Extra-parliamentary Opposition Research Articles

Die Freien Wähler: Eine anständige Alternative für Konservative?

AbstractThe Free Voters (Freie Wähler) party is becoming a more serious competitor in the German party system. It gained parliamentary representation in the Rhineland Palatine in 2021 and has been governing with the Christian Social Union in Bavaria since 2018. In addition, the Free Voters party now holds two of the 96 German parliamentary member positions in the European Parliament and is, at the federal level, the extraparliamentary opposition party with the greatest number of votes. Nevertheless, there has, to date, been no analysis examining people’s motives for voting for the Free Voters or exploring their future openness to voting for the party. This article addresses this oversight by identifying factors, based on population-representative data from the 2021 Bundestag elections, that favour openness and voting for this increasingly influential party. Our analysis shows that a more general dissatisfaction with democratic outputs, a conservative attitude, and low perceptions of spatial distance from the political positions of the Free Voters have significant positive effects.

Moderate in power, populist in opposition? Die Linke’s populist communication in the German states

ABSTRACT The inclusion-moderation thesis suggests that populist parties will be ‘tamed’ by governing, as they must compromise to participate in coalitions. Consequently, they are expected to be more moderate compared to populist parties in opposition. However, empirical evidence for the moderation of populist communication is mixed. Moreover, existing research has focused on right-wing populism, leaving the question open if left-wing populist parties behave differently. This article addresses this question by analyzing political communication from the sixteen state chapters of the German left-wing populist party Die Linke. While a populist party has not yet governed in Germany at the federal level, Die Linke has a record of government in five federal states. Thus, conditions are ripe for an empirical test of inclusion-moderation as the party’s political position varies strongly from state to state, ranging from extra-parliamentary opposition to senior coalition partner. The analysis applies a multiword populism dictionary to five years of party Facebook communication and finds that Die Linke uses populist communication less frequently when governing and in East Germany, where it is more well-established. The conclusion calls for more in-depth research on the changes in populist communication between government and opposition, which should also tackle the question of causality.

The Role and Place of the Opposition in the Political System of Switzerland

The article considers the role and the way of functioning of the opposition in the political system of the Swiss Confederation.It is shown that the absence of an opposition in the political life of the country in the traditional sense is explained by the agreement or concordance between the main political forces, drawn up officially in the form of the so-called “magic formula”. A federal government functioning according to this principle in combination with a well-developed mechanism of direct, or more precisely, semi-direct referendum democracy: on the one hand, it allows the effective implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to participate in the political life of the country, and on the other hand, it allows to avoid permanent parliamentary and governmental crises. Particular attention is paid to the Swiss People’s Party, a powerful political force that has consistently achieved high results in parliamentary elections over the past ten years and has every right to consider itself as opposition party. In this connection, the author raises the question of the possibility of using the political system existing today in Switzerland, and, even more so, the way the opposition functions, as a model for other countries? The publication reveals in detail how the institution of direct democracy works in practice. It is emphasized that the people’s initiative and the referendum give the citizen the opportunity to constantly influence the constitutional process in the state and bring projects developed by the government to the people’s court. Frequent appeals to voters in this way forces society to constantly worry about topical political issues. At the same time, large authoritative parties use this right less often than small social organizations or extra-parliamentary opposition groups. In addition, the Swiss manage in this way to constantly keep the political course of the government under control, and the Federal Council, according to the country’s constitution, must constantly consult with the people, who express their opinion on political proposals by dropping ballots into the voting baskets. At the same time, it is emphasized that the main challenge to Swiss federalism lies not in the multiculturalism of the nation, which did not develop as a result of the immigration of citizens, as, for example, in the USA, Canada or Australia, but on the contrary, has its roots in the age-old history of the communities that originally lived in Switzerland. Switzerland’s relations with the European Union during the last twenty years are briefly described. Characterizing Ukrainian-Swiss relations, the author emphasizes the importance that Switzerland has for our country, particularly in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The advantages and disadvantages of direct referendum democracy are analyzed. Certain conclusions are drawn regarding the possibility of using Swiss experience in the political life of other countries.

