THE TERM 1968 MARKS NEARLY TWO DECADES of unrest, rebellion, and civil disobedience in Germany. Though long over, the sixties and seventies remain a piece of the German past that will not go away. Since 1989 their meaning has gained renewed attention as Germans debate how to anchor the student movement within the history of a now unified Germany — especially in light of the legacy of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Many interpretations consider 1968 the central event that marked the arrival of the Federal Republic in the Western world, an approach confirmed by the end of the GDR in 1989/90. Yet others — particularly following the opening of Stasi files in 1990 — place it within the Cold War constellation of East and West Germany. The victory of a red-green coalition in the federal election of 1998, combined with the thirtieth anniversary of 1968, gave more pause to evaluate the legacy of the period. While voices from the Left claimed former comrades had sold out, those condemning the movement and its “long march through the institutions” called for critical scrutiny of former deeds and misdeeds of the newly elected officials. A result was the plenary session that investigated the most prominent former activist of the new government, Secretary of State Joschka Fischer, and his conduct during the seventies in Frankfurt am Main, where he had participated in street protests that included violent clashes with the police. Following the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, German commentators focused even more on the violence of the period, comparing and contrasting German terrorism in the seventies with global terrorism in the new millennium.

The fortieth anniversary in 2008, like that of ten years before, brings yet another wave of reflection on the meaning of the movement — this time dominated by the now aging “’68ers.” In the same way that the generation who lived during the Third Reich attempted to come to terms with the Nazi past, the participants in the events of the sixties and seventies are now actively shaping their legacy. They collect, analyze, and publish their recollections and work on converting their memories into history in order to maintain the significance of 1968 for the future.