Young Rebels: A Psychopolitical Study of West German Male Radical Students
1979; City University of New York; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/421770
ISSN2151-6227
Autores Tópico(s)Communism, Protests, Social Movements
ResumoOnly a decade ago, the international student movement was hailed by many intellectuals as a force which would revitalize Euro-American democracies. This liberated generation was credited with inaugurating a value revolution which would transform the political culture of postindustrial society, and create a more enlightened and humane social order.1 Within a very few years, however, apathy and careerism have returned to the campuses, as the idealistic posture of student activism gave way to coercion and confrontation and, finally, to unadorned terrorism. The rapid decline from idealism to terror was nowhere more pronounced than in West Germany, where upper-middle-class pacifists like Ulrike Meinhof suddenly-and seemingly inexplicably-transformed themselves into violent revolutionaries. The Bundesrepublik's extra-parliamentary opposition of the 1960s has left behind a residue of bombings, kidnappings, and murders carried out by self-proclaimed urban guerillas. The Bundeskriminalamt recently estimated that a hard core of 1,200 highly dangerous ultraleftists operates within a wider network of approximately 6,000 active sympathizers, who provide funding, safehouses, or other assistance.2
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