German society of the 1960s Part 1
During the 60s the Western German society began to change rapidly. After the war people had started getting more children again. The new prosperity of the Wirtschaftswunder further reinforced this effect. Now, 20 years after the end of the war, many of those were teenagers or young adults. They represented a relatively large percentage of the population and they started questioning the rules of their parents generation.
Women became more independent. The invention of contraceptive pills meant they could feel safer in avoiding a pregnancy. An unwanted pregnancy was a huge problem for a woman during the 50s. Unwed mothers were heavily ostracized and discriminated. There wasn't as much social welfare as there is today.
The "pill", as it was colloquially called in Germany, drastically changed the form of relationships. Women had more power and control over their own lives. Relationships started getting more free from restriction and rules. The notion to wait until marriage to have sex became less important. American pop culture had a large impact on many young German people and the ideas of "free love" also started becoming popular in Western Germany. Sex wasn't something to be embarrassed or ashamed of anymore, something merely to create children. It wasn't a taboo anymore and people left the religious and conservative morals of their parents generation behind.
The parents of the young people had been focused on getting wealth. Consumerism was important while social or political ideas were being neglected. This changed during the 60s. Young people started to question the complacency and affluence by their parents. People became more critical towards consumerism.
Another important point to the young people was education. The universities were filled to the brim with young students. This generation was larger than the previous one and a larger percentage of people started going to university. There was a number of reasons for this. First, more people were wealthy enough to send their children to unversity. Young people also had become more independent and were more often living on their own. The old, rigid rules and expectations of society were less important now. In the past you pretty much had to get a similar education as your parents did. If you only were the child of farmers then you would already be ostracized and bullied at Gymnasium, the highest form of school in Germany, and later at university. You used to be an outsider, something who "didn't belong" here. This old way of thinking about the "layers" and "classes" of Western German society became a bit less important.
Another group of people was now stronger represented at universities: women. They had started becoming more independent and they now had more self-assuredness. A new feminist movement had begun. Officially men and women had equal rights in Western Germany but in reality women were heavily restricted and discriminated in many parts of daily life. The universities were still dominated by male scientists and professors.
The universities had another problem. They were interspersed with old Nazis and their way of thinking. Many people had never really changed after the fall of the Third Reich. They glorified authoritarianism, agitated against anything that was different and were very narrow-minded overall. The intellectual atmosphere of the universities, which was supposed to be a space of free and unrestricted thinking, was affected by this.
Students started to protest against the old structures of power and national socialist ideas. At November 9th 1967 students used an official event to demonstrate with a large banner. The banner said "Unter den Talaren - Muff von 1000 Jahren" which means "Under the talars - fustiness from 1000 years". A Talar was a type of robe that was being used by professors, judges and jurists in general. The message of the protesting students was that hidden under the official clothing of their teachers there was the same old way of thinking from the Nazi time. "1000 years" was a code for the Third Reich which in the eyes of the Nazis was supposed to last 1000 years.
The students criticized the lack of attempts to solve the Nazi past with all its untouched social problems and the elitist structures of the 60s which often were the same ones of the Nazi time.
During the 60s the Western German society began to change rapidly. After the war people had started getting more children again. The new prosperity of the Wirtschaftswunder further reinforced this effect. Now, 20 years after the end of the war, many of those were teenagers or young adults. They represented a relatively large percentage of the population and they started questioning the rules of their parents generation.
Women became more independent. The invention of contraceptive pills meant they could feel safer in avoiding a pregnancy. An unwanted pregnancy was a huge problem for a woman during the 50s. Unwed mothers were heavily ostracized and discriminated. There wasn't as much social welfare as there is today.
The "pill", as it was colloquially called in Germany, drastically changed the form of relationships. Women had more power and control over their own lives. Relationships started getting more free from restriction and rules. The notion to wait until marriage to have sex became less important. American pop culture had a large impact on many young German people and the ideas of "free love" also started becoming popular in Western Germany. Sex wasn't something to be embarrassed or ashamed of anymore, something merely to create children. It wasn't a taboo anymore and people left the religious and conservative morals of their parents generation behind.
The parents of the young people had been focused on getting wealth. Consumerism was important while social or political ideas were being neglected. This changed during the 60s. Young people started to question the complacency and affluence by their parents. People became more critical towards consumerism.
Another important point to the young people was education. The universities were filled to the brim with young students. This generation was larger than the previous one and a larger percentage of people started going to university. There was a number of reasons for this. First, more people were wealthy enough to send their children to unversity. Young people also had become more independent and were more often living on their own. The old, rigid rules and expectations of society were less important now. In the past you pretty much had to get a similar education as your parents did. If you only were the child of farmers then you would already be ostracized and bullied at Gymnasium, the highest form of school in Germany, and later at university. You used to be an outsider, something who "didn't belong" here. This old way of thinking about the "layers" and "classes" of Western German society became a bit less important.
Another group of people was now stronger represented at universities: women. They had started becoming more independent and they now had more self-assuredness. A new feminist movement had begun. Officially men and women had equal rights in Western Germany but in reality women were heavily restricted and discriminated in many parts of daily life. The universities were still dominated by male scientists and professors.
The universities had another problem. They were interspersed with old Nazis and their way of thinking. Many people had never really changed after the fall of the Third Reich. They glorified authoritarianism, agitated against anything that was different and were very narrow-minded overall. The intellectual atmosphere of the universities, which was supposed to be a space of free and unrestricted thinking, was affected by this.
Students started to protest against the old structures of power and national socialist ideas. At November 9th 1967 students used an official event to demonstrate with a large banner. The banner said "Unter den Talaren - Muff von 1000 Jahren" which means "Under the talars - fustiness from 1000 years". A Talar was a type of robe that was being used by professors, judges and jurists in general. The message of the protesting students was that hidden under the official clothing of their teachers there was the same old way of thinking from the Nazi time. "1000 years" was a code for the Third Reich which in the eyes of the Nazis was supposed to last 1000 years.
The students criticized the lack of attempts to solve the Nazi past with all its untouched social problems and the elitist structures of the 60s which often were the same ones of the Nazi time.
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