Kommune 1
Encyclopedia
Kommune 1 or K1 was the first politically-motivated commune
in Germany
. It was created on January 12, 1967, in West Berlin
and finally dissolved in November 1969.
Kommune 1 developed from the extraparliamentary opposition of the German student movement of the 1960s. It was intended as a counter-model against the small middle-class family, as a reaction against a society that the commune thought was very conservative.
They were first located (from February 19, 1967, until the beginning of March, 1967) in the empty apartment of the author, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
, in Fregestraße 19, as well as in the studio apartment of the author, Uwe Johnson
, who was staying in the USA, at Niedstraße 14 in the Berlin district of Friedenau
. After Enzensberger's return from a long study trip to Moscow
, they left his apartment and occupied the home of Johnson at Stierstraße 3 for a short time and then finally moved to the second floor of the back of a tenement house in Stephanstraße 60 in the Stephankiez area of the Berlin district of Moabit
.
) and of the Berlin
Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund
("SDS") (such as Rudi Dutschke
and Bernd Rabehl) discussed how to break from what they considered to be narrow-minded and bourgeois concepts.
Dieter Kunzelmann had the idea of creating a commune. They decided to try a life of "those passionately interested in themselves". Kunzelmann soon moved to Berlin. In Berlin, the SDS had its first "commune working group
", which advanced the following ideas:
When it was proposed that this theory should be realized as the practice of a life as a commune, many SDS members left, including Dutschke and Rabehl, who did not want to give up their marriages and lifestyles. In the end, nine men and women, as well as a child, moved into the empty apartment of Hans Magnus Enzensberger
and the studio apartment of the author Uwe Johnson
in Berlin-Friedenau, who was staying in New York City
at the time, on February 19, 1967. After Enzensberger's return from an extended study trip to Moscow
, the communards left and occupied the main residence of Johnson in the nearby Stierstraße 3. They called themselves Kommune 1.
The early communards included Dagrun Enzensberger (divorced wife of Enzensberger), Tanaquil Enzensberger (nine years old at that time, daughter of Enzensberger), Ulrich Enzensberger (Hans Magnus Enzensberger's brother), Dieter Kunzelmann
, Detlef Michel
(until March 25, 1967), Volker Gebbert, Hans-Joachim Hameister, Dorothea Ridder, ("the iron Dorothee"), Dagmar Seehuber and Fritz Teufel
. Rainer Langhans joined in March 1967. At times, other people also lived in the premises of Kommune 1, such as Dagmar von Doetinchem and Gertrud Hemmer („Agathe“).
The communards first tried to tell each other their own biographical identity, to break the old certainties. They were very different from each other. Correspondingly, the roles each of them played were soon different. Kunzelmann was the "patriarch" and made sure everyone knew it. His definition of the goals of the commune were based on his time as a "situationist" and in the "Subversive Action". He was therefore in favor of getting rid of all securities, even financial ones, which is why he scorned study grants, for example. He wanted to abolish any property, any private sphere. And he was against the principle of work, but for the principle of fun or pleasure. Everyone could and should do what he wanted, as long as it happened where everyone could see it.
Langhans, Teufel and the others wore long hair, beaded necklaces, army jackets or Mao suit
s at the urging of the women of the commune. Soon, they were paid for interviews and photographs. A sign hung plainly in the hallway of their apartment: "First pay up, then speak".
and provocation
. These events served as inspiration for the "Sponti
" movement and other leftist groups.
The first of these was the "pudding assassination" of US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey
who was scheduled to visit Berlin. On the evening of April 2, 1967, the communards met in Johnson's apartment with about 20 other people whom they knew from demonstrations. Kunzelmann presented his plan of throwing smoke bombs in the direction of the Vice President on the occasion of the state visit. None of the others besides Langhans wanted to participate.
Police files indicate that the planned attack was revealed by a secret service agent, since eleven students were arrested by officials of Division I (Political Police) on April 5, 1967. They were supposed to have met under conspiratorial conditions and planned attacks against the life or health of Hubert Humphrey by means of bombs, plastic bags filled with unknown chemicals, or with other dangerous tools, such as stones.
