STUDENT RADICALIZATION IN GERMANY
By Gisela Mandel
To understand the West German and West Berlin events of recent weeks as well as the progressive radicalization of students leading to the June 2 death of 26year-old literature student Benno Ohnesorg, it is necessary to examine the development of a student group, the Sozialistischer Deutsche Studentenbund [SDS -- Socialist German Student Federation].
In 1959, at the infamous Godesberg party congress of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands [SPD -- Social Democratic party] where Marx was finally and definitively cast aside and Lasalle enthroned in his place, the long simmering ideological conflict between the SPD and its student organization, the SDS, broke out into the open.
Standpoint, the West Berlin organ of SDS, which till then had been financed by SPD, published as the title page of its last issue six pictures of Marx gradually disappearing into mist. The SPD cut off its student organization financially and formulated an “incompatibility declaration": anyone who chose to remain a member of SDS would be automatically expelled from SPD. The SPD concluded its side of the fight with the words: "We'll show them who is boss in Germany."
In place of the SDS, for the few students who stayed with the SPD, the party formed the Sozialdemokratischer Hochschulbund [SHB -- Social Democratic University Federation]. The new student organization first came to public attention a year ago when it came into ideological conflict with the ever rightward moving SPD and the SHB moved politically closer to the SDS. But the majority of students stayed in the SDS. In 1960, it constituted a political student group of approximately one thousand members with neither financial support nor any connection to a political party.
As early as 1961, two chief tendencies developed within SDS. One, dominant in the Frankfurt national leadership, favored integration into existing workingclass movements by way of conducting workers' education in the Industrie- Gewerkschaft Metall ([IG-Metall -- Metal Workers Union], at that time the furthest left union. The other, an extreme leftwing tendency, attempted to form a new party in Berlin on May 1, 1962, which was to bear the traditional name Unabhaengige Socialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands CUSPD -- Independent Social Democratic party]. But this party never got beyond the founding convention at which, for the first time in years the Internationale was sung by several hundred people.
The organizationally inexperienced
leaders of this second tendency were un-
able to cope with the extraordinary dif-
ficulties of attacks on the one hand by
the West Berlin Kommunnistischen Partei
{Communist party] -- a group of old Con-
munists artificially sustained by the
German Democratic Republic [GDR] -- and,
on the other, by the anticommunist popu-
lation of West Berlin. Soon demoralized,
they withdrew from political life and
left the Berlin arena to a group of young
comrades who confined their work wholly
to the university and who attempted to
recruit students by a variety of activ-
ities ranging from sponsorship of study
groups on Marxist economics, psychology,
and Marxism, to holding jazz concerts.
By 1964 the SDS had become the
strongest political student group at the
Berlin university and won the student-
government elections. The first, "Frank-
furt," tendency had won over the most con-
scious elements in Berlin also, and the
political work of the SDS became divided
into two more or less separate parts.
One group worked as teachers in
trade-union education programs. It was,
and still is, active in developing courses
for workers' education, conducting weekly
schools for shop stewards and weekend
courses for members of IG-Metall and
Industrie-Gewerkschaft Chemie [IG-Chemie --
Chemical Workers Union].
A large number, above all of the
younger comrades, were not satisfied with
this kind of work. They tried to work ina
much more dangerous sphere -- for West
Germany -- establishing closer relations
with the GDR. It was not so much a ques-
tion of importing the Stalinist GDR ide-
ology into West Germany, but rather of
slowly tearing down the hysterical anti-
communism within the university and in
parts of the West German petty bourgeoisie.
in seminars and at public meetings they
tried to explain the economic background
of the Berlin wall, they distributed leaf-
lets -- which were confiscated -- giving
a positive impression of the GDR and they
instituted seminars in cooperation with
the GDR's Freie Deutsche Jugend [Free Ger-
man Youth].
Soon, however, such activities were
respectable enough to be taken over by
other youth organizations, above all by
the Christian youth, and the SDS comrades
had to look around for other political
activities.