Conditions of Democracy in German Austria and Hungary, 1918–1919

Conditions of Democracy in German Austria and Hungary, 1918–1919

Edmund Burke and the First Stuart Revolution

AbstractThis essay reconsiders the character and significance of Edmund Burke's attitude to the seventeenth-century civil wars and interregnum. Burke may have venerated the “revolution principles” of 1688–89 over those of the 1640s, not least in theReflections on the Revolution in Francein which he notoriously compares English dissenting radicals to regicidal Puritans. Yet his response to the first Stuart revolution is more complex than has commonly been allowed and is closely bound up with Burke's earlier parliamentary career as a prominent member of the Rockingham Whig connection. The revival of an anti-Stuart idiom within the extra-parliamentary opposition of the 1760s, together with the mounting conflict with the North American colonies, gave renewed prominence to the memory of the civil wars within English political discourse. The Rockinghamites attempted to exploit this development—without compromising their own, more conservative reading of seventeenth-century history—but they were also its victims. In the years that followed, Burke and his colleagues were repeatedly identified by their political opponents with the spirit of Puritan rebellion and Cromwellian usurpation. These circumstances provide a new perspective on Burke's interpretation of the nation's revolutionary past; they also offer important insights into his writings and speeches in response to the French Revolution.

Russia’s opposition movements

The violent suppression of recent protests in Russia could presage intensified repression of opposition activists. The ‘non-systemic’ extra-parliamentary opposition has grown more organised and sophisticated and the Russian people more willing to demonstrate. Yet it would be unwise to overstate the opposition’s ability to mobilise mass protests or to understate the regime’s ability to respond to threats strategically.

German New Lefts

Abstract The New Left that arose in West Germany during the 1960s mimicked the antifascist reformations of the 1930s. For grassroots campaigns, extraparliamentary opposition groups, and radical student organizations of the postwar decades, the Marxist humanist theories and revolutionary socialist splinter groups of the interwar years served as attractive models. At the same time, the Sixty-eighter generation rebelled against a political establishment now represented by that earlier generation of neoleftist pioneers, their parents. But generational conflict was just the symptom of a deeper problem in the history of the midcentury Left: a succession of radical new lefts arose out of periodic frustration at institutionalized politics. This article explores the missing link between Germany’s antifascist and antiauthoritarian new lefts: the so-called left socialists of the 1950s. In particular, Ossip K. Flechtheim’s science of futurology and Wolfgang Abendroth’s theory of antagonistic society translated antifascism’s legacies into a new paradigm of social protest. The left socialists’ support for the embattled Socialist German Student League laid the organizational and intellectual foundation for the sixties New Left. Recent studies of the “global sixties” have shown the transnational connections between new lefts across space; this article explains their continuity across time.

Extra-Parliamentary Opposition within a Transforming Political Space: The AfD and FDP under Merkel III between 2013 and 2017

The federal elections of 2013 generated an unusual situation for the German party system: a very strong extra-parliamentary opposition. The liberal FDP and the newly emerging AfD, with 4.8 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively, of the votes, ended up as the extra-parliamentary opposition, although both parties were ultimately successful in entering the German parliament in 2017. What strategies did these parties apply? How did they manage to get into parliament in 2017? The German case presents a unique situation, with the FDP, an experienced mainstream government party, and the AfD, a challenger party, belonging to the extra-parliamentary opposition. Clarifying first the concept and function of an extra-parliamentary opposition, the article describes, using manifesto data, the transformation of the German political space and the growing salience of the new cultural divide. The AfD contributed to establishing this divide by applying populist rhetoric. By contrast, the FDP succeeded by using a party-elite-led re-branding and re-framing of economic issues in the times of digitalisation.

Парламентська опозиція та уряд в Словаччині в 2010–2014 рр.

