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play nine hundred sixty eight was an important year for this man students were protesting in west germany. love love love love and a pub sing a hunch i had his first big hit was. the slogan of the mood was explosive a lot of people were restless but i was at the opposite end of the spectrum for them all. the song mama hit the charts on january fifteenth nineteen sixty eight. on the same day thousands of students demonstrated in braman against a prize fight the tram tickets it led to the new his first street battle between junk people and police. told lovely a lovely. yes was. it

germany at sixty eight the start of the transition to a modern society and a year of stock cultural social and political contrasts as average germans enjoyed the music of high and czech students took to the streets with their demands for change last year hines human celebrated fifty years on stage with a christmas concert to one. thousand times. and city fired at one thousand nine hundred sixty eight was his year i think kind she had for number one hits on the german charts or she hit pop and my mother like all middle aged women at the time love to find you out of an art she wished she could have a son like i'm sad for her and she was winded mizoram had to zero. vic shan has always been a bit of a rebel nowadays he works as

a yoga teacher and fifty years ago it was the protestors not cruncher who impressed and influenced him or not enough in this instance for nine hundred sixty eight was a wild time devices i was thirteen years old then at that age you question everything with a slogan or people were saying to think for yourself think outside the box to stop behaving and being practical quite hard to let a thousand flowers bloom that's bloom box and. as hunches music played on radio stations across west germany demonstrators held protests against the government coalition and demanded social reforms. you will find siemens grew up in many of poverty in the netherlands the student protests were completely foreign to him. you.

knew i was raised in a small town and people didn't talk much about all that and when they did they clearly didn't like it much they didn't understand what was going on and they had no time for god and it's our true. west germany was a prosperous country at the time. they lead a quiet life she likes to knit he enjoys handicrafts but still working. in the west german countryside there were few calls for radical change most residents of up of the various skeptical annamarie vishal later became a conservative m.p. in the state parliament but in one nine hundred sixty eight she wasn't terribly interested in politics me here. is a bit we discussed politics at home. my father was a district up. fishel and the local mad as a but i thought politics was kind of boring as on the beaked. annamarie was

nineteen at the time and studying home economics at school west germany's new emergency laws general strikes street battles in france and the viet nam war were not on her list of top priorities but these issues were certainly important to a lot of other people. if i did side talking so much with we started wearing buttons and badges that had a political message like i'm against the vietnam war people didn't join the big political parties but they didn't want to be part of the political structure they paid a sign and hit the streets and i thought it was a refreshing approach. efficient finish. and it seemed like those people were against everything. we worked on they protested do they went to university but they got all upset about things and started causing trouble. and we didn't understand it was this hope of it in the first line father my father was

a coal miner we let a fairly quiet life we were isolated from all that on. some local residents would see young people sitting around and say if they had jobs they wouldn't come up with all these stupid ideas within. fifty years ago barbara cursed i would not have taken such comments kindly she was studying sociology at the time and was drawn to the protest movement many of the student demonstrators were concerned about the country's nazi past. when it unbalances my parents were not serious ideologically at least i was always arguing with them about it and sometimes it got nasty that i get so mad i didn't read in the face but i do it anyway. to screw up being. told we were being discussed i was attracted to the socialist german student union or s.d.s. a left wing opposition organization the group was especially upset about what it

considered the rigid structure of west germany universities. i just do it and i but if they would stand up during a lecture and interrupted you'd be sitting there and someone from the s.d.s. would get up and start asking questions and that would put a stop to the lecture they called it blasting and i thought it was great it would get fired after. i was passed out soon joined the s.d.s. she supported the organizations message but didn't care much for the messengers. it disintegrates and they weren't classy guys who drove around in sports cars and they really didn't appeal to me as men as the hamley as in the book before they were rather scruffy. on the other hand they looked like intellectual

or most people's image of intellectuals they were smart and they were captivating speakers or at least that's what i thought at the time. give us come get us a. pretty detailed was a prominent s.t.s. spokesman demanded radical changes in west german society. our country has undergone a process of restoration since ninety forty five existed but there has been no process of democratization in all sectors of our society. and that is why we can't speak of a democratic authoritarian state the fascism of the past does not exist today but it has crept into various institutions and continues to function that the sexes. that was basically the concept oppose authority. that included the authority of the police by. those who fail to comply will be subject to arrest and possible