The "economic miracle" was in full
bloom on May 1, 1964, when, at the mass
demonstration traditionally addressed by
the president of the Federal Republic, some workers beat up several comrades as "disrupters." Demoralized, the SDSers withdrew into theory; they read Freud, Marcuse and Fanon, and small groups in Munich and Berlin came to the conclusion that the working class doesn't deserve liberation and one must withdraw to the study of underdeveloped countries and the liberation of their peoples, or to the emancipation of students. Both themes were intensively pursued by two groups in the Munich and Berlin SDS and led to widespread discussions within SDS and in the West German daily press.
The imperialist escalation in Vietnam and the danger that the Bonn parlia-~ ment would pass the “emergency laws" [denying constitutional rights under certain conditions], led to the consolidation of the entire SDS in cooperation with other student groups including the students of the liberal party [Free Demokratische Partei -- Free Democratic party -- FDP] and the rebellious students of the SPD behind extensive actions.
Opposition to the passage of the "emergency laws" is shared today by large sections of the West German population. In the autumn of 1966 the SDS planned a mass demonstration to take place in Frankfurt and to be preceded by a conference of educational workshops. During the preparations for this action -- if not earlier -- it became clear how untenable was the position of a left-wing student group whose activities are restricted by its charter to academic life and which is not associated with a political party.
Through connections with IG-Metall, SDS was able to prepare and carry out these actions, and 16,000 participated in the anti-emergency-law demonstration in Frankfurt. In a more hidden way, the IG- Metall placed a part of its apparatus at SDS's disposal for a large Vietnam demonstration in which about 6,000 people participated.
The deepest radicalization of student youth through SDS took place in West Berlin. It would lead far afield to investigate here the sociological background of student radicalization, above all at mass universities like the Free University in Berlin -- which was no exception.
Such a radicalization assumes sharpest form when it is countered in an authoritarian fashion. The initial unrest, which later leads through politically con~ scious, often small groups, to radicalization of great masses of youth, is certainly connected with dissatisfaction with existing conditions felt by those who are so condescendingly called "young people." But that still does not explain why, of all German universities, it was precisely the Free University of Berlin that became a field of battle between students and authorities unlike anything in West Germany itself. One can indicate three reasons: . oy
(1) Since August 13, 1961, politically interested students from all over Germany have come to West Berlin, where the "unsolved problem" of Germany led to the Berlin wall, and they came to a university where "political science" has become one of the most important departments (917 students).
(2) The constitutional structure of the Free University deviates from the traditional nonpolitical model of the German university in granting student participation in university government. Conflicts between students and authorities appear earlier and more sharply.
(4) As a consequence of the "island" position of the city, and because of the fear of "the nearness of communism," which has been cultivated for years, especially by the press, every political action from the left is met by especially sharp measures driving students into defensive actions and educating them politically. Small actions of small SDS groups have met with sharp countermeasures.
The London Observer declared: “Leftwing student groups refer to the university authorities as if the dictatorship had returned, and professors talk as if student criticism was already a form of treason."
On December 18, 1964, several hundred students assembled before the Schoeneberg City Hall in a demonstration against the Berlin guest Moise Tshombe under the slogan, "“Lumumba-Murderer." The reaction was limited to complaints and false accusations in Axel Springer's yellow press, the largest newspaper publisher in West Germany, that the demonstrations were controlled from the GDR.
On May 7, 1965, following the model of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, 600 students of the Free University demonstrated against the banning from the university of Erich Kuby, a left-liberal journalist who had expressed doubt about the freedom of the Free University. This demonstration, which extended in waves for several weeks, led to the demand for the rector's resignation and for a strike by the political science students.
February 5, 1966, the first great SDS-led demonstration against the war in Vietnam took place under the slogan: “Amis {Yankees] out of Vietnam." Six hundred demonstrators marched through the city center. When several students attempted to lower the flag in front of America House to half-mast, the police attacked with clubs for the first time.
