Social Change Movements in the 1960's

In class this week, we discussed the 68 Student Movement that took hold in Germany in the 1960's. As students began to come to terms with Germany's past, they began to criticize the current social practices, as well as critique previous generations that came before them. Upon realizing the issues that were present, they demanded a change. They insisted that Germany's Nazi past, as well as their parents', be confronted and dealt with. Students also called for a change in the society to become more democratic and stopped the planned German legislation. They also called for a reform in the school curriculum during this time. Additionally, they aimed to reduce the right-wing press and its abuse of the freedom of press. The final thing that they fought for was to stop the Vietnam war and improve the conditions in the Third World.


However, as mentioned in class as well, German students were not the only ones protesting during this time. During the 1960's social change movements erupted globally, and "fifty six countries and governments had to face thousands of students acting as rebels". As many of us know about the many movements that occurred within the United States during this time (the Civil Rights Movement, the Student Movement, the anti-Vietnam Movement, the Women's Movement, the Gay Rights Movement, the Environmental Movement-just to name a few) this post will be focused on the protests that occurred in France during this time. With that being said, if you would like more information on the movements that occurred in America, this crash course video describes them wonderfully. 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkXFb1sMa38

In 1968, students in France lead a protest that began on May 3 and ended on June 12. This protest began on May 3 when students began protesting for educational reform at the Sorbonne, the most celebrated college of the University of Paris, that had to be broken up by police. In doing so, several hundred students were arrested and dozens were left injured. Following this, the courses at the Sorbonne were suspended, but this only sparked more protests. On May 6, students took to the streets of the university district of Paris, and  they were shut down by the police, resulting in hundreds of injuries. This was followed by another protest on May 10 where students set up barricades in the streets to riot; this one resulted in nearly 400 hospitalizations, more than half of which were police officers. After this, union leaders started planning strikes in support of the students, leading to the reopening of the school on May 13. Instead of classes reopening on this day however, students occupied the building and converted it into a commune while striking workers and students continued to protest in the streets of Paris. This inspired other French universities, as well as other members of the workforce to seek change and resulted in the protest of several million workers, which left France paralyzed. Then on the evening of May 24, the worst fighting seen during the entire May crisis broke out when revolutionary students temporarily seized the Paris Stock Exchange and raised a communist red flag over the building before trying to set it on fire. In the following days, the students lost the support of many union leaders as the Prime Minister began negotiating with them, but this still did not successfully end the strike. Things finally began to settle down when President de Gaulle announced the call for national elections as well as his plan to dissolve the National Assembly, but students protests continued up until June 12 when they were banned. Although these students were later evicted from the Sorbonne, in the aftermath of the May events, the government made a series of concessions, such as higher wages and improved working conditions for workers, as well as an education reform bill that intended to modernize higher education. 

Art work in France during the 1960's


"free information"              "be young and shut up"         "beauty is in the streets"

The famous "baby boom" that occurred in the 1940's resulted in a dramatic percentage increase of young people in the 1960's, and they truly took the world by storm. As the younger populations began analyzing their own countries, transformations occurred globally, not only in Germany, America, and France as mentioned, but in other countries such as Japan, Denmark, Italy, Britain, as well as many Third World countries. These movements were intense and violent as students created serious disruptions within their societies in an effort to alter their political systems. 

Also, as an additional tidbit of information that I found out last week before class, the Reimann family, reportedly one of the richest families in Germany that owns famous consumer brands like Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Keurig, Dr. Pepper, and Panera, came forth this week and admitted to having a family history of Nazi ties. After conducting a 3-year investigation, it was found that not only did the family use Russian civilians and French prisoners of war as forced labor in the family factories during the war, but they also were anti-Semites and avowed supporters of Hitler, even donating to his paramilitary SS force as early as 1931. The family was very apologetic when they announced this last week and said that they "were ashamed and white as sheets." They mentioned that " is nothing to gloss over" and that "these crimes [were] disgusting," before vowing to donate $11 million to a yet-undisclosed charity because of this discovery. I thought it was really interesting how this could be directly applied to our class discussion on how difficult confronting familial Nazi ties was for the youth during this time. 

By: Jacquelyn Rueff

Sources
http://www.lessonsite.com/archivepages/historyoftheworld/lesson31/protests60s.htm
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/protests-mount-in-france
https://www.e-ir.info/2011/07/02/was-the-european-student-movement-of-the-1960s-a-global-phenomenon/
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/business/krispy-kreme-nazi-ties/index.html