No Account of the Construction of “1968” in Germany would be complete without a look at the curious phenomenon of the Zaungäste (those looking in from the outside—literally over the fence). Initially, this was the term used by journalist Reinhard Mohr in 1992 for his own generation, the “78ers,” who were too young to have participated in 1967/68 but had nevertheless inherited their forebears’ antiauthoritarian values and often wished that they had been part of the action. Given that the SDS had actively targeted schools (initiating the so-called Schülerbewegung [movement of high school students]) to politicize the next generation, it should come as no surprise that many high-school students were eager to follow in the footsteps of their heroes—only to discover that many activists had moved on by the time they themselves left home and started university or jobs. At the same time, we need to remember that the demise of the movement was not a given in 1969 or 1970, that the 68ers had younger siblings, and that each new cohort of eighteen year-olds leaving home could, as one of their life choices, become part of the countercultural milieus that had developed in the wake of the revolt.

This chapter, though, will focus on specific Zaungäste: individuals who were not part of the German student movement and yet are actively engaged in the construction of “1968” by asserting that either their peer group or they themselves were part of it. These are writers, academics, and journalists who have made it their business, in some cases their life's work, to keep the era in the public eye. Much like modern romantics who wish they were living in the fictional worlds of Jane Austen or James Cameron's Avatar, these Zaungäste compensate for their lateness or exclusion by an even stronger identification with the era than shown by the former activists themselves.

Writing the Revolution, Secondhand

“One would have to invent Reinhard Mohr if he didn't already exist— as chronicler of a time that he yearns for, even though he never knew it.” These are the words of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, describing his coauthor on the cover of their book 1968: Die letzte Revolution, die noch nichts vom Ozonloch wußte.