German society of the 1960s Part 3
The Western German students cared both about education and the fight for the powerless. Both of those goals combined when it was about child-rearing. Raising children used to be a very cold matter with little empathy and a lot of violence. Beating your children and expecting obedience was very common, many parents didn't know anything else. Even worse were children's home that were affected by the old Nazi way of thinking. Children were treated like recruited soldiers, they were forced to work very hard, they were beaten and often sexually abused.
Many students and other young adults started questioning this. They debated different ways to raise children without violence or even an upbringing without authority. People tried being more empathic with children and treating them with respect.
It wasn't just theory what they were doing. Many people helped children who were in need. Many children from notorious children's homes ran away. Some of them were homeless and had to fight on their own, some of them (boys as well as girls) worked as prostitues. Others found a makeshift home in student communes. People worked hard to create new homes for young people who had nowhere to go. There were also shared flats where a group of homeless teenagers lived on their home with some occasional guidance and support by the youth welfare office. New ideas like those proved to be so successful that they are still in use today.
It wasn't just the relatively small part of students that was changing. Large parts of society started to think differently and question old ideas.
Western German student movements became an initiative to change. But this was mostly only possible in a number of very large German cities. The most important of those was West Berlin. There was a number of reasons for this.
Young men in Western Germany were obliged to do military service. During the 1960s this meant that they had to serve for 18 months as recruits and soldiers. This military service was very unpopular under many young men, especially those who were left-leaning, alternatively thinking or very independent. It was very difficult to avoid this military service. Some people tried deliberately failing the compulsory health checks for new recruits. But the chances weren't very good. Other people tried to refuse military service because of conscientious objection. The German Grundgesetz, which is like a constitution, theoretically says that anyone may deny being forced to serve as a soldier. But in reality it was extremely difficult to do this successfully. You had to argue for religious, pacifist or humanist reasons that would forbid you to take up arms. People who tried to appeal for this were pertinaciously and strictly being questioned in front of a committee that would ask things like "you take a walk with your girlfriend to the park. Suddenly there's a Russian trying to rape your girlfriend. You carry a standard-issue rifle G3. What do you do?". They were attempting to test your resolve. It was very difficult to pass those tests.
Only in 1973 alternative civilian service were being introduced. Even this wasn't always allowed. This alternative was a bit more popular among some young men but either way compulsory service wasn't very popular. And there was no civilian service during the 60s to begin with.
There was another, completely different way to avoid all of this. The solution was to move to West Berlin. West Berlin didn't have any military service because of the Cold War. There was no Bundeswehr within the city either, it were only Allied forces. West Berlin became a shelter for any man who wanted to avoid military service. This meant that especially left-leaning and more independently thinking men chose Berlin for going to university. Berlin became a point of concentration for the student movement of West Germany.
The political situation within West-Berlin was another reason for the importance of the city for the student movement. West-Berlin was at the front of the Cold War. It wasn't just between both blocs, it was within the "enemy" bloc. It was both an enclave within and a bulwark against communism. Allied and especially american forces had been their protector in the past. Yet the opinion towards the USA changed among the young people and one of the reasons for this was the Vietnam War.
Many young people considered the Vietnam War a war of aggression. In their eyes the American "imperialists" were fighting for influence. Vietnam had been a colony in the past and in one way or another the US would be the next "colonialist" ruler of this country. The young people were observing the tremendous violence during the war and many of them showed solidarity with the Vietnamese people.
This wasn't just a Western German notion, it was happening in many Western countries around the world. Many young people were being influenced by the american civil rights movement and invented or introduced new forms of protests like "sit-ins". A number of students used this form of protest both against universities as well as American institutions within West Berlin. The students were comparing the revolution in Cuba with the war in Vietnam. They were open to the anticolonialist ideas of socialists and communists.
Another special characteristic of West Berlin was the state the press was in. Most of the press of West Berlin was owned by the Axel Springer publishing house. Springer was an extremely conservative and anti-communist publishing house who often agitated against leftist students and twisted facts. They owned such a large percentage of the West Berlin media that they were being accused of having a monopoly of the press and opinions. The attitude of the Springer publishing house would become a major problem in the years to come.
The official capital of West Berlin was Bonn. But West Berlin was a place of representation and diplomatic importance. There was a concentration of interntational organisations in this city and all kinds of significant foreign guests would be invited here. This as well would become a problem in the following years.