Those arrested were Ulrich Enzensberger, Volker Gebbert, Klaus Gilgenmann, Hans-Joachim Hameister, Wulf Krause, Dieter Kunzelmann, Rainer Langhans and Fritz Teufel. The tabloid Bilds headline was "Humphrey to be assassinated", the weekly Zeit
spoke of "Eleven little Oswalds
". Even the New York Times featured a report on the dangerous plan of eight communards to attack the Vice-President with pudding
, yoghurt
, and flour
. Because of this bad publicity, Uwe Johnson hastily asked his friend and neighbor Günter Grass
to evict the students from his apartment. The next day, the communards were released and gave their first press conference – they had become celebrities, while the press and police officials had lost face in the public eye. The publisher Axel Springer
henceforth called the members of Kommune 1 "communards of horror".
The commune moved to an apartment in an old building on Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße on Stuttgarter Platz in the district of Berlin-Charlottenburg and later to Stephanstraße 60 in Berlin-Moabit. Hardly a week passed without the communards staging some kind of satiric provocation somewhere in Berlin, which made headlines in the press. In one of them, the commune climbed up the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche to throw down hundreds of Little Red books from above.
on June 2, 1967 (the death of Benno Ohnesorg
), Fritz Teufel was arrested and accused of treason. It was not until December that he was released, after he and many students with him had begun a hunger strike. In the streets, sympathizers held wild demonstrations, chanting "Freedom for Fritz Teufel" and "Drive the devil out of Moabit!" (Moabit
being Berlin's prison and Teufel being German for devil).
During Teufel's absence from Kommune 1, an infamous phototograph of the communards' naked behinds against a wall was displayed with the headline: Das Private ist politisch! ("The personal is political")
against department stores, which read, "Holt euch das knisternde Vietnam-Gefühl, das wir auch hier nicht missen wollen!" ("Catch that burning Vietnam feeling that we would not want to miss at home!") The court ultimately ruled in favor of Langhans and Teufel, however. They later told the story of the lawsuit in their book, Klau Mich ("Steal Me"), which rose to cult status.
attitude of the communards, who did only what they felt like doing, not only polarized the bourgeoisie
but also polarized the political Left
.
The SDS
especially disliked the provocative activities of the K1. The provocative flyers of the K1 ("Water cannons are paper tigers") that were signed with the acronym SDS, were a source of continual irritation. Among other things, the communards were accused of having no political interest, but merely indulging in egotism. Hence in May 1967, the SDS expelled the "revolutionary rowdies" (Bild Zeitung).
In the weekly newspaper Zeit
, Klaus Hartung wrote: "Scarcely any political theory was more successful than that according to which revolutionaries have to revolutionize, according to which there will be no change in the society without a change in everyday life."
Kommune 1 developed into a kind of refuge for alternative thinkers for problems of all kinds; appeals for help arrived daily. The house was under a veritable siege by friends and groupie
s who worshipped Teufel and Langhans. Because of the crowd of women, especially caused by Teufel, he was expelled from the commune. He moved into a Munich commune and later belonged to the Movement 2 June
.
On September 21, 1968, the commune went to the International Song Days in Essen
, the Federal Republic
's first underground festival. There, Langhans met and fell in love with Uschi Obermaier
, a model
from Munich
. She lived with the Munich-based music commune Amon Düül
, but soon she moved in with the communards of Kommune 1, who shared one bedroom. Soon, the press called Langhans and Obermaier the "best-looking couple of the APO
".
The politization of the private sphere and the fact that Langhans and Obermaier spoke openly to the media about their relationship, about jealousy and about "pleasure machines" constituted the next breaking of social taboos, ushering in the sexual revolution
. Later, John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
and others followed their example.
All of a sudden, the commune was receiving visitors from all over the world, among them Jimi Hendrix
, who turned up one morning in the bedroom of Kommune 1. Obermaier fell in love with him.
Her modeling fees rose sharply, she was given a lead role in Rudolf Thome's cult movie Rote Sonne (1969). (Rote Sonne at IMDB). (Red Sun), and her photographs were all over posters and magazine covers. Rumor has it that the magazine Stern
paid her 20,000 Deutschmark
(the price of a Porsche 911
at the time) for an interview and nude photos of Obermaier.
In November 1969, a gang of Rockers
raided those who remained and devastated the rooms. The remaining occupants lost their belief in the future of Kommune 1 and they dispersed. Obermaier and Langhans went to Munich.
A table from one of the rooms of the Kommune 1 was bought by the Green Party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele
. During meetings around that same table, the newspaper die tageszeitung
and the German Chaos Computer Club
were founded. The table was stolen in 1990, and there is some speculation as to its whereabouts today.
