 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Leipzig Beat Revolt" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheLeipzig Beat Revolt, inGerman also calledLeipziger Beatdemo,Beatkrawalle orBeataufstand, took place on31 October 1965 inLeipzig-Mitte. The demonstration (Demo for short) was an expression of youth emancipation in theGDR, directed against the state ban onbeat music and numerous beat groups. The main reason for the demonstration was the ban imposed ten days earlier on 54 of the 58 registeredLeipzig bands,[1] including the popular bandButlers.[2] The demonstration was violently broken up by theVolkspolizei (People's Police) and theStasi (State Security) immediately after the start. Of the 264 demonstrators arrested, 97 were deployed for up to six weeks on “supervised work” in theKitzscher andUnited Schleenhain coal mine. The Leipzig Beat Demo was the largest non-approved demonstration in the GDR after the events of17 June 1953 and, along with the events of 7 October 1977 onBerlin'sAlexanderplatz (468 arrests),[3] remained unique in this form untilautumn 1989.
Making music in the group and the beat concerts not only meant fun in their free time, but also provided many young people with an outlet against government pressures. Initially, the beat movement was tolerated by the state authorities and even praised as a progressive phenomenon. In particular, attempts were made to influence young people through theyouth organization FDJ. As a result, in the early 1960s, FDJ officials and local cultural officials promoted and supported the young bands. This development was particularly evident in theSED Youth Communiqué issued in 1963,[4] which declared young people to be the "landlords of tomorrow” and promised them “trust and responsibility”. The emphasis on one's own responsibility, however, was later decidedly used against Beatmania.[5]
The 1964 Pentecost Germany meeting of the FDJ, from which the radio stationDT64 emerged,[6] is generally cited as the high point of the new openness. The youth functionary at the time,Hans Modrow, said later: "Of course, you understood that if you want to win over young people, you also have to accept what moves and inspires young people".[7]
The new opening of the FDJ central council, which praised the "guitar sound as a progressive phenomenon of dance music development" in a "point of view of the culture department on the work with the guitar groups", was controversial from the start. In particular, theBezirk Leipzig SED leadership suggested as early as 9 September 1964, "to take the chapel (meaning the butlers) and the youth groups who regularly attend dance evenings in this chapel into operational processing". A functionary of the "Ideological Commission of the City of Leipzig" gave his assessment "that the variety and the hits do not contribute to a positive upbringing of young people". The most important opponent of the new youth policy was in thePolitburo of the SED. WhileWalter Ulbricht took a holiday,Erich Honecker, then responsible for security issues in the Politburo, in preparation for the XI. Plenary session of theCentral Committee of the SED initiated the initiative and let the central committee debate "issues of youth work and the occurrence ofhooliganism" alongside other "socialism-foreign, harmful tendencies and views".[8]
A concert by theRolling Stones in West Berlin'sWaldbühne on 15 September 1965, at which riots broke out,[9] was a welcome argument for these determined opponents of the beat movement.
Two young people fromMarkkleeberg near Leipzig, who did not want to accept the ban, then producedleaflets calling for a protest demonstration.[10] The demonstration was supposed to take place on 31 October 1965 at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz in the center of Leipzig. Demand was the readmission of the beat bands. Due to the lack of time and the limited technical possibilities, the effectiveness of the leaflet campaign was low. When the authorities became aware of the planned action, they initially took action against the young people with agitation andpropaganda. The beat movement was defamed,[11] especially in the local press, and warned against taking part in the demonstration. At the Leipzig secondary and vocational schools, teachers and officials warned the students against participating and threatened non-compliance with expulsion from school and other penalties. While the leaflet campaign attracted comparatively little attention, the state's response had the opposite effect. Many young people only found out about the planned demonstration in this way.[12]
Finally, around 2,000 to 2,500 people, mostly young people, gathered on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz in front of theNew Town Hall. Among them a core of about 800 "real" Beat supporters and many officials and security forces in civilian clothes. The demonstration was broken up with a massive police presence using rubber truncheons, dogs and awater cannon.[13]
After this event, the GDR introduced the concept of hooliganism (in DDR German:Rowdytum) as acriminal offense[14] and reacted to the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in December 1965 with a radical change in culture and youth policy.
In his 1977 novelEs geht seinen Gang[15]Erich Loest integrated the Leipzig Beat Revolt into the biography of his hero Wolfgang Wülff. He only found out about the demonstration from his teacher inStaatsbürgerkunde (civics in DDR German), who repeatedly warned against participation in class, went to Leuschnerplatz out of curiosity and was bitten by a police dog. TheButlers are calledOld Kings here.