Time of Strife

The 1970s occupy a central position in the overall interpretations of German postwar history up until the Fall of the Wall, however, different ones. There are two conflicting grand narratives of Germany after the Second World War, an older, optimistic one and a younger, profoundly pessimistic one. One can see it in the titles of important books. The optimistic interpretation talks about a “successful democracy”, “times of reform”, of “change”, emphasizing terms like “democratization” or “liberalization”. 1 Frequently, these books concentrate on the period around 1968, however not necessarily ending up here. The other type of books is remarkably more pessimistic. There is talk about “times of crisis” and the “end of hopes for progress”, or the “farewell to the provision state” is invoked. 2 The latter books are usually on the Seventies and after. In the semantics of these two types of book titles, two grand stories of postwar Germany can be revealed. This is, first , the story of a long and winding road leading to a democratic and liberal society, the “arrival in the West” (Heinrich-August Winkler). It is the story of the Federal Republic in a positive tune, the country going the same way as other Western political societies did before. In this story, the Sixties are given the function of a transition period between premodern and authoritarian times before, and an enlightened civil society with self-confident citizens and democratic forms of conflict afterwards. The Seventies appear as the time when the reforms that had been begun during the Sixties now become reality. In the end, this first story is a derivative of modernization theory, in which the Federal Republic (not the GDR) is following the beaten track of success, a track walked by the USA, the UK, and others before.