apr 11, 1968 - Student protests and shooting of Red Rudi

Description:

Reasons for protest:

Wider generation gap:
-New generation didn't live during 3rd Reich. They questioned why the older generation went along with it and why they didn't do more to stop it.
-Development of youth culture
-New generation felt fearful of the Grand Coalition (one-party state)
-Exacerbated by Auschwitz and SS trials of 1963-67

West German press:
-Questioned the nature of the German state and stirred up left wing activism

Actions of the FRG and the police:
-1968 Emergency Laws under the Grand Coalition increased fears of authoritarianism
-Benno Ohnesorg's death in 1967 during a visit from the Shah of Iran led to protests from all universities and was described as 'the first political murder in the Federal Republic' by Gunter Grass.

Anti-Americanism and Vietnam War:
-The younger generation questioned American leadership and the treatment of rebels (Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara)

Germany's overcrowded and outdated universities:
-Many academics from the Nazi era were still in post
-The 'free' University of Berlin was set up and was the epicentre of student action

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