Writing and the West German Protest Movements

The 1960s protest movements marked an astonishing moment for West Germany. They developed a political critique, but are above all distinctive for their overwhelming emphasis on culture and the symbolic. In particular, reading and writing had a uniquely prestigious status for West German protesters, who produced an extraordinary textual culture ranging from graffiti and flyers to agit-prop poetry and autobiographical prose. By turns witty, provocative, reflective and offensive, the avantgarde roots of anti-authoritarianism are as palpable in their texts as their debt to high literature. But due to this culture’s (apparently) anti-literary tone, it has often remained illegible to traditional criticism. This volume presents close readings and analyses of emblematic examples of texts, some forgotten, others better known, embedding them in historical, cultural, theoretical and aesthetic context, and illuminating representative moments and preoccupations in anti-authoritarian culture, from the Vietnam War to the Nazi past, to dirt and hygiene. They outline an anti-authoritarian poetics and uncover some of the texts’ latent content, revealing often hidden tensions and contradictions, above all in relation to the German past and questions of authority

Dada in the Underground: Linkeck and West Berlin’s Anti-Authoritarian Newspapers, 1968–69

This article explores the importance of periodicals for the 1960s protest movements in West Germany. It opens with the significance of both mainstream news media and New Left journals. Attention then turns to a different class of periodical, the anti-authoritarian underground newspaper, examined here through one emblematic example, linkeck [leftangle], which was produced in a centre of revolt, West Berlin, in 1968–69. While linkeck had limited circulation and was short-lived, it achieved notoriety and gave rise to a series of successors. To understand linkeck’s impact and meanings, this article comments on its origins in an anti-authoritarian commune and its philosophy on work, politics and relationships; its ephemerality; its influences and interests; its distinctive style and its conflicts with the law. In conclusion, the essay argues that linkeck epitomizes anti-authoritarian themes and form, and that periodicals were the movements’ most characteristic genre. Throughout, the essay also considers key resonances between linkeck and earlier twentieth-century (anti-)artistic avant-gardes, notably Dada

Writing and the West German Protest Movements

The 1960s protest movements marked an astonishing moment for West Germany. They developed a political critique, but are above all distinctive for their overwhelming emphasis on culture and the symbolic. In particular, reading and writing had a uniquely prestigious status for West German protesters, who produced an extraordinary textual culture ranging from graffiti and flyers to agit-prop poetry and autobiographical prose. By turns witty, provocative, reflective and offensive, the avantgarde roots of anti-authoritarianism are as palpable in their texts as their debt to high literature. But due to this culture’s (apparently) anti-literary tone, it has often remained illegible to traditional criticism. This volume presents close readings and analyses of emblematic examples of texts, some forgotten, others better known, embedding them in historical, cultural, theoretical and aesthetic context, and illuminating representative moments and preoccupations in anti-authoritarian culture, from the Vietnam War to the Nazi past, to dirt and hygiene. They outline an anti-authoritarian poetics and uncover some of the texts’ latent content, revealing often hidden tensions and contradictions, above all in relation to the German past and questions of authority