This Book is not about the events of a bygone era but rather about the edifice that has been constructed on top of these events by academics, writers, and the media. While the generation of 68ers is retiring from the limelight, their erstwhile disruption, their belief in the possibility and necessity of fundamental change, is endlessly reexamined, amplified, mythologized, and instrumentalized. This book demonstrates that the unity of thought, feeling, and action, the clarity of purpose associated with the cypher “1968,”1 has become a holy grail and a black hole, an obsession for a cultural elite of intellectuals, writers, and opinion makers. It shows how the resultant myth of “1968” has entered the imagination of the many through the writings of the few, and continues to determine cultural production and political decision-making. This process cannot go on indefinitely—decisions have to be made whether Germany can integrate the memory of “1968” into its political culture, either by accepting the tenets of the movement as a moral touchstone or by rejecting them as romantic relapse. This is not just important for insider debates in the German media, academia, or literature but also for Germany's political and cultural identity. The construction of “1968” into a “magic moment” both unassailable and unattainable has dominated debates for almost five decades, and arguably affected the country's ability to play its part on the global stage. By revealing the discourse on “1968” as largely constructed, my research will enable readers to see this process more clearly.

This book takes a conscious stand vis-à-vis one of the key debates about the legacy of “1968.” I argue that there is a clear difference between the idealistic aspirations of a broad movement of young people rebelling against what they perceived to be an authoritarian political system, and the subsequent violent actions of a few.2 In spite of many attempts to make all 68ers responsible for the terrorism of the Red Army Faction in the 1970s, the fact remains that the German student movement had run its course by the time the RAF was founded. The book is also unapologetic about its insistence on the continuing relevance of “1968” for political and cultural discourses in Germany.