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It was created on January 12, 1967, in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
and finally dissolved in November 1969.
Kommune 1 developed from the extraparliamentary opposition of the German student movement of the 1960s. It was intended as a counter-model against the small middle-class family, as a reaction against a society that the commune thought was very conservative.
They were first located (from February 19, 1967, until the beginning of March, 1967) in the empty apartment of the author, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...
, in Fregestraße 19, as well as in the studio apartment of the author, Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson was a German writer, editor, and scholar.- Life :Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania . His father was a Swedish-descent peasant from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pommern...
, who was staying in the USA, at Niedstraße 14 in the Berlin district of Friedenau
Friedenau
Friedenau is a locality within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. Per population density it is the highest one into the city.- Etymology :...
. After Enzensberger's return from a long study trip to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, they left his apartment and occupied the home of Johnson at Stierstraße 3 for a short time and then finally moved to the second floor of the back of a tenement house in Stephanstraße 60 in the Stephankiez area of the Berlin district of Moabit
Moabit
Moabit is an inner city locality of Berlin. Since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it belongs to the newly regrouped governmental borough of Mitte. Previously, from 1920 to 2001, it belonged to the borough of Tiergarten. Moabit's borders are defined by three watercourses, the Spree, the...
.
Emergence
Members of the "Munich Subversive Action" (such as Dieter KunzelmannDieter Kunzelmann
Dieter Kunzelmann is a German left-wing activist. In the early 1960s he was a member of the Situationist-inspired artists' group Gruppe SPUR. He was one of the founders of Kommune 1 in 1967. At the end of the 1960s he was one of the leaders of the Tupamaros West-Berlin, which carried out...
) and of the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund
Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund
Der Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund was founded 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the college organisation of the SPD...
("SDS") (such as Rudi Dutschke
Rudi Dutschke
Alfred Willi Rudi Dutschke was the most prominent spokesperson of the German student movement of the 1960s. He advocated 'a long march through the institutions' of power to create radical change from within government and society by becoming an integral part of the machinery...
and Bernd Rabehl) discussed how to break from what they considered to be narrow-minded and bourgeois concepts.
Dieter Kunzelmann had the idea of creating a commune. They decided to try a life of "those passionately interested in themselves". Kunzelmann soon moved to Berlin. In Berlin, the SDS had its first "commune working group
Working group
A working group is an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers working on new research activities that would be difficult to develop under traditional funding mechanisms . The lifespan of the WG can last anywhere between a few months and several years...
", which advanced the following ideas:
- FascismFascismFascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
develops from the nuclear familyNuclear familyNuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
. It is the smallest cell of the state from whose oppressive character all institutions are derived. - Men and women live in dependence on each other so that neither could develop freely as people.
- This cell (that is, the small family) had to be shattered.
When it was proposed that this theory should be realized as the practice of a life as a commune, many SDS members left, including Dutschke and Rabehl, who did not want to give up their marriages and lifestyles. In the end, nine men and women, as well as a child, moved into the empty apartment of Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...
and the studio apartment of the author Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson was a German writer, editor, and scholar.- Life :Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania . His father was a Swedish-descent peasant from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pommern...
in Berlin-Friedenau, who was staying in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the time, on February 19, 1967. After Enzensberger's return from an extended study trip to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, the communards left and occupied the main residence of Johnson in the nearby Stierstraße 3. They called themselves Kommune 1.
The early communards included Dagrun Enzensberger (divorced wife of Enzensberger), Tanaquil Enzensberger (nine years old at that time, daughter of Enzensberger), Ulrich Enzensberger (Hans Magnus Enzensberger's brother), Dieter Kunzelmann
Dieter Kunzelmann
Dieter Kunzelmann is a German left-wing activist. In the early 1960s he was a member of the Situationist-inspired artists' group Gruppe SPUR. He was one of the founders of Kommune 1 in 1967. At the end of the 1960s he was one of the leaders of the Tupamaros West-Berlin, which carried out...
, Detlef Michel
Detlef Michel
Detlef Michel, born in Berlin, is a German track and field athlete. He represented East Germany during the 1980s and was one of the world's best in the javelin throw...
(until March 25, 1967), Volker Gebbert, Hans-Joachim Hameister, Dorothea Ridder, ("the iron Dorothee"), Dagmar Seehuber and Fritz Teufel
Fritz Teufel
Fritz Teufel was a prominent figure in the West German political left of the 1960s. One of the founders of Kommune 1, Teufel cultivated a theatrical, humorous public image--encapsulated in his idea of the "Spaßguerilla" . In the 1970s he rejected this image and became involved with the violent...
