Remembering the '68 Movement in Germany: A Left Counter-Memory?

The chapter analyses the politics of memory around the ’68 movement in Germany, a phase of intense mobilizations that still constitutes a controversial issue in German public discourse. Bringing together social movement and memory studies, the chapter explores in how far activists of a recent left movement – the German anti-austerity movement Block – share a counter-memory of this contentious past. For this purpose, the chapter compares public and activists’ memories of ’68 based on media analysis and interviews with Blockupy activists. The analysis shows that Blockupy activists only partially share a counter-memory of ’68 as their memories are similar to public memories in several respects with the exception of their emphasis on ’68’s thematic legacy of anti-fascism and internationalism.