A single lecture ban launched the Free University’s radicalization into West Germany’s Berkeley

Evidence

The events of 2 June 1967 were the climax of a development that had been emerging since 1965, and which turned the Free University into West Germany’s Berkeley. On 7 May 1965, the twentieth anniversary of the German surrender, and therefore of liberation from Nazi rule, the Students’ Union at the Free University in Berlin had invited the journalist Erich Kuby, among others, to a panel discussion to be chaired by Ludwig von Friedeburg, who had been Professor of Sociology at the university since 1962. The university’s rectorwho a few weeks later, together with the president of the West German Rectors’ Conference, personally took part in celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the German student fraternities, held in Berlin’s Deutschlandhallebanned the panel discussion on the grounds that some years ago Kuby had once slandered the Free University. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2608

Categorization

• XREF: The rector celebrating student-fraternity anniversaries while banning Kuby parallels ch66’s restitution of Nazi-era civil servants. — connects to: Homogeneous closed communities preceded and intensified political radicalization into terrorism in West Germany. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4108; Ohnesorg’s shooting triggered nationwide student protest in West Germany — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2611

Broader Connections

• Homogeneous closed communities preceded and intensified political radicalization into terrorism in West Germany. #expands (0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4108