. Rainer Langhans joined in March 1967. At times, other people also lived in the premises of Kommune 1, such as Dagmar von Doetinchem and Gertrud Hemmer („Agathe“).
The communards first tried to tell each other their own biographical identity, to break the old certainties. They were very different from each other. Correspondingly, the roles each of them played were soon different. Kunzelmann was the "patriarch" and made sure everyone knew it. His definition of the goals of the commune were based on his time as a "situationist" and in the "Subversive Action". He was therefore in favor of getting rid of all securities, even financial ones, which is why he scorned study grants, for example. He wanted to abolish any property, any private sphere. And he was against the principle of work, but for the principle of fun or pleasure. Everyone could and should do what he wanted, as long as it happened where everyone could see it.
Langhans, Teufel and the others wore long hair, beaded necklaces, army jackets or Mao suit
Mao suit
The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire known in China as the Zhongshan suit , and known in the West as the Mao suit...
s at the urging of the women of the commune. Soon, they were paid for interviews and photographs. A sign hung plainly in the hallway of their apartment: "First pay up, then speak".
The First Phase: Bizarre acts of provocation
During its entire existence, Kommune 1 was infamous for its bizarre staged events that fluctuated between satireSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and provocation
Provocation
Provocation and provoke may refer to:* Provocation , a type of legal defense in court which claims the "victim" provoked the accused's actions...
. These events served as inspiration for the "Sponti
Revolutionary spontaneity
Revolutionary spontaneity is a tendency to believe that social revolution can and should occur spontaneously from below, without the aid or guidance of a vanguard party, and that it cannot and should not be brought about by the actions of individuals or parties who might attempt to foment such a...
" movement and other leftist groups.
The "Pudding Assassination"
As the domestic commune life was too boring, the communards decided to turn their internal experience into actions.The first of these was the "pudding assassination" of US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
who was scheduled to visit Berlin. On the evening of April 2, 1967, the communards met in Johnson's apartment with about 20 other people whom they knew from demonstrations. Kunzelmann presented his plan of throwing smoke bombs in the direction of the Vice President on the occasion of the state visit. None of the others besides Langhans wanted to participate.
Police files indicate that the planned attack was revealed by a secret service agent, since eleven students were arrested by officials of Division I (Political Police) on April 5, 1967. They were supposed to have met under conspiratorial conditions and planned attacks against the life or health of Hubert Humphrey by means of bombs, plastic bags filled with unknown chemicals, or with other dangerous tools, such as stones.
Those arrested were Ulrich Enzensberger, Volker Gebbert, Klaus Gilgenmann, Hans-Joachim Hameister, Wulf Krause, Dieter Kunzelmann, Rainer Langhans and Fritz Teufel. The tabloid Bilds headline was "Humphrey to be assassinated", the weekly Zeit
Zeit
Zeit is the third album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined Chris Franke and Edgar Froese.-Overview:...
spoke of "Eleven little Oswalds
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
". Even the New York Times featured a report on the dangerous plan of eight communards to attack the Vice-President with pudding
Pudding
Pudding most often refers to a dessert, but it can also be a savory dish.In the United States, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding.In the United Kingdom and...
, yoghurt
Yoghurt
Yoghurt, yogurt or yogourt is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yoghurt are known as "yoghurt cultures"...
, and flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
. Because of this bad publicity, Uwe Johnson hastily asked his friend and neighbor Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
to evict the students from his apartment. The next day, the communards were released and gave their first press conference – they had become celebrities, while the press and police officials had lost face in the public eye. The publisher Axel Springer
Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...
henceforth called the members of Kommune 1 "communards of horror".
The commune moved to an apartment in an old building on Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße on Stuttgarter Platz in the district of Berlin-Charlottenburg and later to Stephanstraße 60 in Berlin-Moabit. Hardly a week passed without the communards staging some kind of satiric provocation somewhere in Berlin, which made headlines in the press. In one of them, the commune climbed up the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche to throw down hundreds of Little Red books from above.
The visit of the Shah and the K1 photograph
During a demonstration in front of the Opera against the visit of the Shah of IranMohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
on June 2, 1967 (the death of Benno Ohnesorg
Benno Ohnesorg
Benno Ohnesorg was a German university student killed by a policeman during a demonstration in West Berlin.- Death :On June 2, 1967, Ohnesorg participated in a protest held near the Deutsche Oper, aimed against the state visit of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was attending a...
