In 1967, at a ceremony at the University of Hamburg, two law students unfurled a slogan that became the rallying cry of the student movement:"Under the gowns musty smell of 1,000 years".
The Hamburg Auditorium Maximum is occupied to the last seat on November 9, 1967, the day of the official handover to the new rector. Politicians from the senate and citizenship, professors and many students sit in the audience - neatly dressed, as is customary. Even the press is present. A string quartet is playing, people are waiting for the speakers.
Suddenly a murmur, all heads turn to the left:the former rector, pediatrician Prof. Karl-Heinz Schäfer, and his successor, the economist Prof. Werner Ehrlicher, stride down the stairs with dignity, both in traditional robes - a wide-cut outer garment The color of which shows which department the wearer belongs to. But what is that? Two neatly combed young suits have jumped in front of them, unfurling a banner. On it, in letters made of adhesive tape, is a slogan that makes many visitors freeze in amazement:"Under the robes musty from 1,000 years".
The Hamburg provocation hits a nerve
This provocative slogan, which deliberately alludes to the Nazi era, which proclaimed the "Thousand Year Reich," became the most famous slogan of the student movement - and doesn't seem to leave some professors cold:"They all belong in a concentration camp!" the former professor shouted Ordinarius for Islamkunde, Bertold Wickeler, the two law students Gert Hinnerk Behlmer (then 24) and Detlev Albers (23) before room stewards can push them out. But at this point, the striking photo is already in the can. In no time the slogan spread to the universities of the republic.
It's bubbling under the surface
"With the banner, we wanted to point out to the universities that they had previously shied away from dealing with their role in the 'Third Reich'," Detlev Albers remembered the spectacular action in an interview with "Spiegel" in 2006. At the time, things had been fermenting in the faculties for a long time. Many students are dissatisfied with the study conditions. The structures at the universities are often encrusted, an authoritarian, hierarchical style prevails, and the equipment is outdated. In addition, many students criticize the general social and political situation in Germany.
"We fought to transform society"
Rudi Dutschke is one of the spokesmen for the student movement and the SDS. In 1968 he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.The reasons for this disenchantment are complex:the first generation of those born after the war chafed above all at the lack of coming to terms with the Nazi crimes and the conservative restoration of the Adenauer era, as well as at moral concepts that were perceived to be outdated. "It was the time of the extra-parliamentary opposition. We fought for nothing less than a revolution in society as a whole," said Detlev Albers.
In discussion rounds about the socio-critical approaches of the Frankfurt School - Adorno, Horkheimer and Co. - students talk their heads hot and wallow in utopias of the "new man". Anti-authoritarian ideas are becoming very popular. Anti-capitalism also found many supporters among the offspring of the period of the economic miracle. The new spiritual heroes are called Mao, Ho-Chi Minh and Che Guevara.
The APO is forming
With a silent march in Hanover on June 9, 1967, students commemorate the dead Benno Ohnesorg.After the formation of the grand coalition in December 1966, the unrest at the universities intensified, and the SDS took the lead of the so-called extra-parliamentary opposition (APO). Protest marches are forming more and more frequently in university towns. The death of Benno Ohnesorg on June 2, 1967 was the last straw. The student is shot by a police officer during a demonstration against Shah Reza Pahlavi's visit to West Berlin - allegedly in self-defense. As a result, students took to the streets nationwide. A week later, around 7,000 people took part in a silent march in Hanover, Ohnesorg's hometown - it was one of the largest student rallies in the Republic up to that point.
The protest becomes more radical, the student movement falls apart
A little later, a Springer AG fleet burns in Berlin for the first time. Reporting in the "Bild" newspaper, the assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke in April 1968, the emergency legislation in May 1968 and the Vietnam War fueled new waves of protest that increasingly ended in street battles. The student protest is becoming more radical.
The violent excesses develop an uncontrollable momentum of their own, which ultimately contributes to the fragmentation of the student movement. The terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF) emerges from the militant part of the extra-parliamentary opposition. The protests on the streets against it died down.
A reform university is being built in Bremen
Detlev Albers and Gert Hinnerk Behlmer, the two banner bearers, have to answer for their actions in a university disciplinary procedure. Also for Bertold Coiler, who insulted the students during their action, his misconduct has consequences:he is temporarily suspended and his Nazi past becomes public.
Albers and Behlmer later took their exams and worked as student representatives on the founding committee of the University of Bremen until 1970, which started as a reform university. Detlev Albers later taught there as a professor of political science. He died of a stroke in 2008. Gert Hinnerk Behlmer becomes an administrative lawyer and state councilor in Hamburg. The famous banner is now in the Hamburg State Archive.