1 I would like to thank Alexander Holmig, Casey Sutcliffe, Philipp Gassert and Maria Höhn for their comments on the ideas and arguments expressed in this article as well as many helpful suggestions.Google Scholar

2 Teufel was not released until August 10, more than two months later, on the condition that he check in at the local police station twice a week. He refused to do so, and, a week later, even appeared in front of the courthouse in a penitent's gown demanding to be readmitted to pre-trial confinement while locked up in a rolling cart secured with chains. When the police denied his request, Teufel violated his court order and was arrested again during a sit-in at West Berlin City Hall in mid-September.Google Scholar

3 On the trial against Kurras from the perspective of Otto Schily, the lawyer for the brother and father of Benno Ohnesorg in 1967, see Stefan Reinicke, Otto Schily: Vom RAF-Anwalt zum Innenminister, 82–86 (2003).Google Scholar

4 For an introduction, bibliography, and review of recent literature, see Martin Klimke, The Struggles Continues: Revisiting the German Sixties, in The Sixties, 247–252 (2d ed., 2008); Klimke, Martin, West Germany, in 1968 in Europe: A History of Protest and Activism, 1965–77, 97–110 (Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth eds., 2008).Google Scholar

5 The very few studies that incorporate the legal dimension into their analysis of “1968” in a significant way are: Rechtsanwälte - Linksanwälte: 1971 bis 1981 - das Rote Jahrzehnt vor Gericht (Brunn, Hellmut & Kirn, Thomas eds., 2004); Nagel, Katja, Die Provinz in Bewegung. Studentenunruhen in Heidelberg 1964 bis 1974, PhD. Dissertation, University of Heidelberg (2008); Kraft, Sandra, Vom Autoritätskonflikt zur Machtprobe: Die Studentenproteste der 60er Jahre als Herausforderung für das Establishment in Deutschland und den USA, PhD dissertation, University of Heidelberg (2008). See also autobiographical literature such as Heinrich Hannover, Die Republik vor Gericht 1954 – 1995 (2005). Scholarship in Germany has, in general, only very gradually included the establishment's perspective in the historiography of “1968.” See, e.g., Klaus Weinhauer, Schutzpolizei in der Bundesrepublik: zwischen Bürgerkrieg und innerer Sicherheit: die turbulenten sechziger Jahre (2003); Suri, Jeremi, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (2003); Hodenberg, Christina von, Der Kampf um die Redaktionen: 1968 und die westdeutschen Massenmedien, in Christina von Hodenberg and Detlef Siegfried, Wo 1968 liegt. Reform und Revolte in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik, 139–163 (2006); Klimke, Martin, The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties (2009); The ‘Establishment’ Responds: Power and Protest During and After the Cold War (Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Martin Klimke, & Scharloth, Joachim, eds., forthcoming).Google Scholar

6 Letter by Dieter Kunzelmann, January 4, 1964, in Nilpferd des höllischen Urwalds. Situationisten, Gruppe SPUR, Kommune I, 160 (Wolfgang Dreßen and Eckhard Siepmann eds., 1991); One the role of Kunzelmann, see, e.g., Wolfgang Kraushaar, 1968 als Mythos, Chiffre und Zäsur, 302 (2000); Kunzelmann, Dieter, Leisten Sie keinen Widerstand!: Bilder aus meinem Leben passim (1998).Google Scholar

7 For the major documents of the SI, see Christopher Gray, Leaving the 20th Century: The Incomplete Work of the Situationist International (1998); McDonough, Tom, Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (2002). For an introduction, see Thomas Hecken and Agata Grzenia, Situationism, in 1968 in Europe, 23–32 (Klimke, Martin & Scharloth, Joachim eds., 2008).Google Scholar

8 Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth, Utopia in Practice: The Discovery of Performativity in Sixties’ Protest, Arts and Sciences, in Historein, Special Issue: The Utopian Years: 1968 and Beyond. Movement Dynamics and Theoretical Implications (2009).Google Scholar