The Western German students cared both about education and the fight for the powerless. Both of those goals combined when it was about child-rearing. Raising children used to be a very cold matter with little empathy and a lot of violence. Beating your children and expecting obedience was very common, many parents didn't know anything else. Even worse were children's home that were affected by the old Nazi way of thinking. Children were treated like recruited soldiers, they were forced to work very hard, they were beaten and often sexually abused.
Many students and other young adults started questioning this. They debated different ways to raise children without violence or even an upbringing without authority. People tried being more empathic with children and treating them with respect.
It wasn't just theory what they were doing. Many people helped children who were in need. Many children from notorious children's homes ran away. Some of them were homeless and had to fight on their own, some of them (boys as well as girls) worked as prostitues. Others found a makeshift home in student communes. People worked hard to create new homes for young people who had nowhere to go. There were also shared flats where a group of homeless teenagers lived on their home with some occasional guidance and support by the youth welfare office. New ideas like those proved to be so successful that they are still in use today.
It wasn't just the relatively small part of students that was changing. Large parts of society started to think differently and question old ideas.
Western German student movements became an initiative to change. But this was mostly only possible in a number of very large German cities. The most important of those was West Berlin. There was a number of reasons for this.
Young men in Western Germany were obliged to do military service. During the 1960s this meant that they had to serve for 18 months as recruits and soldiers. This military service was very unpopular under many young men, especially those who were left-leaning, alternatively thinking or very independent. It was very difficult to avoid this military service. Some people tried deliberately failing the compulsory health checks for new recruits. But the chances weren't very good. Other people tried to refuse military service because of conscientious objection. The German Grundgesetz, which is like a constitution, theoretically says that anyone may deny being forced to serve as a soldier. But in reality it was extremely difficult to do this successfully. You had to argue for religious, pacifist or humanist reasons that would forbid you to take up arms. People who tried to appeal for this were pertinaciously and strictly being questioned in front of a committee that would ask things like "you take a walk with your girlfriend to the park. Suddenly there's a Russian trying to rape your girlfriend. You carry a standard-issue rifle G3. What do you do?". They were attempting to test your resolve. It was very difficult to pass those tests.
Only in 1973 alternative civilian service were being introduced. Even this wasn't always allowed. This alternative was a bit more popular among some young men but either way compulsory service wasn't very popular. And there was no civilian service during the 60s to begin with.
There was another, completely different way to avoid all of this. The solution was to move to West Berlin. West Berlin didn't have any military service because of the Cold War. There was no Bundeswehr within the city either, it were only Allied forces. West Berlin became a shelter for any man who wanted to avoid military service. This meant that especially left-leaning and more independently thinking men chose Berlin for going to university. Berlin became a point of concentration for the student movement of West Germany.
The political situation within West-Berlin was another reason for the importance of the city for the student movement. West-Berlin was at the front of the Cold War. It wasn't just between both blocs, it was within the "enemy" bloc. It was both an enclave within and a bulwark against communism. Allied and especially american forces had been their protector in the past. Yet the opinion towards the USA changed among the young people and one of the reasons for this was the Vietnam War.
Many young people considered the Vietnam War a war of aggression. In their eyes the American "imperialists" were fighting for influence. Vietnam had been a colony in the past and in one way or another the US would be the next "colonialist" ruler of this country. The young people were observing the tremendous violence during the war and many of them showed solidarity with the Vietnamese people.
This wasn't just a Western German notion, it was happening in many Western countries around the world. Many young people were being influenced by the american civil rights movement and invented or introduced new forms of protests like "sit-ins". A number of students used this form of protest both against universities as well as American institutions within West Berlin. The students were comparing the revolution in Cuba with the war in Vietnam. They were open to the anticolonialist ideas of socialists and communists.
Another special characteristic of West Berlin was the state the press was in. Most of the press of West Berlin was owned by the Axel Springer publishing house. Springer was an extremely conservative and anti-communist publishing house who often agitated against leftist students and twisted facts. They owned such a large percentage of the West Berlin media that they were being accused of having a monopoly of the press and opinions. The attitude of the Springer publishing house would become a major problem in the years to come.
The official capital of West Berlin was Bonn. But West Berlin was a place of representation and diplomatic importance. There was a concentration of interntational organisations in this city and all kinds of significant foreign guests would be invited here. This as well would become a problem in the following years.
Slot Machines & Casino Machines - JT Hub
AntwortenLöschenSlot machines & casino machines. 1,000,000+ slots machine 아산 출장안마 games, 70 table games. JT 통영 출장안마 Hub's mission 영주 출장샵 is to find and expand 대구광역 출장샵 the 구미 출장마사지 JT Hub.