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Kommune 1 orK1 was a politically motivatedcommune in Germany. It was created on 12 January 1967, inWest Berlin and finally dissolved in November 1969.[1]
The commune was first located (from 19 February 1967, until the beginning of March 1967) in the empty apartment of the authorHans Magnus Enzensberger, in Fregestraße 19, as well as in the studio apartment of the authorUwe Johnson, who was staying in the United States, at Niedstraße 14 in the Berlin district ofFriedenau. After Enzensberger's return from a long study trip toMoscow, they left his apartment and occupied the home of Johnson at Stierstraße 3 for a short time. They then moved to an apartment at Stuttgarter Platz[1] and then finally moved to the second floor of the back of a tenement house in Stephanstraße 60 in the Berlin district ofMoabit.[2]
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 "communeworking 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 house ofHans Magnus Enzensberger in Fregestrasse 19[3] and the studio apartment of the authorUwe Johnson in Berlin-Friedenau, who was staying inNew York City at the time, on 19 February 1967. After Enzensberger's return from an extended study trip toMoscow, the communards left and occupied the main residence of Johnson in the nearby Stierstraße 3. They called themselvesKommune 1.
The early communards included the leader and main driving forceDieter Kunzelmann,Fritz Teufel,Dagrun Enzensberger (divorced wife of Hans Magnus Enzensberger),Tanaquil Enzensberger (nine years old at that time, daughter of Enzensberger),Ulrich Enzensberger (Hans Magnus Enzensberger's brother),Detlef Michel (until 25 March 1967),Volker Gebbert,Hans-Joachim Hameister,Dorothea Ridder ("the iron Dorothee"),Dagmar Seehuber and.Rainer Langhans joined in March 1967.[4]
Police files indicate that a planned attack was revealed by a Secret Service agent, and eleven students were arrested by officials of Division I (Political Police) on 5 April 1967. They were supposed to have met under conspiratorial conditions and planned attacks against the life or health ofHubert 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.[5]
On 22 May 1967 adepartment store fire in Brussels caused 251 deaths. Maoists and anti-Vietnam war protesters were soon accused of having set the fire. Kommune 1 reacted with flyers, describing "new forms of protest", writing "Holt euch das knisternde Vietnam-Gefühl, das wir auch hier nicht missen wollen!" ("Catch that crackling Vietnam feeling that we would not want to miss at home!") and asking "when do the Berlin department stores burn?" On 6 June 1967, the "Arsonist's Lawsuit" was filed against Langhans and Teufel, charging them with calling for arson. After testimony of numerous literature professors, who characterized the flyers as fiction and surrealist provocation, the court ultimately ruled in favor of Langhans and Teufel.[6]
In May 1968,Kommune I: Quellen zur Kommune Forschung was published by members of the commune. Intended to provide a retrospective look at what had been achieved since the commune's inception, the publication contained 26 of the fliers produced by the group in addition to various other news articles and documents relating to the commune's activities. The pamphlet is one of a scarce amount of documents published by members of the commune. It served as the bookend before the second phase of Kommune 1 began.[7]
On 21 September 1968, the commune went to theInternational Song Days inEssen, theFederal Republic's first underground festival.[8] There, Langhans met and fell in love withUschi Obermaier, amodel fromMunich. She lived with the Munich-based music communeAmon Düül, but soon moved in with the communards of Kommune 1, who shared one bedroom. Soon, the press called Langhans and Obermaier the "best-looking couple of theAPO". Kunzelmann did not like the openly apolitical Obermaier.[1]
The politicization 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 thesexual revolution. Later,John Lennon andYoko Ono and others followed their example.[9]
All of a sudden, the commune was receiving visitors from all over the world, among themJimi Hendrix, who turned up one morning in the bedroom of Kommune 1. Obermaier fell in love with him.[10]
Eventually, the energy of Kommune 1 was spent. Kunzelmann's addiction toheroin worsened and in summer 1969 he was expelled from the commune.[1]
In November 1969, a gang of threeRockers raided the commune and destroyed the rooms. They had earlier helped Langhans in expelling some unwanted people from the commune, and now came back to claim their share of the 50,000 Marks that Stern supposedly had paid.[1] The remaining occupants lost their belief in the future of Kommune 1 and dispersed. Obermaier and Langhans went to Munich.[10]
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