9 The literature on the Kommune I is still dominated by the biographical accounts of former participants, see e.g., Marco Carini, Fritz Teufel: wenn's der Wahrheitsfindung dient (2003); Enzensberger, Ulrich, Die Jahre der Kommune I: Berlin 1967 – 1969 (2004); K 1: das Bilderbuch der Kommune (Rainer Langhans, Christa Ritter, & Weidner, Alex, eds., 2008); Langhans, Rainer, Ich bin's: die ersten 68 Jahre (2008). The only comprehensive, excellent scholarly examination of the commune and the counterculture that surrounded it is Alexander Holmig, Wenn's der Wahrheits(er)findung dient Wirken und Wirkung der Kommune I (1967-1969), M.A. Thesis, Humboldt University Berlin, 2004.Google Scholar

10 Kommune, I, Flyer 6 (May 24, 1967). See also Wilfried Mausbach, Burn, ware-house, burn!’ Modernity, Counterculture, and the Vietnam War in West Germany, in Between Marx and Coca-Cola: Youth Cultures in Changing European Societies, 1960–1980, 175–202 (Axel Schildt and Detlef Siegfried eds., 2006).Google Scholar

11 Kommune, I, Flyer 7 (May 24, 1967).Google Scholar

12 Kommune, I, Flyer 8 (May 24, 1967). The term “ware-house” was Dieter Kunzelmann's translation of the German word for department store (Warenhaus). See Langhans, supra, note 9, at 50.Google Scholar

13 Anklageschrift Landgericht Berlin (Az. (506) 2 P Js 749/67 (55/67)), 9 June 1967, in Kommune I, Gesammelte Werke gegen uns 29 (1967).Google Scholar

14 Compare the individual reports in: APO-Archive, Free University Berlin: Ordner K I, Auszüge aus gutachtlichen Äußerungen; Kommune I – Zerschmettert den Moabiter Pleitegeier!, Eigendruck-Broschüre, September 1967, 41 ff.; APO-Archiv, blaue Mappe, Frohner-Unterlagen (Excerpts). See also Rainer Langhans and Fritz Teufel, Klau mich (1968); Kunzelmann, supra, note 6, 81.Google Scholar

15 The transcripts used here are based on the shorthand notes of Hans-Joachim Frohner and his wife, who covered the trial for the radio show “procontra - Menschen und Paragraphen.” See APO-Archive FU Berlin, blaue Mappe, Frohner-Unterlagen: Prozessmitschriften K I, Kurras u.a. They are also reprinted in Rainer Langhans and Fritz Teufel, Klau mich, passim (1968).Google Scholar

16 For a more detailed examination, see Joachim Scharloth, Ritualkritik und Rituale des Protest. Die Entdeckung des Performativen in der Studentenbewegung der 1960er Jahre, in 1968. Handbuch zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Studentenbewegung, 75–87 (Klimke, Martin & Scharloth, Joachim eds., 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Rainer Langhans and Fritz Teufel, Klau mich, passim (1968).Google Scholar

18 Zehn Monate für Kommunarden: ‘Gerichtssäale dürfen keine Bedürfnisanstalten werden', in Frankfurter Rundschau, September 7, 1968; see also Davies, Mererid P., Bodily Issues: The West German Anti-Authoritarian Movement and the Semiotics of Dirt, in Un-civilising Processes: Excess and Transgression in German Society and Culture, 225–53 (Fulbrook, Mary ed., 2007).Google Scholar

19 Soyka, Johann, Interview with Rainer Langhans, Die wunderbare Wandlung des Rainer Langhans, in Kommunen und Wohngemeinschaften: Der Familie entkommen? 70 (Schülein, Johann August ed., 1978).Google Scholar

20 See the groundbreaking work by media scholar Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Protest-Inszenierungen: Visuelle Kommunikation und kollektive Identitäten in Protestbewegungen (2002).Google Scholar

21 Resolution verabschiedet von der versammelten Studentenschaft der FU Berlin auf dem Sit-in am 22./23. Juni 1966, in 4 Freie Universität Berlin, 1948–1973, Hochschule im Umbruch, 333 (Lönnendonker, Siegward & Fichter, Tilman eds., 1978).Google Scholar

22 Sit-In, Teach-In, Go-In: Die transnationale Zirkulation kultureller Praktiken in den 1960er Jahren, in 1968. Handbuch zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte, 119–135 (Klimke, Martin & Scharloth, Joachim eds., 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Schneider, Peter, Wir haben Fehler gemacht, in Bernard Larsson, Demonstrationen. Ein Berliner Modell 162 (1967).Google Scholar

