Student Resistance by Boren Mark Edelman

Author:Boren, Mark Edelman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

German Student Radicalism: Assassination or Suicide?

The massive Socialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, or SDS, continued to grow in membership after the murder of student Benno Ohnesorg in 1967. Encouraged by an international climate fostering student resistance, the SDS began a powerful campaign of agitating at all major universities throughout West Germany.13 The most visible leader of the German student movement, Rudi Dutschke, was an extremely vocal socialist who loudly criticized the government and the “apoliticality” of the general public. “Red Rudi” spearheaded student demonstrations against the capitalist authoritarian state in April 1968 that spontaneously gave way to general student rioting in several major cities. Violent police suppression of the students only incited more students to join the ranks, and for close to a week hundreds of students battled against police in a number of cities. Three students died in the conflicts. “Red Rudi” was another victim of the violence, though he did not die; during the uprisings a mentally unbalanced painter stalked and shot the student leader. Wounded but not dead, Dutschke was nevertheless sidelined, and the SDS lost its leader.

The SDS blamed the government and the media for the assassination attempt, vocally attacking them both. The campaign of destruction waged against Springer offices and property increased. And student support for the SDS also rose following the attack on Dutschke, but the students made the mistake of isolating themselves from the general public and alienating government officials through their untempered vitriol. Like their counterparts in Paris, the German students sought an alliance with labor and attempted to transform their wild social power to political power. The West German trade unions, however, refused to answer the call.

Blocked in the attempt to publicly widen the political war and unable to confront police on the streets effectively, the students found themselves confined to their campuses; radical students turned their anger on their own institutions, disrupting lectures, defacing property, and occupying buildings. Frustrated students occupied Frankfurt University and renamed it the Karl Marx University; the new institution existed for almost three days before police overran it. The students continued to agitate, but the SDS was quickly becoming marginal. No bond was forged with labor, the general public was tired of the student disturbances, and the government maintained a zero-tolerance policy in handling student uprisings. With no place to go, SDS members began turning on themselves, and factional infighting tore the organization apart from within. The return of de Gaulle to power in June, followed shortly after by Soviet tanks ending the Prague Spring in August, added to the general feelings of defeat among West German student agitators. By the end of summer the end of the German student resistance movement was in sight.

The radical elements of the studentry did not, however, retire. During the rapid decline of the German student movement in 1968 and 1969, and for years afterward, small militant terrorist groups—which included students among their members—desperately turned to violence to effect change. The Baader-Meinhof Gang, hoping that their acts of terrorism would incite the general public to revolt against the government, began a seven-year arson campaign.

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