uni'alumni 2013_ENG

Confrontation at Bertoldsbrunnen: Some of the demonstrations led to clashes with the police. Photo: Fiek Photosinportraits:allprivate Dr. Michaela Glöckler Photo: 2010 Does the End Justify the Means? “One thing I remember really well is the discussions about the relevance of our ﬁelds of study for society. One felt like one was being attacked and had to explain oneself. I also found the disrup- tion of lectures unpleasant – not due to the legitimate concerns of my class- mates but because the way the attacks were acted out was self-defeating. How can you bring about better conditions if you resort to aggressive and invasive methods? I was constantly reminded of the old question of whether the end jus- tiﬁes the means. That’s when I came to the decision that I would work to change the societal structures from within, in an evolutionary sense. I held the revo- lutionary potential in high regard – but the way it was put into practice by most at the university did not inspire any hopes for the future.” Dr. Konrad Koch Photo: 1960 From Milk Drinker to RAF Attorney “I only experienced the events in 1968 indirectly, because I was in the middle of studying for the state exam- ination. I lived with a widow who was over 70 years old and shared a kitchen and a bathroom with her. My room- mate was a respectable and polite law student who read the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and drank a lot of milk. One day he came home excited and spoke in an impassioned tone about a demonstration in Freiburg against the price hike for streetcar tickets and about how windows had been broken there. I didn’t hear any- thing more from him after March 1968 because he switched to another university. Years later I heard that he had worked as an RAF attorney at a law office in Stuttgart, was arrested and imprisoned in Stammheim, and was temporarily banned from working as an attorney.” Dr. Karl Heinz Hesselbacher Photo: 1968 Stop Gaping, Citizens “I took part in a lot of demonstrations and sit-ins back then. As a beard wear- er, I was immediately suspicious and was snatched out of the crowed by the police several times, but I was always pulled back by other demonstrators. Some of the slogans we shouted were: ‘Stop gaping, citizens, come down and join us,’ ‘Moscow has engaged us, that’s why we’re remote-controlled,’ or ‘Under their gowns, 1000 years worth of ﬁlth.’ At one of the demonstrations at Bertoldsbrunnen I got really wet from a water cannon. That was a lot of fun, but afterwards my clothes sure did stink.” Dirk Gaerte Photo: 1970 The Hunting Knife Assassination “In the years between winter semester 1968 and summer semester 1974 I often spent less time studying than engag- ing intensively in university politics for the democratic center, in particular as a member of the student council and the senate. At the end of the ‘student revolt,’ Freiburg became known for the ‘hunting knife assassination’ – at least that’s what the newspaper BILD called it. It happened in the Audimax. Rough- ly 1200 people crowded in for a big rally – of which there were one or two a week – 200 to 300 of them behind the lectern. A still-unknown student stabbed his ‘adversary’ in the behind with a double-edged hunting knife.” you resort to aggressive and invasive Dr. Karl Heinz Hesselbacher Dr. Konrad Koch Dirk Gaerte Photo: 1970 Dirk GaerteDirk Gaerte 20

uni'alumni 2013_ENG

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