To this day, “1968” stands for a profound political-cultural and mental shift in West Germany. This project on “Reform and Revolt” centers on the question of whether the events of 1968 were, at their core, already the consequence of earlier social change that would only be accelerated by “1968”, or whether it was the impulses of “1968” that were decisive in bringing about reform. Reform projects at the federal, state, and local levels were selected for the study in the project led by Prof. Dr. Udo Wengst. 

Research was conducted here at the federal level on the subject of non-military national service (Patrick Bernhard) and development aid policy (Bastian Hein), at the state level on university policy in Bavaria and Hesse (Anne Rohstock), and at the local level on culture and politics in Frankfurt/Main (Manfred Kittel) and the women’s movement and feminism in Munich during the 1970s (Elisabeth Zellmer).

All of the researchers came to the common conclusion that the reforms had already begun before “1968” and that the significance of the “68ers” for social and political change should be viewed in relative terms.

The volume Reform und Revolte appeared in the series Zeitgeschichte im Gespräch, in which the results of the individual studies were concisely summarized and discussed by Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey (Bielefeld) and Axel Schildt (Hamburg).