Theme 2- Opposition, Control and Consent 1945-1989 Flashcards
What are 2 good signs showing opposition was minimal in the 1950s?
There were no organised protest groups demanding alternate lifestyles, minimal support for the Socialist Reich Party or KPD and they were banned without significant protest.
What were the main reasons for student protests and opposition?
- Universities were overcrowded, underfunded and there was a lack of student representation -The government’s failure to remove former Nazis from positions of responsibility
- The growing authoritarianism of federal governments and the establishment
- The fear of nuclear weapon deployment in the FRG
- The government’s perceived support for the US in the Vietnam War
- The SPD was becoming more conservative which they disliked
When and how many students protested against the Vietnam War?
2500 Free University students protested in February 1966 and in 1968, 12,000 protested against the Vietnam War.
What happened in April 1968?
The leader of the SDS, Rudi Dutschke was shot by a neo-Nazi gunman.
What was the APO?
A loose grouping of students and trade unions who organised strikes, marches and demonstrations. They had a limited impact and faded by the mid 1960s. Most members also left after they graduated.
What was the SDS?
The student wing of the SPD founded in 1946. It became more radical as the SPD became more conservative from 1959. They organised sit-ins at universities and mass demonstrations and by the late 1960s, they had control of the national student body, the VDS.
How significant a threat was student opposition?
Student opposition did not pose a significant threat because its support was often limited to students and the protests were fairly small-scale, only involving a few thousands at a time. Most Germans did not support the radical changes advocated by radical students and a poll in 1968 showed that 92% of Berliners opposed student violence. Additionally, there was no real government response to the protests except increasing funding for research in universities showing the government did not view student opposition as a significant threat.
Who were the RAF and what did they want to achieve?
Young, middle class, educated West Germans who were disillusioned with the FRG’s political system. They wanted to achieve the destruction of consumerism, an end to the Vietnam War and the demise of the FRG itself.
What were the actions of the RAF?
At first, sabotage and arson and Baader (one of the leaders) was arrested in 1968 for fire bombing a department store. After he was freed by fellow members in 1970, the group became more violent and directed their actions against people rather than property, including bombings and assassinations.
What was the German Autumn?
The actions of the RAF in the 1970s. They targeted former SS members, businesses owners and right wing politicians. They killed 28 people, maimed countless others and robbed over 30 banks. They also kidnapped and assassinated key establishment figures, German and US military personnel. They murdered 4 people in the West German Embassy in Stockholm in 1975.
What happened to the RAF after the leaders were arrested?
Meinhof and Baader were arrested in 1972 and later, Esslin too but the activities continued. After the leaders’ deaths in suspicious circumstances in the mid-1970s, they acted as martyrs and successive generations continued terror activities until 1998.
How much of a threat were the RAF?
They posed a much greater threat than student opposition and their actions were far more radical and violent. Public sympathy for the RAF was also high with 1 in 5 Germans feeling sympathy for the gang and 5% saying they would let a gang member stay for the night. The government introduced the Emergency Law in 1968 because they feared the threat of the RAF. However, their numbers were fairly small and the terrorist acts were still uncommon and small scale.
When was the Emergency Law introduced and when was it used?
1968- they were never actually used, even at the peak of student unrest on 1968-1969. It could have been implemented if there was ‘serious political tension’.
What did section 10 of the Emergency Law state?
- Mail and phone calls could be intercepted
- Freedom of movement could be restricted
- Certain jobs could be barred
Why was the Emergency Law so controversial?
- No emergency laws were included in the constitution so some saw it as unconstitutional
- Section 10 in particular gave the government similar powers to what the Nazis had
- Many saw it as an overreaction to the RAF and that the law overstated the threat they posed, freedoms were being removed for a very small threat
