful in producing the radical change they wanted.

The student movements produced some modification of the societies that were considered so appalling. According to Wikipedia, President Nixon ensured that American forces withdrew from Vietnam and that the draft was removed in order to pacify the students (The Sixties). Students were also allowed more political freedom on college campuses in America (The Sixties). Education reforms were put into place in Germany in order to restructure the university system to be less authoritarian (Hoffmeister 171). However, both German and American students were unsuccessful in transforming their political systems into reflections of Marxist ideals. The changes they did contribute helped save the lives of countless American soldiers and allowed more freedom to college students of both countries, so their efforts can be considered admirable by all who were affected by them.

Works Cited

Esa, Mohamed. Lecture. McDaniel College, Westminster, MD. 13 Oct. 2004.

Huffman, Richard. Baader-Meinhof: Terms - SDS. 1 Jan. 2003. This is Baader-Meinhof.
24 Oct. 2004 <http://www.baader-meinhof.com/terminology/terms/sds.html>.

Hoffmeister, Gerhart, and Frederic C. Tubach. Germany: 2000 Years. Vol. III. New York: Continuum, 1992.

Mabry, Donald J. “Student Rebellion in the Sixties”. 2001. The Historical Text Archive. 14 Oct. 2004 <http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=313>.

Peskin, Jennifer. “The Student Movement: Not Just a Voice for Change, But a Shout Heard Across America”. Sept. 2000. The Odyssey. 13 Oct. 2004 <http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey/semester2/040401/040401jenteach.html>.

Rudi Dutschke - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 22 Sept. 2004. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 24 Oct. 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudi_Dutschke>.

The Sixties - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 23 Sept. 2004. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Oct. 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties>.