24 Sara Hakemi and Thomas Eschen, Die Warenhausbrandstifter, in Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, 316–331 (Kraushaar, Wolfgang, ed., 2006).Google Scholar

25 Quoted after Reinicke, supra, note 3, at 93.Google Scholar

26 Quoted after Uwe Nettelbeck, Die Frankfurter Brandstifter, Die Zeit, November 8, 1968.Google Scholar

27 Vor einer solchen Justiz verteidigen wir uns nicht. Schlusswort im Frankfurter Kaufhausbrandprozess (Andreas Baader, et al, eds., 1968). For the legal dimensions of West Germany's treatment of the Holocaust in the 1960s, see the contributions of Marc von Miquel, Bernhard Brunner, and Juergen Lillteicher in Philipp Gassert and Alan Steinweis, Coping with the Nazi Past: West German Debates on Nazism and Generational Conflict, 1955–1975 (2006).Google Scholar

28 Meinhof, Ulrike, Setting Fire to Department Stores, in Everybody Talks About the Weather– We Don't: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof, 246, 248 (Bauer, Karin ed., 2008).Google Scholar

29 For an introduction to the legal dimensions regarding the 1970s and the Red Army Faction (RAF), see Rechtsanwälte - Linksanwälte: 1971 bis 1981 - das Rote Jahrzehnt vor Gericht, passim (Brunn, Hellmut & Kirn, Thomas eds., 2004); Reinicke, Stefan, Die linken Anwaelte: Eine Typologie, in Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, 948–956 (Kraushaar, Wolfgang, ed., 2006); Eschen, Klaus, Das Sozialistische Anwaltskollektiv, in Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, 957–972 (Kraushaar, Wolfgang, ed., 2006); Wesel, Uwe, Strafverfahren, Menschenwuerde und Rechtsstaatsprinzip: Versuch einer Bilanz der RAF-Prozesse, in Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, 1048–1059 (Kraushaar, Wolfgang, ed., 2006); Diewald-Kerkmann, Gisela, Verfuehrt'-'Abhaengig'-'Fanatisch': Erklaerungsmuster von Strafverfolgungstaetern und Gerichten fuer den Weg in die Illegalitaet: Das Beispiel der RAF und der Bewegung 2. Juni (1971-1973), in Terrorismus in der Bundesrepublik: Medien, Staat und Subkulturen in den 1970er Jahren, 217–243 (Klaus Weinhauer, Joerg Requate, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, eds., 2006); Requate, Joerg, Terroristenanwaelte und Rechtsstaat: Zur Auseinandersetzung um die Robe der Verteidger in den Terroristenverfahren der 1970er Jahre, in Terrorismus in der Bundesrepublik: Medien, Staat und Subkulturen in den 1970er Jahren, 271–301 (Klaus Weinhauer, Joerg Requate, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, eds., 2006).Google Scholar

30 See Michels, Reinhold, Otto Schily: Eine Biographie (2001); Reinicke, supra, note 3, passim. Other equally revealing political biographies of legal actors are those by Christian Ströbele (Green Party) or Horst Mahler (who has now adopted right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic positions). For the latter, see Martin Jandel, Horst Mahler, in Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, 372–397 (Kraushaar, Wolfgang, ed., 2006).Google Scholar

31 In terms of the interaction between activists, the courts and public opinion the case of Beate Klarsfeld is particularly interesting. On November 7, 1968, Beate Klarsfeld, who had initiated a comprehensive public campaign against the National Socialist past of Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, interrupted his speech at the CDU party convention in Berlin. Walking up to Kiesinger and denouncing him as a “Nazi,” Klarsfeld slapped him in the face before she was dragged away. In a matter of two hours, a Berlin court found her guilty of assault and sentenced her to a year in prison. This fast and draconic ruling provoked a public outcry from observers of different political backgrounds, especially since Klarsfeld's defense lawyer Horst Mahler had only been able to speak to her for half an hour before the sentencing without any time to prepare the case. For an examination of the event and the subsequent trial see Philipp Gassert, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 1904–1988: Kanzler zwischen den Zeiten, 651–659 (2006).Google Scholar