Lecture 14: Politics and Political Culture in the 1980s

1. Preliminary
   • midterm evaluation
   • remarks on term papers and grading
2. Core Events of the 1980s
   • Helmut Kohl and the "Wende" (turn) in 1982 (FDP abandoned SPD chancellor Helmut Schmidt)
   • "Flick" bribery scandal, 1976-1983; resignation of FDP Economics Minister Lambsdorff
   • 1985 visit by Reagan: anniversary of defeat, or liberation?
   • 1987: 750 year anniversary of founding of Berlin (1237)
   • Sept. 1987 Honnecker in Bonn
3. The 1980s as an inheritor of the 1970s
   • Foreign policy: Ostpolitik
     • Willy Brandt (see his March 1961 speech, R9)
     • Abandonment of "Hallstein Doctrine" by Grand and social-liberal coalitions, 1966-70
     • Assessment
       • Economic: arms race (Reagan-Buch "Star Wars") and economic collapse
       • International: outward security/stability leads to inner relaxation/liberalization?
       • Role of superpower detante vs. dissident movements in preparing "1989"
   • Domestic Politics
     • Jan. 1972 "decree against radicals"-no "extremists" in public service
     • 1975 supreme court decision: better or worse?
     • longer term consequences of left-wing terrorism (compare to current McCarthyism debate in the US: communism discredited itself; birth of civil rights movement?)
   • Popular Movements: Citizens' Initiatives emerged in the late 1960s
     • atomic energy, environmental concerns (Oil crisis 1973-74)
     • peace movement and Green Party
       founded in 1980: 1.5% in national elections
       1983 national parliamentary election: 5.6%
       1985: part of the governing coalition in Hesse
       1999: part of the governing coalition nationally (Joschka Fischer as foreign minister)
   • Culture and Ideology: A "turn" in the politics of the past
     • US TV miniseries "Holocaust:" broadcast Jan. 1979
     • President's history competitions
4. Discussion of "Nasty Girl"
   • Anna Rosmus, born 1960 in Passau, now Ph.D. student at Boston University (Elie Wiesel)
     • 1983: Resistance and Persecution in the Case of Passau, 1933-1939 (3rd place)
       Scholl Sibling Prize in 1984; Tucholsky death mask in 1987; opening of USHMM
     • 1988: Exodus: In the Shadow of Mercy-Jewish Survivors about Vanquished and Victors
     • 1993: Wintergreen: Suppressed Murders (lawsuit by family of Dr. Franz Clarenz)
     • 1995: Pocking: End and Renewal
     • 1999: Out of Passau (lawsuit by her university Professor Becker)