Dissent in the Wirtschaftswunder: Historical Memory and the German Student Movement

Abstract

This paper deals with the West German student movement, which, like most student movements, was active in the 1960s and focused primarily on social issues. It attempts to interpret the critiques levied by the movement in relation to those events and thoughts which precededit.The author argues that there was a distinct rhetorical and philosophical connection betweeen the 68er-Bewegung and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. This connection shapd the methods and goals of the student movement, which sought to integrate a process of comign to terms with the realities of Germany's fascist, anti-democratic past into the German mindset following the rich period of remarkable postwar economic development. These methods and influences, which are called "critical historical memory," are then argued to have been developed so as to bring to light the continued presence of fascistic tendencies in contemporary German politics, with the hope of coming to terms with the recent past.