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40 years after the seismic events of 1968 most commentators and publications emphasize the differences between what happened in Prague and Paris, in Berlin, Frankfurt and Warsaw, in Madrid and Athens, Berkeley, or Tokyo. No discussion in this respect, there has been differences in what finally led to the riots and movements in countries all over the world.

 

However even if we agree that the occasions have been different we have to notice that this all happened within a very short period of time between two to three years. Earlier and later there have been a lot of local events and demonstrations, but never such a widespread worldwide explosion at the same time.

 

The second common trait was that in the main the core movement emanated from the state universities. Students have been the leaders of the movements, but in some cases together with young scientists. It was a typical sign that intellectuals were part of this opposition. It was not a workers rebellion; the leaders have not been the officials of trade unions. On the contrary the students wanted to liberate the workers from their labour masters, whom they mostly denunciated as pillars of the old systems.

 

And the third important component was that it had become a cohesive movement. It was not a spontaneous riot as we have seen it in some French baneluies in 2005 or at some German universities for two months in the winter of 1998.

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Picture 1: student protests at Nanterre, France

 

Movements can only continue if there is a core idea and belief which sustains them in the long term. This common idea was the protest against entrenched authorities and structures, or in a positive sense, a more participative engagement by people  After the end of the 2nd World War and the Stalinist period there was a short cooling off-period which led people to hope for more participation at all levels of their social life. Then in the beginning of the 60s policy made steps backwards.

 

These entrenched authorities have been not very different from country to country as some others tried to point it out in the actual discussion: The Communist Party in Prague was as entrenched as the Franco-regime. The students in Warsaw have been confronted by a more or less open anti-Semitism, while in Germany as the first and only time after the Third Reich a Chancellor came to power who had been a member of the Nazi-Party. The students in Berkeley attacked a government which supported dictators in Spain, in Vietnam and Iran. And in Berlin the police protected one of these dictators – and killed a student who was demonstrating against the visit of Shah-in-Shah Reza Pahlevi.

 

The movement had an international dimension from the beginning on and the students used their language potential. The Vietnam War was one aspect, the old (especially Portuguese) and the new (economical) colonialism another one. Therefore in contrary to other youth movements in the first half of the 20th century the 68er have been far away from any nationalistic emotion. It was a contribution to internationalism – and in some aspects to the process of the European unification.

 

Picture 2: a heated debate at a student assembly in Paris, France

 

Students had been confronted each day with – at that time - one of the most entrenched and hierarchical institutions in each state: the universities. Eastern and Western European university representatives had the same mentality, expressed in the same outlook: During their European Rectors Conferences the rectors worn the same gowns, which seemed to be the coats of old dukes, with a lot of opulent furs – even if most of these habits have been designed not in the middle ages, but in the 19th and even in the 20th century. They looked like Hamburg Student Representatives had written it on a poster: “Under the gowns the mustiness of 1000 years”. In saying this university officials wanted to regulate not only the academic life of the students but also their very private life in the dormitories, for example. And they taught a very special interpretation of the history of the last 50, 60 years in Europe: Either in the east or in the west. They told history with “some gaps“. Participation of students in university therefore meant also to have the right to learn the whole truth.

 

This teaching with gaps was not only in spite of history. The appearance of the rectors symbolized the social structure of these universities in Europe: Also in Eastern Europe, where workers and farmers should be the leading groups the percentage of students with workers-family background has been very low. For the western universities the OECD documented it in its country-exams at the end of the 60s. The entrenched structure of the educational system had stabilised in all European societies the old social injustice, with very small modifications.

 

The fight of the students to reform the university system was an integral part of the general fight for a social and justice society in a new world. The 68er have been utopian in vision. About ten years later the German chancellor Helmut Schmidt would said: „If you have a utopian vision, then you have to go to a psychotherapist. “

 

Picture 3: protest of Hamburg students against the so called "1000 years gowns of mustiness"

 

40 years later?

 

Since the 70s the number of students increased in all countries significantly. In saying that social disparity remained, the social selection happens before young men and women reached the entrance door of universities. Until today one core goal of the Bologna-process has been to widen access to universities for all social groups.
 
The number of private universities increased. They were also seen as a possibility to discipline the students: If students have to pay they have to hurry up and will have no time for student policy and demonstrations. The same result politicians hope to reach with study fees - as collateral effect.

 

All governments and parliaments made a lot of university reform laws after. In all of these laws the participation of students at all levels was fixed. At the same time universities become more and more objects of central planning. Therefore even if students are represented in central agencies also at European level this minimised the influence and engagement of the representatives in the daily affairs of their university.

 

The most important outcome: That state universities all over Europe are at least up to now never became again a sprinkling and influential source of reactionary thinking like they have been in the first 30 years and sometimes even in the 50s of the 20th century.

 

Prof. Christoph Ehmann
Secretary General of European University Foundation - Campus Europae, former President of the German National Union of Students 1968/1969