[RARE ANARCHIST STUDENT JOURNAL FROM HEIDELBERG] Befreiung: Zentralorgan der Germ.-Spontis [Liberation: Official organ of the german spontaneists]. Nos. 1 and 2 (of 3 published).
Heidelberg: self-published, 1974. Folios (ca. 43 × 30 cm). Leaflets; 2 pp. on one leaf; 4 pp. two stapled leaves. Lightly stained and with faint crease marks; else very good. Item #55959
Rare student journal influenced by anarchism that takes a critical look at changes in higher education in West Germany after 1968. The reforms of the 1970s opened universities to broader sections of the population. Under Chancellor Willy Brandt, young people from lower-income families were able to pursue university studies with funding that also covered living expenses. This was a period of extensive expansion of university buildings and academic staff. The so-called “mass university” replaced the elite university shaped by the upper middle class. This corresponded not only to a left-wing demand for broader, more egalitarian education but, above all, to the needs of the labor market for more highly qualified employees. The organization of the university was also fundamentally changed. Professors no longer governed the institution alone; academic staff, administrative personnel, and students were now also to participate in decision-making. Yet the expansion and democratization did not increase academic freedom; instead, they primarily strengthened administrative structures. The journal critically examines this situation. Issue 2 states: “(…) in the more formal academic system, conformity and resignation are cultivated to such an extent that hardly any rupture is experienced at the university anymore. One only wants to score points and somehow obtain a degree. (…) the faith in progress of some Social Democrats is being used tactically for a more formal and, in that respect, more controllable science.”
As of October 2026, not in KVK, OCLC. We can trace a single holding at a private Berlin anarchist library.
Price: €450.00