POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS 69
failed and been too weak on the one hand, but also too extreme in its use
of violence on the other. The doubled escalation of violence in 1977 as
a result of terrorism, as well as the anti–nuclear power demonstrations
such as the one in Brokdorf, prompted both sides to ponder the impli-
cations of this vortex of violence. While protesters and terrorists who
were willing to resort to violence lost much of their support among the
Left, the police made a stronger commitment to collective de-escalation
in the 1980s. The excessive use of police force, such as in the case of the
anti-nuclear protesters in Hamburg in 1986, was branded a scandal and
declared to be illegal.^91 The explicit condemnation of violence on both
sides also proved to be characteristic of the blossoming peace movement
and green politics.
In the GDR, violence remained at the core of the offi cial understanding
of politics. As of the 1950s, the SED reigned in its capriciousness in this
regard, creating a preventive state surveillance apparatus that was in a
league of its own even within the Communist bloc.^92 Yet the Party did not
completely give up on the idea of the state’s unrestricted monopoly on
violence. Bloodshed was still considered to be legitimate, but it tended
to be kept better under wraps. The regime’s support of West German
and Arabic terrorism, as well as the assassinations of people who helped
others fl ee the country, was all done secretly. However, it could not avoid
the publicity surrounding shots fi red at the Wall. But this battleground
was far too vital for the SED to quit the fi eld. The concessions made by
the SED to civilize political confl icts led to the rather bizarre situation
that demonstrators in the fall of 1989 feared a “Chinese solution” just as
much as they were still outraged over the already more restrained use of
police batons by the Volkspolizei (“people’s police”) given its claims to be
on the side of the people. The opposition, on the other hand, had already
deemed collective violence to be pointless in the second half of the 1950s
and put such ideas on the shelf.
The transformation of politics in the 1970s and 1980s was not limited
to explicit protests or formal political groups. Especially in the West, but
also in some urban areas in the East, certain lifestyles expressed political
distinctions. In particular, this could be seen in the leftist-alternative mi-
lieu that built its own world in old neighborhoods in university towns and
large cities. Around 1980, it was estimated that the hard core of this like-
minded community amounted to half a million activists plus a further 5.6
million sympathizers. The subjectifi cation of politics and the elimination
of its boundaries were hallmarks of this group. Rather than focusing on
any particular political theory, personal experience of a leftist-alternative
life characterized by empathy and self-discovery, as well as authenticity
and camaraderie, was paramount.^93 Lifestyle and habitus thus drew lines