It was examined the nature and character of the interaction between the government and parliamentary opposition in Slovakia in the period from 2010 till 2014 in the context of the flow of social and political processes. A change in the political behavior of the parliamentary opposition before and after the early parliamentary elections of 2012 was traced.The arrival in 2010 to power of the opposition showed that in the party system of Slovakia there was a real inter-party political competition and contested action. At the same time, the parties began to more clearly express their attitude to power, and their actions became more predictable. The new government coalition, as a rule, was formed by parties between which during the elections there were convergence of positions and similarity of program statements on the government policy. It also included new opposition political parties with which ties were established prior to the election, which, at the same time, had similar critical positions towards the socioeconomic policies of the previous government and the quality of democracy.Gradually, a new inter-party model of interaction between the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition appeared in the country, which starting from the electoral period was transferred to the interelectoral one. This kind of interaction between the representatives of the political opposition made them more stable and allowed to more clearly outline the discontinuation between the political forces in the context of “pro-government – opposition”. Agreed actions during the elections made behavior between political partners more predictable in the status of pro-governmental. Belonging to the opposition camp in the past made impossible any coalition agreements between them with Smer-SD.With the advent of parties of entrepreneurial type, competition between the pro-government and opposition parties went into the technological stage, introducing corrections into the traditional line of division of “left – right”.

Photographs as Complementary Sources of the History of Swaziland: The Case of the Visual Images of the Makers of Swaziland's Pre-Independence Constitution

This article posits a case for the inclusion and utilisation of photographs as vital and illustrative sources of history in certain scholarly articles. Taking cues from scholars of this school of thought, the author critically exploits the photographs of the stakeholders of Swaziland's independence constitution as important historical sources that illuminated and enriched the history of Swaziland's pre-independence constitutional processes. Although the photographs of the delegates and their dress codes were sometimes political theatre, they communicated a form of historical information that was hardly captured adequately in official documents. The inaugural session of the January 1963 Lancaster Constitutional Conference was marked by a joyous and optimistic mood from the smiles on the faces of the participants, which was captured in photographs in the Times of Swaziland newspaper and corroborated by the photo-collections of some of the delegates. Newspaper photographs also captured the grim mood and frustration on the faces of the delegates as the conference unfolded owing to fierce and irreconcilable disagreements between ‘Progressive’ and the ‘Conservative’ nationalists. The photographs of the dramatic protest of the Swaziland’s extra-parliamentary opposition who blocked the entrance into Marlborough House in the UK in May 1968, because of their exclusion from the constitutional discussions, are important photographic sources which point to the contestations that accompanied the making of Swaziland's independence constitution, which official documents are silent about.

The connection between parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition in the EU. From ACTA to the financial crisis

With no formal division between majority and opposition in the parliamentary arena, the European Union (EU) calls for an approach to political opposition which considers the role of civil society. This article explores the case of opposition to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) within and without the European Parliament (EP) through a political opportunity approach, using the case to reflect on conditions for effective opposition in the EU. The ACTA campaign saw opposed actors within the EP and digital rights groups work together to build coalitions against the agreement. Protests then opened the way for these groups to broker a change of position among other actors, allowing a majority rejection. The ACTA case suggests the need for advocacy by organised groups both within and without the Parliament to construct majorities. Comparisons to similarly successful campaigns bolster this view, as do examples of less effective opposition.

Narratives on Trial: Ideology, Violence and the Struggle over Political Legitimacy in the Case of the Delmas Treason Trial, 1985–1989

The insurrectionary period of the mid-1980s in South Africa reflected contestations between supporters of the anti-apartheid movement and the apartheid regime over the direction and pace of political and social change, symbolising the deepening crisis of political legitimacy of the South African regime. In three major treason trials, the state attempted to legitimise repression and delegitimise extra-parliamentary opposition by portraying it as revolutionary and violent. The largest and longest running of the three treason trials was the Delmas Treason Trial, in which the state aimed to prove that the United Democratic Front (UDF) had conspired with the African National Congress (ANC) in exile and other organisations to overthrow the government by violence. In response, lawyers for the defence divorced protest action from the ideology and strategies of the banned liberation movements and depoliticised collective violence. Both the prosecution and the defence therefore linked political legitimacy to the absence of violence. Based on the extensive records of the Delmas Treason Trial, the article examines the production of these two narratives. It argues that legal imperatives and political concerns flattened the complexity of political engagements and the plurality of experiences in court. The discursive construction of the events during the trial silenced the voices of women activists, the ANC underground as well as militant youth groups. The article examines these gaps, silences and biases to shed new light on how the records of the Delmas Treason Trial can be used for historical research.

