東ドイツ体制批判運動再考

「六八年」と「八九年」の関係を中心に

抄録

The year 1968 was not only a time of student movements and Cultural Revolution in many Western countries, but also the year of the “Prague Spring” and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The people of Eastern Germany were influenced by those political and cultural events in Western and Eastern Europe.
In spite of suppression by the state there were protest activities in the 1960s in Eastern Germany. Under the influence of subculture and student movements in Western Germany the postwar generation opposed the cultural policies of the Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands or SED). During the “Prague Spring” in 1968, hopes of “socialism with a human face” (democratization of socialism) rose in Eastern Germany.
The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 brought about different protest activities everywhere in Eastern Germany. According to Stasi files, more than thousand people in Eastern Germany were investigated for painting graffiti, distributing pamphlets or even just public criticism of the invasion. Such protest activities took place spontaneously without political leaders, and were put down by the police immediately.
The “Sixty-Eighters” in Eastern Germany organized political alternative movements under the protection of the Evangelical Church through the 1970s and 1980s. Western subculture played a big part in such dissident movements. The Eastern “Sixty-Eighters” also formed civic groups in autumn 1989, demanded democratization of socialism once again and played a main role in “peaceful revolution”. However, the younger generations contributed to “peaceful revolution” by participating in demonstrations or by leaving their country. In fact the generation of “Eight-Nine” includes different age groups.
Thus, a legacy of 1968 and 1989 could be the combination of political movements and subculture, which made it possible for dissidents to form a counter public sphere and network in a society of authoritarianism or totalitarianism.