), Fritz Teufel was arrested and accused of treason. It was not until December that he was released, after he and many students with him had begun a hunger strike. In the streets, sympathizers held wild demonstrations, chanting "Freedom for Fritz Teufel" and "Drive the devil out of Moabit!" (Moabit
Moabit
Moabit is an inner city locality of Berlin. Since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it belongs to the newly regrouped governmental borough of Mitte. Previously, from 1920 to 2001, it belonged to the borough of Tiergarten. Moabit's borders are defined by three watercourses, the Spree, the...
being Berlin's prison and Teufel being German for devil).
During Teufel's absence from Kommune 1, an infamous phototograph of the communards' naked behinds against a wall was displayed with the headline: Das Private ist politisch! ("The personal is political")
The "Arsonist's Lawsuit"
On June 6, 1967, the "Arsonist's Lawsuit" was filed against Langhans and Teufel because of flyers calling for arsonArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
against department stores, which read, "Holt euch das knisternde Vietnam-Gefühl, das wir auch hier nicht missen wollen!" ("Catch that burning Vietnam feeling that we would not want to miss at home!") The court ultimately ruled in favor of Langhans and Teufel, however. They later told the story of the lawsuit in their book, Klau Mich ("Steal Me"), which rose to cult status.
Reactions
The hedonisticHedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
attitude of the communards, who did only what they felt like doing, not only polarized the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
but also polarized the political Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
.
The SDS
Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund
Der Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund was founded 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the college organisation of the SPD...
especially disliked the provocative activities of the K1. The provocative flyers of the K1 ("Water cannons are paper tigers") that were signed with the acronym SDS, were a source of continual irritation. Among other things, the communards were accused of having no political interest, but merely indulging in egotism. Hence in May 1967, the SDS expelled the "revolutionary rowdies" (Bild Zeitung).
In the weekly newspaper Zeit
Zeit
Zeit is the third album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined Chris Franke and Edgar Froese.-Overview:...
, Klaus Hartung wrote: "Scarcely any political theory was more successful than that according to which revolutionaries have to revolutionize, according to which there will be no change in the society without a change in everyday life."
Kommune 1 developed into a kind of refuge for alternative thinkers for problems of all kinds; appeals for help arrived daily. The house was under a veritable siege by friends and groupie
Groupie
A groupie is a person who seeks emotional and sexual intimacy with a musician or other celebrity. "Groupie" is derived from group in reference to a musical group, but the word is also used in a more general sense, especially in casual conversation....
s who worshipped Teufel and Langhans. Because of the crowd of women, especially caused by Teufel, he was expelled from the commune. He moved into a Munich commune and later belonged to the Movement 2 June
Movement 2 June
Movement 2 June was a West German terrorist organization that was based out of West Berlin. Active only from 1971–1980, the anarchist group was one of the few violent groups at the time in West Germany. Although Movement 2 June did not share the same ideology as the Red Army Faction , these...
.
The Second Phase: Sex, drugs and Uschi Obermaier
By the end of the 1960s, the societal climate had changed. In the late summer of 1968, the commune moved into a deserted factory on Stephanstraße in order to reorient. This second phase of Kommune 1 was characterized by sex, music, and drugs.On September 21, 1968, the commune went to the International Song Days in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
, the Federal Republic
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's first underground festival. There, Langhans met and fell in love with Uschi Obermaier
Uschi Obermaier
Uschi Obermaier is a former fashion model, actress and is associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. In the latter she is considered an iconic sex symbol of the so-called "1968 generation"....
, a model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
from Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. She lived with the Munich-based music commune Amon Düül
Amon Düül
-External links:* - Extensive bio @ Perfect Sound Forever* mainly focussed on their collaboration with Robert Calvert of Hawkwind...
, but soon she moved in with the communards of Kommune 1, who shared one bedroom. Soon, the press called Langhans and Obermaier the "best-looking couple of the APO
Ausserparlamentarische Opposition
The Außerparlamentarische Opposition , was a political protest movement active in West Germany during the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, forming a central part of the German student movement...
".
The politization of the private sphere and the fact that Langhans and Obermaier spoke openly to the media about their relationship, about jealousy and about "pleasure machines" constituted the next breaking of social taboos, ushering in the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
. Later, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
and others followed their example.