June 22, 1966, 3,000 students, again following an American model, participated in a sit-in. They protested the refusal of the Academic Senate to allow students to continue to use university rooms for political activities.
The SDS instituted a division of labor. Organization of purely student actions within the university was left up to those comrades who were playing a leading role in the student government. The political demonstrations outside the university were conducted by SDS itself.
November 28, 1966, 1,500 students joined sympathetic nonstudents in a demonstration against the SPD-Christian Democrat coalition under the slogan "Who will free us? A new workers party."
December 10, 1966, 1,200 students participated in an unauthorized Vietnam demonstration on the Kurfuerstendamn, Berlin's main street. The police arrested 74 participants.
December 17, 1966, 200 SDSers staged a "promenade" demonstration on the Kurfuerstendamm under the slogan: "Keep the pot boiling." They distributed Christmas packages containing rags and tricks bearing political slogans. The rush-hour traffic was jammed by curious onlookers, and the police arrested 85 people, almost none of whom had anything to do with the action. The justification of the Berlin senate: "Berlin doesn't need any provos."
January 28, 1967, 1,600 students marched on the Kurfuerstendamm with police authorization and under police protection, to protest "police arbitrariness" and the imprisonment of their comrades during previous actions.
April 5, 1967, the police jailed eleven members of the SDS because, in the opinion of the police, "they had planned attacks on the life and health of U.S. Vice-President Humphrey" with stink bombs and pudding.
April 6, 1967, 2,500 students demonstrated in front of the Charlottenburg Castle and the skyscraper occupied by the Springer press against Hubert Humphrey's visit to Berlin and U.S.-Vietnam policy. They chanted: "Vice-killer." The police arrested 24 demonstrators.
Friction grew ever greater, political antagonisms ever clearer and the temper of the Berlin government ever shorter. The Springer press wrote: "Our patience is exhausted," and professors declared students "are violating the moral principles of Western civilization."
For political students, the struggle for the right to demonstrate on political questions, and above all, on Vietnam, was finally a struggle for university reform. After SDS had mobilized the student body on Vietnam, it decided, at least in Berlin, to direct the energy so released toward university policy: "The most important battlefield for us at this time is the university." The SHB, the LSD [Liberaler Studentenbund Deutschlands -- Liberal Student Federation of Germany, student group of the FDP], the German-Israel Study Group, and the student group of the Humanist Union, a left-liberal, pacifist organization, rallied behind the basic student demands formulated by SDS. The demands were the following:
(1) Guarantees of continued student participation in governing the university and unrestricted right of political activ-— ity for students.
(2) An end of the restriction on the number of semesters within which a student must complete his work at the university.
(3) Scholarships for all students in order to guarantee that students and not their parents, will be able to choose their courses of study.
The professors were naturally unwilling to give up their power, and the students' program remained merely a program. The student functionaries learning that legal rights didn't help, decided to call for a student strike at the beginning of this summer semester. On April 19, the day of Konrad Adenauer's death, 2,000 students of the Free University for the first time challenged the authority of their rector inside the university.
On that day, the Academic Senate was considering disciplinary measures against the students who had been arrested on April 6 at the anti-Humphrey demonstration. On the floor below, 2,000 students sat in in protest. The guest speaker at the sit-in was the German-American writer Reinhard Lettau, who said: "Everyone in the world, except in West Berlin, knows that the press of this city is servile and a Slave to the police." Since then, he has been deported from West Berlin as an alien.
The rector, in his younger years a member of the Communist party and, several years earlier, the teacher of a number of older SDSers in seminars on Marxism, ordered the students to clear the university. The students replied with boos and, for the first time in the history of the Free University, the rector called the police, commenting, "All hell's broken loose." To become master of this hell, the Academic Senate the following day adopted an emergency program with the following points:
(1) Consistent enforcement of disciplinary measures against the student ringleaders and barring from university
grounds nonmembers of the university community.
(2) State approved proceeding of the university against political student groups and the student government.