Fragmented Fatherland: Immigration and Cold War Conflict in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1980 by Alexander Clarkson (review)

Reviewed by: Fragmented Fatherland: Immigration and Cold War Conflict in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1980 by Alexander Clarkson Patrice Poutrus Fragmented Fatherland: Immigration and Cold War Conflict in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1980. By Alexander Clarkson. New York: Berghahn, 2013. Pp. xiv + 231. Cloth $95.00. ISBN 978-0857459589. In Fragmented Fatherland, Alexander Clarkson analyzes the ways in which West Germany’s political institutions and intelligence agencies dealt with the political activities of ethnic groups in the Cold War. He divides the book into five studies that highlight West Germany’s varying approaches to immigrant groups: Ukrainian, Croatian, Algerian, Spanish/Greek, and Iranian exiles. By not focusing exclusively on members of a single nation-state, Clarkson moves beyond traditional scholarship on immigration research. Furthermore, he extends the concept of immigrant to refer to a wide variety of groups whose residency status in West Germany differed considerably, including displaced persons, political refugees, guest workers, and foreign students. In all cases, the political activities of these diverse groups brought conflicts from within their home countries to the attention of the affluent West German postwar society. Clarkson offers intriguing examples of the complex interactions between institutions and immigrant groups. Ukrainian émigré organizations, for instance, successfully reactivated their wartime contacts with influential West German elites. These networks helped secure West German institutional and financial resources for Ukrainian activist groups as allies in their fight against communism. This anticommunist coalition broke down with Konrad Adenauer’s decision to establish diplomatic relationships with the Soviet Union. With the sociopolitical changes in the Federal Republic, including the new SPD/FDP coalition government of 1969, Ukrainian emigrants lost West Germany’s political backing. In contrast, Croatian exile organizations [End Page 224] were unable to reestablish meaningful collaboration with their Nazi-era contacts. In the 1950s, the alliance with the radical nationalists opposing Tito had already turned into a political and moral burden, and their—sometimes violent—activities could not be sanctioned by the Federal Republic. Clarkson’s overview of the conflict surrounding Algerian refugees in West Germany demonstrates the increasingly supportive position of the Social Democrats, then in the opposition, to immigrant organizations during the 1960s. Because the majority of Croatian and particularly Spanish and Greek immigrants were skilled or semiskilled laborers, the Social Democrats saw a domestic and foreign policy opportunity to distinguish their party from the CDU-led government. Contact to Spanish and Greek laborers was part of party chair Willy Brandt’s foreign policy platform in order to consolidate the Socialist International and strengthen the southern European democratic Left while also hindering a shift toward Soviet-style communism. When the SPD finally took over the leadership of the new government in 1969, they had established strong contacts to fledgling leftwing democratic movements in Spain and Greece. Yet this support of leftist activism among Southern European groups in West Germany did nothing to improve the Social Democratic leadership’s understanding of the larger plight of migrant workers in the Federal Republic. Even under the Brandt and Schmidt governments, it became evident that domestic policy, state institutions, and the public were either unprepared or unwilling to confront the political, social, and cultural challenges posed by foreign workers. Here, Clarkson’s work implicitly reiterates the conclusions of established scholarly literature on the subject without explicitly framing it within that historiography. Similarly, it is unclear why Clarkson placed the case of Iranian activist groups as the final chapter and thereby broke the chronological flow of the book. The public protests against the Shah regime at the end of the 1960s served as both a forerunner and a beacon of hope for the Extraparliamentary Opposition (Außerparlamentarische Opposition, APO). In contrast to the other exile groups, the Federal Republic openly opposed the Iranian activist community, viewing the Shah regime as an indispensable ally against the Soviet Union. Moreover, West German intelligence agencies suspected that the Iranian relationship with the APO was a cover for informal connections to East Germany’s Ministry for State Security (MfS or the Stasi). Clarkson concentrates almost exclusively on the state’s actions, particularly those of the intelligence agencies that monitored the activities of the various migrant communities. In his conclusion, Clarkson...

