Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The West German “new left” (or extraparlia-mentary movement) refers generally to a broad movement, coming to prominence in the 1960s, constituted primarily of younger activists who sought to realize freedom and democracy. The movement was very much part of the larger protest of the period, but also bore distinct characteristics. West German activists perceived freedom and democracy as promised, but not delivered, by a postwar government and society defined in contrast both to the Nazi past and to the contemporary Cold War enemy. In pursuit of these principles, activists sought changes from the most global (e.g., concerning the Vietnam War and brutality in Iran) to the most local and personal (e.g., challenging conventional living and social arrangements). The “new left” and postwar protest movement are conventionally defined in West Germany as constituted primarily by the Social Democratic Student Organization (Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund) (SDS) and other university students. This was an important, although not the only, component of the West German movement in the longer history of this movement, which stretched from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, and reflected the actions of hundreds of thousands of protesters in the two “capitals” of protest (West Berlin and Frankfurt) and well beyond. Early campaigns, beginning in the early 1960s, included demands for educational ... log in or subscribe to read full text