prosecution. was a police officer for more than forty years in one nine hundred sixty eight he drove around west berlin in a patrol car like this one. i joined the west berlin police force in one nine hundred sixty. back then it was a very respectable job one knows what it's is or a museum. was. but in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight students saw the police as representatives of state authority and confronted them you know more and more not often safety there were demonstrations almost every day in one nine hundred sixty eight. and half of them were not peaceful there for as the police reports show. but i think this all started the year before

in one nine hundred sixty seventh one for you on. things really started heating up on june second one thousand nine hundred sixty seven when the shah of iran visited west berlin struck for nine months in or not as he was asked to explain to you what he charges all were and. i was one of the officers assigned to the shah's motorcade and those. who don't know. i was students protested against the shah's visit they said that iran was a dictatorship that allowed the use of torture in prisons so the police responded with force to demonstrations that turned violent i one protester been on us or was shot and killed by a police officer was one was all that was a real shock shock i thought it was going to be open season on demonstrators and see it's to playing. foreigners old's death was moving throughout west

germany he became a master of the protest movement as it continued its campaign against state authority. little italo we've been subjected to police brutality as well it's a good and in future clashes with the police will be expected to intervene soon and perhaps even the military. we will have to respond in an appropriate way that's fielded and vocal loose in the ivy quad for. many young people rejected the party and they didn't want to fifteen in societies throughout the western world the winds of change was sweeping through politics fashion and music in britain some angry new bands were making exciting music. they have been in prison there from bring me live free here in london and photograph some of these bands like the who. said the.

prison it was amazed by what she found in britain especially the fashion design is . the catalyst others in london anything was possible and nobody got upset about this or that some people were very conservative and some were really bizarre but they seemed to get along is the families need my landa yes things were changing in britain no it isn't but west germany still lags behind so i provided people with the fashions that hadn't arrived here yet this is not new stuff. friends you know i'm going to be teak in braman in nine hundred sixty seven. we made the craziest clothes you could imagine for men and women as my father thought i'd lost my mind and that i could not possibly go out dressed like the ticking of the. skirts and trousers were becoming tighter and shorter

they've been enough of a variable with anna maria to be sure lived. this volatile that was the start that we saw that right away we could be but we were more moderate than people were in the big cities we did things more slowly. so we might shorten all scots by a sense. some things that. i . can still remember how men would get excited because women were wearing the short skirts even their own partners by won the argument. i don't want to see anything like that really no absolutely not the name.

has been off just cause i'm just people would come up to me on the street and call me a prostitute because i wore a short skirt and smoked cigarettes that's just wrong when you're twenty one things like that affect you think first you're shocked and then you decide to fight the package like. they did to me not since as i guess is pushed. it was even easier to cause the scene in east germany in one nine hundred sixty s. in the town of show despite all this some city for example. western fashion and music managed to penetrate the iron curtain for students got together and founded a group called the rolling stones club shows.

we felt like we didn't fit in because we like western music so much and we tried to express that in the way we dressed. for fun for some people a part of others just shook their heads up but. we attracted attention to ourselves in school but we didn't back down especially in civics class with others as we were all. he's together and made quite an impression on the local residents would quibble. between a vague also like the steins the singer songwriter was just twenty years old in one nine hundred sixty eight best known song is kinda. thing out. of my need a lot of god in. the song can be seen as a protest against authoritarian oppression big not a mother of three grew up in a spending money they don't like her parents she is

a committed socialist big now and her parents became increasingly dissatisfied with the situation in east germany and started speaking out. of my needs. divine intervention i am corners we were trapped in a communist system. we would like to have experience communism socialism would have been fine to. yeah but without censorship rules so that you can decide for yourself what you want to read and so forth are stored fascination. with bacon i trained as a librarian but she focused on her music and even sang until. i . meet. them in my time. the east german communist party ruled the country with an iron

head and. made a vow to all break had been party leaders since nine hundred fifty. were going to vote in this totalitarian regime there was no freedom of expression or freedom of the press i don't know that verged on one party control even extended to daycare centers and kindergartens. order scoopers it was pure indoctrination but i didn't get anything like that at hand i think but i did in kindergarten and later in school i was. there all sorts of slogans like we are the better germany there are no nazis here course. that was a lie. in the nazis but give off. the communist party had less influence in the town assuredness valda knew the czechoslovak border the catholic church saw to that. for the kids in the rolling

stones club it was a mix of music and religious faith. but because our parents told us that the government lied all the time to make itself look good but the church gave us a place where we could experience truth we could talk to each other without being afraid to. tell you what the church stood for freedom of expression or use and also for western youth culture. freedom of expression without fear or without having to keep quiet or stay out of sight so. young people were rebelling against the political and social system that was then implies. lines written. in the rules that only. was a steelworker and in one nine hundred sixty eight heinz was a trainee at steel giant. working class young people were also fed up with