(3) Suspension of the university constitution and appointment of a state commissioner.
As an immediate example, five students, including the president of the student government, had disciplinary proceedings instituted against them and their scholarships cancelled.
The students were discouraged by their failure within the university, but they were not at all demoralized. They were awaiting the visit of the Shah of Iran, who, returning from Czechoslovakia, was to make a trip through West Germany to West Berlin.
In preparation for the visit of the Shah, SDS conducted an extensive information campaign on conditions in Iran, the failure of land reform, and, above all, the regime's treatment of its political opponents. A large number of Iranian students at the Free University who were in close contact with SDS participated in this campaign.
After an educational meeting the night before the Shah's arrival in Berlin, several hundred students marched to a demonstration before the Czechoslovakian military mission to protest the hearty welcome the Shah had received in Czechoslovakia. On the way to the mission they chanted: "Springer, Novotny and Shah -now everything is clear."
On the same evening, 200 secret police, armed with steel rods, were flown directly from Iran to Berlin, in order to act against any demonstration.
On the afternoon of June 2, the Shah visited the Berlin city hall. Spectators, pro-Shah demonstrators, and anti- Shah demonstrators gathered in front of the city hall. The "pro" demonstrators were brought to the city hall by special buses and were armed with steel rods. Iranian students recognized several secret policemen among them. The "pro" demonstrators were stationed inside the police barriers, and after the guests entered the city hall, they began to tear down placards and swing wildly with steel rods and clubs among the "anti" demonstrators. The police did not intervene. A nonparticipant reported: "They had heavy clubs and arm-length leather thongs, and they went to work on the people with them."
The same evening, the Shah visited the Opera on Bismarck street. Mozart's Magic Flute was being performed. The Berlin senate had bought up all the seats. Demonstrators greeted the official guests with the cry, "lackeys," and the Shah with "murderer." As soon as the state guests had entered the opera house, the police were ordered into action. The police chief, who gave the order, explained the tactic: "Let's say the demonstrators are a liver sausage, right, then you have to squash it in the middle so the ends will bust open."
The police began to strike arbitrarily at helpless spectators and demonstrators who were wedged together behind the barriers and could not escape; they dragged several out in front of the barriers and beat them with clubs and kicked them before the eyes of hundreds of spectators. Then the first tomatoes, handfuls of sand, and several stones began to fly, and a policeman was wounded in the head.
Now, the police began to exercise "police justice." They grabbed demonstrators indiscriminantly from behind the barriers -- three or four policemen for each demonstrator -~- and dragged them to a backyard on a side street, where they beat them senseless, then let them stand up and run a short distance to a wall, where they seized them again and beat them some more. Two shots were heard in the yard, the despairing cry of a fatally wounded comrade, "please, don't shoot," and the reproachful cry of a policeman: "Man, are you crazy? You might have hit one of us."
Two and a half hours later, Comrade Ohnesorg died from a bullet wound in the neck.
His funeral became a demonstration of 20,000 people.
The SDS of the entire Federal Republic responded accordingly. In a declaration the national committee stated:
"The events in Berlin have demonstrated both the power and the impotence of the oppositional and student movements in the Federal Republic and West Berlin. They have shown the impotence of students when they encounter the organized violence of the system. The political strength of the students was born and was consolidated in the formulation of the protest against the aggressive action of the Berlin authorities. But the protest will not succeed until the politically engaged students, reflecting on the reasons for their defeat, carry their criticism beyond the sphere of the university.
"The struggle between the students on one side and the university and state bureaucracy on the other, is a result of the sharpening of the structural crisis of the university, of the consolidation of authoritarian positions of political power in the Federal Republic and West Berlin, and of international upheavals...The police
and psychological pressure to which the students are being subjected threatens all social and political groups which do not unresistingly conform to the demands and political compulsions of the capitalist system....
"The protests of the students will remain impotent until they succeed in gaining support in society at large and can contest the power positions of the
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