Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany: A Social History of Dissent and Democracy

This social history of protest movements in 1960s Germany departs from the limited and often politically biased reports of participants by placing the protests within the wider contexts of social change and international events. Thomas makes extensive use of archival material, much of which has never been used before, to reconstruct an historical narrative that begins with the peace and anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1950s and moves seamlessly on to the defining events of the 1960s -the Vietnam War, university reform, and the womens movement.Through this original reconstruction, Thomas expertly shows how the protest movements both reflected and influenced fundamental social and political change in post-war Germany. He documents their role in helping to establish a critical and politically mature democracy, despite the escalating violence between protesters and government authorities that culminated in the terrorism of the 1970s. This book is a benchmark publication. Not only is it the first to document these events in English, but it challenges previously biased accounts and offers a much needed reassessment of popular assumptions.