All of a sudden, the commune was receiving visitors from all over the world, among them Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, who turned up one morning in the bedroom of Kommune 1. Obermaier fell in love with him.
Her modeling fees rose sharply, she was given a lead role in Rudolf Thome's cult movie Rote Sonne (1969). (Rote Sonne at IMDB). (Red Sun), and her photographs were all over posters and magazine covers. Rumor has it that the magazine Stern
Stern (magazine)
Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
paid her 20,000 Deutschmark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
(the price of a Porsche 911
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a luxury 2-door sports coupe made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a distinctive design, rear-engined and with independent rear suspension, an evolution of the swing axle on the Porsche 356. The engine was also air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998...
at the time) for an interview and nude photos of Obermaier.
The end of Kommune 1 and its legacy
Eventually, the energy of Kommune 1 was spent. Kunzelmann's addiction to heroin worsened and the second communard was expelled from the commune. (It is said that the other members of the commune left of their own will). Now and then, the Munich women's communes appeared.In November 1969, a gang of Rockers
Rockers
Rockers, leather boys or ton-up boys are a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the 1950s. It was mainly centered around British cafe racer motorcycles and rock and roll music....
raided those who remained and devastated the rooms. The remaining occupants lost their belief in the future of Kommune 1 and they dispersed. Obermaier and Langhans went to Munich.
A table from one of the rooms of the Kommune 1 was bought by the Green Party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele
Hans-Christian Ströbele
Hans-Christian Ströbele is a German politician and lawyer. He is a member of the German Green party.Ströbele studied law and political science in Heidelberg and at the Free University of Berlin. Has practiced law since 1969 in Berlin...
. During meetings around that same table, the newspaper die tageszeitung
Die tageszeitung
die tageszeitung , was founded in 1978 in Berlin. It is a cooperative-owned German daily newspaper which is administrated by a workers' self-management...
and the German Chaos Computer Club
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
were founded. The table was stolen in 1990, and there is some speculation as to its whereabouts today.
See also
- Amon DüülAmon Düül-External links:* - Extensive bio @ Perfect Sound Forever* mainly focussed on their collaboration with Robert Calvert of Hawkwind...
- Uschi ObermaierUschi ObermaierUschi Obermaier is a former fashion model, actress and is associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. In the latter she is considered an iconic sex symbol of the so-called "1968 generation"....
- Chaos Computer ClubChaos Computer ClubThe Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
- Manfred Grashof
- AutonomismAutonomismAutonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism...
Literature
- Enzensberger, Ulrich. 2004. Die Jahre der Kommune I. Berlin 1967-1969. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch. ISBN 3-462-03413-8
- Fahlenbrach, Kathrin. 2004. The Aesthetics of Protest in the Media of 1968 in Germany (conference paper). Proceedings, IX International Congress of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature, 2004. Available from: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/igel/igel2004/Proceedings/Fahlenbrach.pdf (PDF)
- Rabehl, Bernd. 2003. Die Provokationselite: Aufbruch und Scheitern der subversiven Rebellion in den sechziger Jahren. (Teil 2: Die Revolte in der Revolte: Die Kommune 1.) Available from: http://people.freenet.de/visionen/Provo2.htm
- Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth (eds.).2007. 1968. Ein Handbuch zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Studentenbewegung. Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN 3-476-02066-5
- Wolfgang Dreßen, Dieter Kunzelmann, Eckhard Siepmann (publ.): Das Nilpferd des höllischen Urwalds. Situationisten - Gruppe Spur - Kommune I. Anabas-Verlag, Gießen 1991.
- Rainer Langhans, Fritz Teufel: Klau mich. StPO der Kommune I. Edition Voltaire, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1968 (Series: Voltaire Handbuch 2), Reprint (without pornographic insert): Trikont Verlag, Munich 1977; Rixdorfer Verlagsanstalt, Berlin undated [1982]
- Christa Ritter, Rainer Langhans: Herz der Revolte. Die Kommune 1 von 1967 bis 1969. Hannibal Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-85445-258-6.
- Peter Szondi: Aufforderung zur Brandstiftung. Ein Gutachten im Prozeß Langhans / Teufel. in: Der Monat, Berlin, 19th year, issue 7, 1967, p. 24-29, also printed in: Peter Szondi: Über eine "Freie (d. h. freie) Universität". Stellungnahmen eines Philologen. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973 (Series: es 620)
External links
- Kommune 1 in Berlin (in German)