Which ‘C’ Are You Talking About? Critical Meets Cultural IPE

This review article maps the positions of critical and cultural IPE within this diverse field. To this end, I propose a stylised analogy as a heuristic mapping device. Think of IPE as a parliamentary polity with elections at regular intervals. There is the majority group of the incumbent government, which remains confident of running things properly despite the occasional mistake; there is the parliamentary opposition, which promises to run things differently from within the established institutions; and, finally, there is the extra-parliamentary opposition, which pushes for radical change from outside the dedicated platforms for political contestation. In this analogy, orthodox IPE acts like the government majority, cultural IPE like the parliamentary opposition and critical IPE like the extra-parliamentary opposition of the discipline. Similar to political alternatives that bring about only marginal change, however, this double opposition does not fully destabilise the underpinnings of the discipline. Applying post-racist insights from the works of John M. Hobson and J. M. Blaut, I instead contend that both ‘C’ strands are themselves riddled with unacknowledged traces of Eurocentric ontologies and epistemologies, albeit to different degrees. For the sake of informed research and teaching, it is necessary to reveal, unravel and overcome such foundational limitations. The review article is structured as follows. I begin with a summary of each volume to highlight what the contributors respectively regard as ‘critical’ and ‘cultural’ analyses of the global political economy. Next, I employ the analogy of the parliamentary polity to assess the engagements of critical and cultural IPE with orthodox IPE. In a related step, I discuss how Eurocentrism afflicts even these decidedly non-orthodox strands and why their limitations matter to the wider discipline. I conclude with a call for mapping further the territory where critical and cultural IPE meet.

Antropologia rewolucji w RFN i Polsce w latach 1970–1979 w perspektywie porównawczej i historycznej

The nineteen seventies number among the most interesting periods of post-war times. They included the Vietnam war, the Hippie movement in the United States, the Socialist movement in Western Europe and the policy of ‘Détente’ in the East-West relationships. It was the extra-parliamentary opposition that gave birth to the extreme-left (terrorist) movements in Germany and worker protests in Poland, which, in turn, set about fighting the authorities and changing the relationships in their country. It was a time of rapid, dynamic changes and involvement. In the opinion of the participants in those processes themselves, they brought about a release, they constituted an apotheosis of a freedom such as they would probably never again experience in their lifetimes. These were the years of anti-authoritarian rebellion, of risking one’s own life and of international contacts of various kinds; they were the years which were to change the two countries and their history forever. The Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction) in Germany and the Workers’ Defence Committee in Poland were the two groups which spurred the great mobilisation of the societies in both countries. They provoked the events which were talked about, which were lived, the events which, transforming themselves into a great cause-and-effect machine, introduced changes that gave rise to effects, we have continued to experience to this day. Both groups had a similar genesis; they were rooted in political opposition and revolutionary purpose and they brought about immense consequences for the two societies, for politicians and for history.

The Extra-Parliamentary Opposition(Die Außerparlamentarische Opposition (APO)) in the 1 960s West Germany

