- 著者
-
井関 正久
- 出版者
- 一般財団法人 日本国際政治学会
- 雑誌
- 国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2001, no.126, pp.169-184,L19, 2001
East and West Germany were in a turbulent period in the 1960s. On the one hand the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 determined the division of both German states and symbolized East-West tensions. On the other hand the first postwar generation that criticized the Nazi generation began protest actions against the establishment. “1968” was a symbolic date for the protest movements of the 1960s in both German states.<br>Today, “1968” is the focus of public attention again because the parties of the “sixty-eighters”, the “Greens”, have become the ruling parties as partners of the Social Democrats. The protagonists of “1968” seized the authority and are now on the side of the establishment. But some young people of the post cold war generation tend to look for an alternative to the “sixty-eighters” and call themselves the “eighty-niners”.<br>In the 1960s the generation conflict became a social phenomena and caused the student revolt in West Germany. Students pursued not only the reform of the universities but also the democratization of society as a whole. They were the main actors in the extra parliamentary opposition and sought out political coalitions with labor unions and pacifists to oppose the passing of the Emergency Law. The antiauthoritarian movement formed a new political public space in which everyday life was politicized. The sixty-eighters in West Germany were the main actors of the “new social movements” in the 1970s and initiators of the “Greens”. They brought the idea of grass-roots democracy, feminism and ecology to parliaments and constantly changed the political culture.<br>In East Germany there were also protest activities in the 1960s, in spite of suppression by the state. Under the influence of western subculture and student movements in West Germany the postwar generation opposed the cultural policies of the SED. During the ‘Prague Spring’ in 1968, hopes of democratization of socialism rose in East Germany also. The Soviet repression of the Prague Spring brought about different protest activities, which were immediately put down by the police. The sixty-eighters in East Germany organized political alternative movements through the 1980s and formed several civic groups like New Forum in the autumn of 1989. They were also the initiators of Round Table as a dialogue forum, which symbolized the “peaceful revolution”.<br>The German protest movements in the 1960s contributed to forming the current democratic political culture. Since then public space has been made the place of political participation and social learning. Therefore, “1968” can be regarded as the beginning of the long democratization and emancipation process of German society.