our stuffy society we want to hear whopper tuner days across the board. people were demonstrating for change even though the cultural centers. what i couldn't take part because i was working at a crop i was a trainee clerk so i had to wear a suit and tie on. that's the way it was a group. to play. heinz began his training in the middle of a crisis in the steel industry there was less demand for coal in the one nine hundred sixty s. and west germany was producing too much steel tens of thousands of steel workers would soon lose their jobs including three thousand in bochum alone by december one nine hundred sixty seven. had had enough.

that's when they shut down the blast furnace and all the workers were crying like they'd just lost a loved one in the situation turned me overnight into a left wing radical and i didn't have to read karl marx to do it so when i wanted to change the world and i wanted to keep those still jobs the company could not treat its workers like that and. there were. strikes and protests much in sixty eight saw an increase in tensions between the generations and between economic and social classes and those tensions spilled out onto the streets. in january school students in bremen protested an increase in the process of trying to cut so they occupied the city center for a week and blocked the tracks the police were ordered to crack down on the hot.

students set up at evin prison as fashion boutique before the demonstrations the phrasing of it was about more than money thanks this kinko's poncy it was a matter of principle the students didn't like being patronized they said this can't go on we won't stand for it. thank you i. i the protest was the success of britain's men to cancel the fare increase. meanwhile students and trainees in bochum also protested against fare increases written mark took part in the demonstrations. the us was only it was the first time we've done anything like that i've already talked us to for two or three days and that it was over a boy but it gave us new and such we had to deal with the police violence but we

also learned that we could change that. of us mom and change was in the air even in eastern europe gives him us but after all nine hundred sixty eight was also the year of the prague spring some people felt that things were about to change that is what's it for us for and it's tutsi for us alexander dubcek took over as the leader of czechoslovakia as communist party in. you were in one nine hundred sixty eight and soon tried to implement some cautious reforms people in other east bloc countries were paying close attention to these developments. just look at. the third way and socialism with a human face that was really something that people were excited about it just like they welcome the new youth culture yeah look jack thought it was great i don't feel what we hate that his reforms would spread through east germany or this and that

they would take hold of me as well as the east german authorities put a stop to that in a hurry that was the end of our hopes but i'm not just the hopes of young people in other third. you know it's this issue on bond today i'll tell you what the thinking at the time among our parents and others was be careful guidance as it were in a political we could talk about politics among ourselves yes but they never would walk. your feet i think. that some was german students were more concerned about the situation in viet nam in february the s.t.'s organized an international conference on the war it was held at the instant nickel university leftists sought to condemn western imperialism in general and u.s. policy in viet nam in particular five thousand people packed the whole this time it was professes we disrupted the event. because maybe we have jeju what's going on

here the conference is over i was a week. there followed a demonstration through the streets of west berlin led by rudy about fifteen thousand people took part to show solidarity with the communist fighters in viet nam. police officer peter vehicle was on duty that day he couldn't quite figure out what the protesters were trying to it. shave. twenty's congressman warmly who should have a fall at first they just wanted university reforms and put it to sure he then they started getting political with lots of socialist and communist rhetoric so this. is where he has a corner as the mind. for the people of west berlin didn't care much for that is pretty and neither did i. organise but he knew the most west berlin and saw the us as their main defense against communism counter-demonstrators attacked the

protest as they considered rudy ditch a troublemaker four days later more than one hundred thousand people gathered outside the town hall the mission of the district to show their support for the united states and to express their opposition to the student demonstrators is especially to check out my. face on a still weekend was shot in the head by an assailant reported to be an anti communist died years later from complications. attacked. we knew there were going to be protests. there hours or if i was on duty for five straight days that's. the course we were where we saw the pictures the students in west berlin links arms the march to the yacht was.

that. he built so i can cut your gum out of the newspaper build whipped up sentiment against the students ok on the somerset this contributed to the attack on dutch gotta. bill tucker because. this led to the easter riots demonstrators much to the headquarters of the spring a company which published build some wanted to stop the delivery of newspapers others wanted to break into the building there were clashes with police a student and a press photographer were killed four hundred other people were injured right before. it was tough for my wife to see all that violence so far as a bit out of life finally got up duty at three in the morning on easter sunday. and i went home to change my clothes my underwear.