Extra parliament Opposition(Außerparlamentarische Opposition, hereafter APO) was social phenomenon that represent west German society in the 1960 s. T he Emergency l aw a nd g rand coalition resulted i n APO. C hancellor, Kiesinger criticized this student movement and he regarded this movement as other form of fascism. Frankfurt school also criticized Duschke’s violence and radicality. At first through support of Frankfurt school, APO could be activated, but by Dutschke’s radicality and his assassination, APO was faced with direct criticism of Frankfurt school. The situation also changed. The end of grand coalition, Nixon’s detente and Vietnam policy weakened the justification of student movement. So, we can judge the dissolution of APO resulted from these internal and international situation rather than criticism for the violence of APO.<BR> In this study, we examine the process that extreme left movement changed into extreme radical movement, the correlation between Frankfurt school that was the theoretical basis of APO and APO. The SPD’s change from 1959 and cooperation for Emergency law through grand coalition paved the way for spreading APO. The left relied on SPD any more, should take their own line for social problem. Basically As APO was generational cultural conflict and resistance, this movement could not help reaching the limit in itself and become radicalization. We can judge APO was important context that enable to understand FRG’s social aspect 1960s.

Policing of Political Protest. The Security Police's Control of the Extra-parliamentary Opposition in Sweden During and after the Cold War

Throughout history, those in power have monitored and exercised control over individuals and groups who have been perceived as representing some form of threat to their power. Irrespective of the system of government in place, political crime is a matter of central interest to a society's security police. Political crimes are often committed by extra-parliamentary groups or organizations. The focus of this paper is how the Swedish secret police (SÄPO) have acted against what they have perceived as the extreme left, mainly anarchists and autonomists, during and after the cold war. Did SÄPO's perception of this part of the extra-parliamentary opposition change when the cold war was over in the early 1990s? Were these groups and individuals perceived as the new enemy in the threat vacuum that temporarily arose in the aftermath of the cold war? Furthermore, had the new security concept that was introduced at that time any impact on SÄPO's activities?

From a suppressed anti-communist dissident movement to a governing party: the transformations of FIDESZ in Hungary

FIDESZ, as an outlawed protest movement of the Kádár era, has preserved their specific type of “outlawed and clandestine” political tradition and identity. A strong anti-communism, a popular mobilizing strategy and an atmosphere of hatred towards the agents of Hungary’s communist past remained within the political culture of the party from the suppressed underground movement. The political generation of leading activists, including current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been socialized in the “underground” of the eighties. The experience of “being outlawed” under the Communist system has had longlasting effects on them. The “myths”, symbols, and “fights” of the suppressed protest movements keep themselves alive in the new political culture in the present goals and strategies of FIDESZ-MPP. The former protest movement transformed itself into a minority party with liberal affiliations in the new parliament of 1990. However, as the Hungarian Liberal Party (SZDSZ) moved into a governing alliance with the successor to the Communist party, FIDESZ moved to the right, becoming its leading force. Competition between five centre-right parties led to FIDESZ’s control as the leader of a centre-right government (1998-2002). While the socialists (MSZP) and liberals (SZDSZ) became governing forces twice (2002-2010), FIDESZ became a mobilizing populist party, gaining hegemony within the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition. The economic and financial crisis assisted FIDESZ in mobilizing protest, leading the FIDESZ-KDNP alliance to a two–thirds majority victory in the 2010 elections.

Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany's 1968 Generation and the Holocaust (review)

