As the most articulate spokesman of the left wing in SDS, Rudi Dutschke became known all over Europe. His picture began appearing on the front pages of mass-circulation magazines and newspapers, as well as left-wing political journals of all types. The reactionary Springer press, which publishes 70 percent of the mass-circulation newspapers in Germany and has been a target of many SDS demonstrations, mounted a red-baiting campaign against SDS and Dutschke in particular.
The atmosphere that developed in West Berlin around the time of the Vietnam conference weekend in February provides a good example of the kind of hate campaign that was built up against SDS, with the assistance of the Social Democratic party city fathers.
While the Springer press ranted about violent, destructive minorities, the neo-Nazi paper, National and Soldaten Zeitung [National and Soldiers’ Journal], ran a banner headline: "Stop Dutschke's Red Terror!"
The Social Democratic West Berlin government organized a counterdemonstra-— tion, supported by the trade unions, ostensibly to prove that Berliners are for "freedom and peace" and against violence in the streets. More than twenty bystanders were beaten up by goon squads at the official demonstration, and frequent cries of "Send them (SDS) to the gas chamber!" were heard in the Berlin streets. To foster such a lynch campaign places heavy responsibility on the West Berlin government for creating an atmosphere conducive to the attempt on Rudi's life.
He had been threatened many times in recent months. He moved from one room to another every month or two and let few people know his address.
While I was in Berlin, Rudi agreed to give me an interview to be published
in the Young Socialist* and arranged for
me to meet him at his apartment at 7:00 p.m.
When I arrived, his American wife Gretchen,
and his five-week-old son Hosea Che, and
several friends were also waiting for him
to return -- with visible anxiety. He had
gone out an hour earlier and planned to
return in a few minutes.
As we waited until 8:00, then 9:00,
and then 10:00, the concern grew.
Gretchen recounted several recent
incidents of threatening notes in their
mailbox and smoke bombs left on their
stairway.
Then at 10:30 Rudi returned, un-
harmed but tired, after getting caught in
a series of urgent meetings at the SDS
headquarters.
We talked for more than three
hours, discussing everything from German
Social Democracy to Cuba, from prospects
for the world socialist revolution to the
history of the Third International. He
spoke slowly but clearly and humorously,
in English, with Gretchen occasionally
providing translations for such terms as
"gross national product."
When we finished at about 2:00 a.n.,
they insisted I sleep on an extra mattress
in their one-room apartment rather than
leave at that late hour. The next morning
Rudi was up and off at 8:30 in order to
fly to Amsterdam to speak there at an anti-
war rally.
As a person, Rudi exudes genuine
warmth and concern for individuals, cou-
pled with a searching intelligence and
ready sense of humor. There is a dynamism
about him that everyone finds attractive.
His political evolution in recent
months has been quite striking, moving
from a position reflecting Herbert Mar-
cuse's disdain for the working class as
a force for social change to a more near-~
ly Marxist understanding of the class
nature of society and the necessity of
fighting for a socialist transformation
of the capitalist countries.
In a poll taken last February in
West Germany, 25 percent of German youth
said they agreed with, and approved of,
Rudi Dutschke. Such statistics have struck
well-founded fear into the hearts of West
Germany's rulers, who now cry out hypo-
critically against the gunman whose bul-
lets they helped direct at Rudi Dutschke.
* The monthly of the American Young So-
cialist Alliance. The interview is sched-
uled for the May issue.
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