Talk:West German student movement

Comments
Still, with the exception of ARD and ZDF, the state television networks as well as several local radio stations, there IS no "government-controlled mass media" in Germany. Axel Springer and other German publishing houses are privately-owned and are in no way related to any part of the government. Rather, they, especially Springer, are a force of their own in German politics, a fact that is not reflected in the article. Rather, it portrays these publishing houses as extensions of a purported (and largely non-existent) government propaganda machine which does not do justice to their important - and controversial - role in the events of 68. This image of government propaganda only adds to the bias in favour of the students in an already quite biased article. Something Wicked (talk)

Another Comment
The content of this article is excellent; whoever wrote it clearly has a deep understanding of the German student movement. However, there are issues of writing and style that need to be fixed -- I have essentially fixed the first section and I'm continuing on the rest of the article. When this task is done, the cleanup tag will be removed, for, as I've already stated, this is an excellent article.Zantastik 17:36, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

And another comment
I think this article is too biaised in favour of the students. e.g. "the police attacked and hunted down protestors" or "the government controlled the mass media". this article needs to be more neutral and less in favour of the student movement.

I am rewording as much of the article as is plausible, and hopefully removing bias as I do. Polocrunch 12:42, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Question
There is no information here on Fritz Teufel and his impact on the student movement? Unfortunately most of what I've found online is in Deutsch (which I do not speak or read fluently), and much of his impact may be mostly known to German-speakers. Could someone please add to this? 67.10.131.229 05:25, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

This is still too biased. "students had already discovered that the economic wealth of the nation, instead of improving the standard of living of the working class, would destroy it". Is that a discovery? On the other hand, "students were mostly taught scientific models of economics, politics etc. but were not taught how they worked, that they could be changed", this is part of a discussion on the epistemology of social sciences, it should be made more neutral. I am making some changes on "intoleran decision-making process", the above "discovered", "aggresively imperialistic policy" (of the USA), all the paragraph on the "aggresive public opinion" (by such a definition of aggresive, the students themselves were agressive), the "it happened" and other diction issues, "with brutal force", "aggresively conservative". YoungSpinoza

The article seems very biased in favor of "the students."

What's missing from this article is the fact that the 68ers were very much a "WEST German" movement. Even the title needs changing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.188.235.172 (talk) 08:44, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

The article seems very biased in favor of "the students." It is indeed! Very unbalanced! It reads as if it were the work of a member of the SDS! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.237.47.51 (talk) 11:54, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Comment
The article seems generally simplistic and overly generalised in its explanation. There is nary a sentence that I read without questioning its precision or validity, and it reads in a very stilted manner (Perhaps a non-native speaker? As a linguist, I would be tempted to suggest this to be the case. Not a problem in and of itself, but it could be improved to be a better read.) It is also very allusive, with little in the way of solidly referenced 'facts'; with properly researched and cited information, this could be a truly informative article. As it stands, it explains little, poorly, in a biased manner, and without lending much credence to what it says. Locuteh (talk) 23:40, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

bad Bad BAD
this article is terrible.
 * practically every other word needs verification.
 * there is too much jumping to conclusion without deep reflection on the facts.
 * there is absolutely no media in this article.
 * written as if the article was a school essay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.155.166.190 (talk) 13:03, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Ugh
Moving this chunk here until it gets referenced and verified. Right now it is pure speculation. pschemp | talk 17:04, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Historical background
Following the failure in the mid 19th century of the civil revolution in Germany (1848/49), German students largely abandoned radical politics and heavy political involvements. Having failed to turn Germany into a republic in a rebellion involving much of the working class, German students reversed course and began to follow instead the Prussian ideal of a "good citizen". During this period, the students effectively ceased all political activity against existing political institutions and began to become more conservative.

By the time that the First World War broke out in 1914, students were so steadfastly conservative and nationalistic that many of them went to war voluntarily. When the war ended in humiliation for Germany in 1919, students, like many in Germany, placed the blame for Germany's defeat and subsequent economic collapses on the newly-formed Weimar Republic, its founders and the Treaty of Versailles. Resulting from this, and because German students were so used to being governed by a single figurehead, it was not hard for the German National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) headed by Adolf Hitler to convince most students to join its student organization (the NSDStB — National Socialist German Students' League) and to abandon democracy. When Hitler gained full control of Germany in 1933, the universities were generally pliant towards Nazi policies. This explains in large part why so many students and professors worked together with the Nazi regime.

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, students returning from the European battlefields and their professors wanted to resume normal academic activity as quickly as possible. The Allied forces agreed that everyday life should be restored quickly, and so removed only a few professors from the posts they had already held during the Nazi regime. German students were hence allowed to return to work very quickly, but the university system was not fully denazified. As a result, students kept their nationalist and conservative traditions in student fraternities while leftist student organizations like the SDS (German Socialist Student Union) remained insignificant, and this situation continued until the 1960s.

Consequently, by the advent of the 1960s the university system was still deeply conservative in its political leanings, with these attitudes being reflected in the lack of a say for students in the governance of their universities. Similarly, in central government, many politicians and administrators from the Nazi era had survived, leading to a tendency towards authoritarian government and successive conservative administrations.


 * Volunteering for military service in 1914 was not a sign of steadfast conservatism at all. A large majority of Germans supported the war effort and volunteered. This included left and right wing. Be careful of applying modern pacifist or individualist views to the people of 100 years ago.119.224.100.246 (talk) 20:15, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

German Version is better
The German version of this article seems to be far better then the English one (for good reasons of course), perhaps someone could replicate it and translate it into English? Isn't there a flag for this? Donquigleone (talk) 23:58, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

removing POV tag with no active discussion per Template:POV
I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:
 * This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. Remove this template whenever:
 * There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved
 * It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given
 * In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.

Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 22:56, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Role of East Germany
There was little doubt that East Germany and the Soviet Union encouraged student protests in West Germany - indeed probably were largely responsible for many. Why is there no reference at all to the role of the Communist regimes?119.224.100.246 (talk) 20:16, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Going to clean up this article
This article needs more sources and a more clear reading. I'll be researching about the movement and making additions.Mangokeylime (talk) 20:38, 18 May 2020 (UTC)