10 - A Laboratory of Postindustrial Society: Reassessing the 1960s in Germany

Summary

the protest movement between history and the present

Today, 1968 is an almost magical date - and still a very controversial one. For some, “1968” represents a lost battle in a culture war, whereas for others it denotes victory in a cultural revolution. Self-satisfied gloating after the fact would be just as inappropriate as the spirit of revenge that inspires many conservative politicians and neoconservative intellectuals in Europe and, particularly, in the United States. This attempt to reverse the moral, intellectual, and political climate is reflected in an exemplary evaluation of the 1960s by German editorial writer Ludolf Herrmann: “We have coped with Hitler, even if not yet definitely. However, what we have not coped with yet is our coping with Hitler, as it led to the student rebellions of 1968 and to fundamental value shifts during the subsequent years. . . . In terms of history, we have been alienated from ourselves, and we must now attempt to reverse that alienation.” Newt Gingrich recently echoed this blunt statement after being sworn in as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. He described the 1960s as a watershed era and added, “From 1965 to 1994, we did strange and weird things as a country. Now we're done with that and we have to recover.”