Rudi Dutschke

  Rudi Dutschke born Alfred Willi Rudi Dutschke (March 7, 1940 – December 24, 1979, Århus, Denmark) was the most prominent spokesperson of the left-wing German student movement of the 1960s. In 1968, he survived an assassination attempt, living for another 12 years until related health problems caused his death.

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Early life

Dutschke was born in Schönefeld, (Kreis Jüterbog-Luckenwalde, Brandenburg), Germany. He attended school in Luckenwalde and graduated from the Gymnasium there, but because he refused to join the army of the German Democratic Republic and convinced many of his fellow students to refuse as well, he was prevented from attending university in the GDR. He fled to West Berlin in August 1961, just one day before the Berlin Wall was built. He studied sociology at the Free University of Berlin under Richard Lowenthal and Klaus Meschkat where he became acquainted with alternative views of Marxism.

Dutschke joined the German SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (which was not the same as the SDS in the USA, but quite similar in goals) in 1965 and from that time on the SDS became the center of the student movement, growing very rapidly and organizing demonstrations against the war in Vietnam.

He married the American Gretchen Klotz (de) in 1966. They had three children.

Political views

Influenced by critical theory, Rosa Luxemburg and critical Marxists, Dutschke developed a theory and code of practice of social change which did not propose a final Utopian form of society like the Utopian Socialists Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. He advocated the theory that democracy should be developed in the process of revolutionizing society.

Dutschke also advocated that the transformation of Western societies should go hand in hand with Third World liberation movements and with democratization in communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. His socialism had strongly Christian roots; He called Jesus Christ the "greatest revolutionary", and in Easter 1963, he wrote that "Jesus is risen. The decisive revolution in world history has happened - a revolution of all-conquering love. If people would fully receive this revealed love into their own existence, into the reality of the 'now', then the logic of insanity could no longer continue."^{[citation needed]}

Benno Ohnesorg's death in 1967 at the hands of German police pushed some in the student movement toward increasingly extremist violence and the formation of the Red Army Faction. The violence against Dutschke further radicalised parts of the student movement into committing several bombings and murders. Dutschke rejected this direction and feared that it would end dissolve the student movement.

Shooting and later life

On April 11, 1968 Dutschke was shot in the head by Josef Bachmann. After the attempted assassination, Dutschke and his family went to the United Kingdom in the hope that he could recuperate there. He was accepted at Cambridge University to finish his degree in 1969, but in 1971 the Tory government under Edward Heath expelled him and his family as an "undesirable alien" who had engaged in "subversive activity", causing a political storm in London. They then moved to Aarhus, Denmark.

Dutschke reentered the German political scene after protests against the building of nuclear power plants activated a new movement in the mid-1970s. He also began working with dissidents opposing the Communist governments in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, including Robert Havemann, Wolf Biermann, Milan Horáček, Adam Michnik, Ota Šik and more.

Because of massive brain damage from the assassination attempt, Rudi Dutschke continued to suffer health problems. He died on 24 December 1979 in Aarhus, Denmark. He had an epileptic seizure while in the bathtub and drowned.

References in Literature and Music

The song "Rot" by Markus Henrik features a mention of Dutschke, who can also be seen in the music video of the same. The song uses Dutschke as a reminder of political activism in Germany in the 60s and 70s.

There's also a Finnish song about Rudi Dutschke, by Eero Ojanen. It's based on lyrics by Wolf Biermann.

See also

• Kommune 1

Bibliography

• Mein langer Marsch: Reden, Schriften und Tagebücher aus zwanzig Jahren (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980).
• Jeder hat sein Leben ganz zu leben - Diaries of Rudi Dutschke edited by Gretchen Dutschke German review at buechernachlese.de.vu
• Wir hatten ein barbarisches, schönes Leben - Biography by Gretchen Dutschke German review at buechernachlese.de.vu
• Wir hatten ein barbarisches, schönes Leben - Biography by Gretchen Dutschke German review at carpe.com