The West German Student Movement and Its Afterlife. The Ghosts of ’68 in Rolf Dieter Brinkmann’s »Westwärts 1 & 2: Gedichte«

Abstract

Deeply dissatisfied with the student revolution and its ability to challenge Germany’s status quo, the avant-garde poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann parted ways with the movement after a brief period of mutual sympathy and support. Leaving the political sphere of mass protest behind, he turned his sole attention to the aesthetic realm and sought to ›revive‹ literature after its proclaimed death. This article offers an in-depth re-reading of the titular poems of Brinkmann’s lyrical magnum opus, Westwärts 1 & 2. The article argues that the author rethought the streets as a place where interventions into mediated life could be waged during a post-revolutionary period characterized by political standstill. Reading Westwärts and Westwärts 2 reveals that Brinkmann’s texts vehemently warn against the incorporation of art into the spectacle of mass media and at the same time comment on the ›failure‹ of ’68.

Keywords

• student revolution
• Rolf Dieter Brinkmann
• literature
• Westwärts
• 1968
• Germany
• student movement