student anger had been building up against the spring of publications for months there were calls for the government to take over the company it was. later mentioned we were being used but i didn't think much about it this slogan expropriate spring or today oh it's a big deal someone else will take over but we didn't think like that at the time there was no way that i wanted to see a communist takeover but i was right out there shouting communist logan's i guess we didn't have anything better we could say five. hundred news of the student protests spread to east germany the kids in the rolling stones club made tape recordings of western radio stations mostly music but also news reports on the demonstrations they couldn't understand why the students were so angry when spoken

those photos when we couldn't figure out why people who had freedom would get so upset that i couldn't anyway i didn't find out what it all meant until much later the fish little bit because it didn't look good. by thought leaders should come to east germany and study. as it was while my office on. this spring a company was not broken up and the newspaper continued to sell but demonstrators in munich stepped up their campaign. visit jeff reilly went to the spring our headquarters in munich and to our great surprise we actually managed to get inside . you know us well what were we going to do now i had no idea and neither did anyone else as you don't think it's not like you discussed it in advance i think we didn't put up a flag or anything but we did get inside as up as you volunteered. in the end the protests against spring i didn't achieve very much.

and to the west german middle class seemed blissfully content. they watched peter alexander and all she lost on t.v. and hunch too few realized that the country was descending into political and social chaos. back back i it was a year old i was too young to understand what was going on so i went to school and played football i figured if they want to demonstrate lot of. the villain vich them took a very different view of that year's events otherwise he wouldn't have become a yoga teacher inventor and the victory card to view of the mobility of the spine indicates how well do you feel.

there was more to nine hundred sixty eight than just confrontation. does it exists you go i believe the events of that year went well beyond politics of. the messages of nine hundred sixty eight for me which were go to san francisco and put some flowers in your hair and all you need is love all you need is love. residential communities usually consisting of perfect strangers will organize in big cities it will. an indication that society was becoming more open and commune served as an alternative to traditional family structures. that's why because if you look at the same girl twice you were already part of the establishment in a commune and you could sleep with anyone that was actually quite sexist the women didn't have that choice but all we didn't necessarily want to open. one guy told me

that he hated that because he was in love with his wife oh but he was only there on tuesday otherwise it was anything goes that just doesn't work that can false and yet. still it was a popular phenomenon in rural communities young people withdrew from consumer based society and the conventional social framework. of a few home experiment people experimented with different lifestyles and some tried organic farming or meditation or political work or social work people tried out different structures but i don't know whether it worked for them or god if you what's it you could come. i mean while the s.t.s. continued to try to change west germany's political and social system. in many nine

hundred sixty eight they took to the streets again to protest a series of emergency laws that gave increased powers to the police and military they also demonstrated against the grand coalition government of chancellor court. i think. the more i hear this kind of screaming the more i realize how important it is to maintain order in our country i the protests didn't achieve much but people in east germany were watching these events closely. zone. we don't like to be able to demonstrate to you. but everyone knew that we have been charged with unlawful assembly impact off to jail. so you feel for i was or the. we knew that we'd never be able to do it. but we still watch the protests with interest in it and with some sadness and hope for the top of he or d.

holmes a huge but the demonstrators in the west didn't care about us at all as a vietnam once yeah we cared about them we watched on t.v. as they occupied their universities and it was that. we actually dreamed about doing that. meanwhile the communist authorities were moving ahead with a massive renovation project at leipzig university volatile albrecht is said to have personally ordered the destruction of the historic church of simple on the university campus martin luther led the dedication ceremony at the church in fifteen forty five and johannes sebastian bach served as a music director from seventeen twenty three to twenty five. meanwhile some two hundred kilometers away in sugar's father the four members of

the rolling stones group were outraged. that. they found out from a clergyman that the church was to be destroyed. this year with a local clergyman told us about it was sort of all we knew right away that we had to do something so we decided to make some posters. if we drew a silhouette of the church our church. then the question had they ever heard of the university church of like tickets for lunch and then it holds had already been bored in the walls for the explosive charges. then the main point what al of bombers had failed to destroy was about to be obliterated by our own government yet what our church be next that was striking we wanted to get people's attention. as well i got you. a small protest in a far away town had no impact on the authorities in leipzig on may thirtieth one

thousand nine hundred sixty eight the church of some pull was destroyed. back in show because of all the police questioned the four young men brothers mathias and andreas were publicly criticised at school and expelled. from. the headmaster came in and all the other kids said we don't want that guy in our class. but the headmaster said a few words and i left the room i was close to tears. and i played football and other sports with those guys but is not one of them stood up for me i guess they were afraid of what might happen to them if they did so we had to change schools as well the new over there. to us we were humiliated right there in the

classroom with them all they need to important band in the hour long and then we had to go to the auditorium and fall i understand there are condemned us for slandering the east german state it is catch a foul he said. at the same time in west germany the demonstrations against the emergency laws will reach their climax. students in frankfurt occupied the university campus. barbara starr was there. thank you and hope the border is just like the rector's office was located in the main building of the protesters broke down the front door because it was made of glass. and after they broke it down they ran inside it. thank you i thank.