Reviewed by: Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany's 1968 Generation and the Holocaust Susanne Bressan Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany's 1968 Generation and the Holocaust, by Hans Kundnani. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. 374 pp. $27.50. As the German historian Norbert Frei puts it, 1968 is "over-commented and under-investigated." This particularly holds true for German publications dealing with the West-German student movement coping with the Nazi past. Whereas scientists are only beginning to pick out the 1968 activists' handling of the Nazi past as a central subject for investigation, the public debate on this topic is dominated by accusations, polemics, and self-justifications. Kundnani's journalist-style monograph is a refreshing and stimulating exception. He formulates a clear hypothesis and, based on two main currents and its ramifications, traces the 1968 generation's ambivalent handling of the role of their parents' generation in Nazi Germany up to the present. Most of Kundnani's sources are taken from secondary literature, which is only partially available in English. Supplemented with interviews he conducted with about 40 former student movement activists in Germany, Britain, and France, it is the well-contextualized, dense, and compelling way Kundnani presents these sources alongside the theoretical threads that makes the book interesting for experts, as well as for a general public. Revolutionaries of 1968 in many western states based their thinking and acting on a credo Kundnani calls the "provocation thesis": In acting against [End Page 193] the state in such a harsh manner that provoked even harsher reactions, the democratic system would show its authoritarian character. Only this exposure would make the mass follow the vanguard in its revolutionary struggle. The West German 1968 activists, however, differed from their "comrades" around the world in one crucial aspect: In other western states, accusations of the political system as "fascist" had a more or less metaphorical character, whereas in West Germany former Nazis in fact were members of the government, judges, university professors, and, above all, their parents. Not distinguishing between these personal and mental continuities on the one side, and the structural break in the political system of Germany on the other side, the protagonists of the West German student movement, or, more precisely, "extra-parliamentary opposition" (Außerparlamentarische Opposition—APO), conceived the Federal Republic as a still fascist state. Kundnani calls this the "continuity thesis." These two main theses were adopted by two conflicting groups. The first conceived of Germans as perpetrators, as deep-rooted Nazis. "Auschwitz" was the central point of reference in this national-skeptic concept. The second saw Germans as victims and sufferers. From this perspective, Germany only could evolve into a better society by being liberated from its "occupying powers", i.e., the United States and the Soviet Union. In both of these concepts, however, the main evil lay in imperialism and capitalism. Furthermore, up to the dissolution of the rebellion, both concepts lead to the same conclusion: The current society would inevitably end up in a new, worldwide fascism unless a global socialist revolution occurred. Either Utopia or Auschwitz. And a second "Auschwitz" would be worse than the first. Therefore, the APO activists had to organize themselves as "resistance." As members of the "resistance," they consequently would be persecuted by the state. Indeed, at the highpoint of the rebellion from 1967 to 1968, police officers, media, and the public in many cases reacted in such a physically or rhetorically violent manner that it could be easily taken as confirmation of the APO activists' view. Nazi analogies were used by all parties involved in the conflict. Some activists even perceived themselves as new "Jews." It was in the aftermath of "1968", that the pathologies of the APO activists' concept of resistance manifested themselves in attacks of physical violence aimed at Jews. Most strikingly these outputs of "exonerating projection" (Dan Diner) were exemplified by the planned bomb attack on a commemoration of the Kristallnacht at the Jewish community center in West Berlin on November 9, 1969—the bomb did not explode, but only due to a technical failure—and the hijacking of an airplane on its flight from Tel Aviv to Paris in 1976, when Wilfried Böse, a...

1989 und die Folgen. Deutsche Gegenwartsgeschichte im Nachwendefilm

Schlöndorffs Filme Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum und Die Stille nach dem Schuss spiegeln in signifikanter Weise einen Wandel des intellektuellen Diskurses über Politik in Deutschland nach 1945, zugleich konturieren sie ihn mit unterschiedlichen ästhetischen Mitteln. Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum rekonstruiert die ideologische Situation des Jahres 1968, in der Schlöndorff in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Böll eine markante Position bezieht, die Stille nach dem Schuss skizziert demgegenüber eine Bewusstseinslage, in der erstmals nach der Wende des Jahres 1989 die politischen und ideologischen Widersprüche innerhalb der früheren DDR und die Aufarbeitung der Stasivergangenheit offen thematisiert werden. Dabei beleuchtet Schlöndorff zugleich kritisch die eigene Haltung als westlicher Intellektueller gegenüber der DDR und im vereinigten Deutschland. Dagegen machen die neueren Filme Der Baader Meinhof Komplex und Die innere Sicherheit auf je unterschiedliche Weise die Neubewertung der Außerparlamentarischen Opposition und der Baader Meinhof Gruppe deutlich, die ebenfalls nach 1989 einsetzt. Dabei führt der Film von Eichinger und Edel zu einer Historisierung und ideologiekritischen Entheroisierung, seine Präsentation einer Phase der politischen Opposition in Deutschland wird mit Mitteln des action-Films entfaltet. Petzolds Film dagegen zeigt die Folgen dieser Bewegung in der für die „Berliner Schule" typischen Konzentration auf das Private.