The United States and the German Student Movement of the 1960s- Influence, Perceptions, and Change

The United States and the German Student Movement of the 1960s- Influence, Perceptions, and Change

The 1960s was notable for the emergence and widespread of the student movements across many parts of Germany. There were two interconnected facets to students’ movements during the periods; first, the spread of the movement in universities and college campuses protested specific policies and regulations by the academic authorities (Andreviskiy, & Ivanov, 2017). The second facet was the involvement of the growing numbers of students in other significant movements of the period, mainly from the left. It is believed that the United States played a role in the German students’ movement.

President Lyndon Johnson and later Richard Nixon supported the students’ movement that was ongoing in Germany. One of the main reasons for the protests was the suspicion that many Nazi sympathizers were still in government and continuing with Nazi regime capitalism (Morton, 2007). Since the U.S. was against the Nazis and the Nazi sympathizers, it supported the students’ protests because it did not want Germany to have dictatorial leaders such as Adolf Hitler, who committed a serious crime against humanity (Andreviskiy & Ivanov, 2017). Therefore, the U.S. government strongly urged the German government to address the students’ issues as a way of standing with the Germans’ quest for good governance (Klimke, 2009). Therefore, the U.S. played a diplomatic role in asking the German political leadership to address the grievances rather than countering the protests.

Moreover, the U.S. supported the German students’ movements because the tone of the reason why they were protesting was the unfair policies and regulations in colleges and university administrations. The U.S. was a pioneer of higher education (Barker, 2008).  Thus, because it had a cordial relationship with Germany, it also wanted Germany to strengthen its higher education systems and, hence, was against anything that could derail the education systems in Germany.

During the post-war period, the U.S. and German diplomatic relationships, that is, the period after WW2, were surprisingly cordial despite the two countries being opponents during the war. During WW2, Germany, under the Nazi regime, declared war against the U.S. However, after the war, Germany and its capital, Berlin, were divided into four divided into allied powers (Barker, 2008). In 1955, the U.S. sought a diplomatic relationship with Germany, including the U.S., the British, and the French. The U.S. took this step because it understood that Germany stands at the center of European affairs and has a key role as a G-7 and G-20, the North Atlantic Organization (NATO), and an organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (Morton, 2007).  Therefore, the U.S. needed to put the enmity of WW2 aside and re-launch a diplomatic relationship with Germany.

The U.S. acknowledged that the prosperity of its security and that of Germany significantly depended on each other. Thus, as the main allies in NATO, the U.S. and Germany decided to work together to maintain peace, security, and freedom (Morton, 2007). The U.S. and German relations did not change much despite the students’ movement in the 1960s; the U.S. just emphasized that the German administration ought to address the issue raised by the students amicable to avoid the history of crimes against humanity from repeating (Andreviskiy, & Ivanov, 2017).  In 1974, the U.S. established more diplomatic relations with East Germany, which was on the side of the Soviet Union. Since then, the U.S. and Germany’s diplomatic relations have been growing strong even after merging West and East Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Student movements were first witnessed in the U.S. before they emerged in Germany. The German students’ movements of 1968 differed from the American students’ movements in certain ways. First, German students were protesting against bad and unfair policies in educational institutions (Barker, 2008). Moreover, they protested because of the Nazism elements in the present government. The students were curious about seeing much progress in various fields, but some people in government seemed to be Nazi sympathizers.

However, the U.S. students’ movements in the mid-1960s were about civil rights, poverty, the liberation of students, and the ongoing Cold War. However, both the movements in Germany and the U.S. were against the Vietnam War. (Morton, 2007).  While the U.S. had a good diplomatic relationship with Germany, the German students during the movement negatively perceived the U.S. because of the U.S. foreign policy. America preferred to have its troops in Germany but could not allow the German troops in its territory. Thus, the students perceived this as an unfair practice by the U.S. (Andreviskiy & Ivanov, 2017).  In addition, the U.S. was supporting the Vietnam War, which the German students were protesting about. Thus, the German students negatively perceived the U.S. because of the mentioned reasons.

In my opinion, the German student’s perception of the U.S. during the time was correct; it was not a distorted perception but an accurate perception. This is because the U.S. was actively involved in the Vietnam War, the civil rights were violated immensely (Barker, 2008). Women were denied their rights, and African Americans were also denied their rights while poverty was at high levels and more issues. Looking at these factors, it is correct to say that the negative perception of the German students against the U.S. was correct (Morton, 2007). The U.S. foreign policies favored only the U.S. and were unfair to other nations; moreover, the U.S. was questioning the shortcomings of other administrations when it also had its many shortcomings.

References

Andreviskiy, O & Ivanov, O. (2017). Causes of the West German student movement’s radicalization in the late 60s and a foundation of terroristic organization RAF. European Historical Studies. DOI:10.17721/2524-048X.2017.06.64-83

Barker, C. (2008). Some Reflections on Student Movements of the 1960s and Early 1970s. Open Edition Journals. Vol 81.

Klimke, m. (2009). The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties. Research-gate

Morton, Gracie M., (2007). The Long March of the German 68ers: Their Protest, Their Exhibition, and Their Administration. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2141. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2141

State.gov. (2021). U.S. Relations with Germany. https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-germany/

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What was the role of the United States during the German student movement of the late 1960s? In your answer, you should briefly mention the post-war relationship of the two countries and then explain why and how it changed in the 1960s.

You might ponder some of the following questions: How did the German student movement differ from its American counterpart? How was the United States perceived by German students? Do you think the German students’ perception of America was correct or distorted? How so?