GERST 3300 - [West Germany 1968/1977]

(CA-AS) Satisfies Option 1.

Fall or Spring. Next Offered: 2019-2020. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: any German course in the 3000-3209 level or equivalent. Taught in German.

E. Siegel.

The course looks at 1968 and 1977, two historical moments, which, by challenging state authority, raised the questions if the West German political institutions and the public would live up to new democratic principles. A comparison of student movements in West Germany and elsewhere will highlight the West German specifics (e.g., protest against “Notstandsgesetze”; demands to confront the Nazi-past; politicization of the private; the 1972 “Radikalenerlass”). Radical politics culminated in the 1977 “German Autumn”. Novels and films in recent years testify to an ongoing fascination with the RAF (Red Army Faction), be it in the form of depoliticized ‘radical chic’ or in the form of serious debates over historiography, personal fates of victims and perpetrators. The course will explore 1968 and 1977 through political manifestos and flyers, films and texts by, e.g., Dutschke, Baumann, Böll, Meinhof, Merian, Timm, Delius, Emcke, Cailloux.