if i was there in fact i broke down the glass door to my i'm glad the statute of limitations has run out i broke down the door. i tore down a plaque through it through the glass which i the occupation continued for two days been the police moved. i know. there were also protests in boston and students and workers joined forces the students broke into the local office of the german confederation of trade unions the protesters said it was part of the authoritarian structure but for some workers the demonstration went too far. i could. not get off someone said oh my father's retirement files are in their mentor throwing out stuff out the

window so now he's not going to get his pension oh but we were fighting for his shoes that were important to us the workers didn't seem to understand that i mean these manners that led to the split between them and us of our just shot at. the emergency laws came into effect on june twenty eighth the protest movement was starting to lose momentum international events now took center stage. in all this the soviet union supported by four of the warsaw pact states invaded czechoslovakia this marks the end of the proc spring and the hope of a free social. big man had just given birth to her first child she and her friends were horrified by the invasion and held protests against it. for in the form of you know through public office some of my friends handed out leaflets and were arrested. and then i thought if someone else hands up the

leaflets maybe my friends won't be held guilty or. spy your mind on us or. under someone who believed in socialism i decided that i have to do something. the list of what must be. very rushed her own leaflets by hand and then distributed them. at the same time in czechoslovakia communist party chief alexander to check urged his people not to resist the warsaw pact invasion his support among the population was so great that the citizens engaged the occupation troops and political discussions and street fighting. soviet leaders tried to get to change to roll back the reforms. between

a vague note was arrested convicted on charges of slandering the state and sentenced to a year in prison. militia talk to much jewish children in court the judge asked me whether i thought about my child's future i said i had to i did what i have to do for the child's sake and that this was a major political and moral decision for me. what if my son at the age of twenty had asked me what did you do to resist them i could tell him the. protests in west germany against the soviet invasion didn't attract much attention some radical german leftists even expressed support for the soviet union. to give you what you just guess was a unified movement for just a short period of time i bought into a thousand smaller groups. about a his s.d.s. women's council as appeared in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight and took up the cause of women's rights part of it stated many s.d.s.

members claimed that their male counterparts didn't take them seriously and also complained about gender discrimination within the organization activist helka sanda took action to help not only. our initial efforts to correct the situation failed so we've called. out of the s.d.s. and of started over an organization. in november nineteenth sixty eight the s.d.s. organized a big demonstration in west berlin to coincide with the trial of a protester who'd been arrested during the easter riots the demonstration soon turned violent the debate over whether it was appropriate to use violence created deep divisions within the student movement some activists favored a more radical approach these included some future members of the red on a faction the guys for sixty eight meant different things to different people the art and that is of the embassy there was absolutely no justification for the way

that some people express their anger and other emotions to this wall of elephant in the thirty fifth dicked military appeal wasn't a revolution as such but it did lead to some other form for a good story split when i learned that it's important to speak out of. this of the . land. fifty years after he first hit the charts his comeback album went straight into the german talk. me flowers. love love. maga. told. to me. because that was. the.

a city that thinks new. thinks differently. but. taking stock of the rapid changes at play in the german capital. our special on. thirty minutes on double. red the real power resides. i come from there and lots of people in fact know then the billion to do so but not as democracy to me that's one reason

why i'm passionate about people and aspirations and they can sense. to finishing the book is fried chicken but and after the fourth book of mine in one i remember thinking at the time if the bali unbroken for what happened to see her come together and unite for a call. but i do the news that often confronted difficult situations more conflict between does something still i see despite my job to confront floods he does on policies and development to put the spotlight and issues that matter most congo food security precious national niceties and. a notch has been achieved but so much more needs to be done and i think people have to be accountable solutions my name is on the top sheet on and i want fifty downfield.

germany's interior minister and leader of the christian social union party has offered his resignation from both posts following a major rift with chancellor angela merkel over migration policy but horse a ho first says will meet again with merkel's conservative c.d.u. party later today in an effort to find common ground before making it is.