The Heavens Might Crack by Jason Sokol

Author:Jason Sokol
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2018-03-20T04:00:00+00:00

The murder of Martin Luther King inspired a copycat assassination attempt in West Berlin, where student activist Rudi Dutschke was shot on April 11. Students staged protests throughout West Germany. At many such marches, like the one in Stuttgart on April 14 (Easter Sunday), participants both honored King and railed against the conservative publisher Axel Springer.

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On April 15, Easter Monday, 5,000 West Berliners gathered peacefully at a rally in honor of Dutschke. But violence erupted in other cities. Hamburg police set up “fortress-like defenses” at a Springer plant where more than 1,000 demonstrators massed outside the barbed-wire barriers. A Springer delivery truck barreled into one of the protesters and badly injured him. In Frankfurt, 2,000 students clashed with mounted police officers. The troops beat the protesters with rubber truncheons. Police clubbed more demonstrators in Hanover. And in Munich, students staged a sit-down strike on the streets leading from the Springer plant. The revolutionary year of 1968 was still young, yet the tumult of April—the political shootings in Memphis and Berlin, the protests from Munich to Frankfurt, and the riots in Washington and Chicago—acted as a sign of things to come.69

Londoners, situated between Germany and the United States both geographically and politically, felt the impact of unrest in both countries. On April 15, anti-Springer demonstrations competed with memorials to Martin Luther King. The day’s largest gathering was an antiwar protest organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which drew some 22,000 people. They marched through London with placards proclaiming, “WE DEMAND AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL FROM VIETNAM.” While the larger peace protest remained nonviolent, four hundred demonstrators broke off from the march and headed to the West German embassy in Belgrave Square. They scuffled with the police and presented a petition expressing solidarity with German students. One thousand protesters also marched on London’s Daily Mirror building, which housed Axel Springer’s British offices. Police officers formed a cordon around the building as the students tried to force their way through, chanting “Axel Springer Out!” and “Rudi Dutschke!” In the late afternoon, the throng of nonviolent protesters streamed into Trafalgar Square for a final rally.70

A day that began in peaceful marching and transitioned to angry protests would end in somber reflection. As the sun set, many of the disarmament marchers continued to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Martin Luther King had preached less than four years prior. Thousands of Britons gathered on the steps of the church and spilled out onto the street to hear tributes to King. Speakers reflected on King’s life and performers led the crowds in song. On that Easter Monday in London, all of the global crosscurrents converged: a large demonstration opposing the Vietnam War, a raging protest against Axel Springer, and an outpouring of grief for the worldwide leader of nonviolence, Martin Luther King.71

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