A Police democratises itself
Diskussionskommando Berlin
External coaching
The internal trainings were accompanied and seconded by a number of external coaching and tutorials. Of course their subject was social and political issues. A rhetorics course, run by the Police Union, proved to be especially supportive. It made talking with ideologically rigid people a lot easier. Now, it was not our primary aim to engage in political debate. We wanted to prevent vio- lence, but to achieve that we needed to be heard by the masses standing by, too, and to convince them. Sophisticated rhetorics were indeed an important means, but not enough. Angry and aggressive masses had to get the feeling that we were serious, sincere, and meant what we were saying. That included mingling with the demonstrators without our clubs and guns. Thus we made visible that we really wanted to "just talk", that it was not a trap. Concerning the relationship between cops and students, psychology professor Siegfried Schubenz had a particu- larly brilliant idea. Group 47 members would come to the Free University's Psychology Department to attend one of his regular seminars. Given the rather hostile attitude of the students that sounded like sheer mad-ness. Indeed, there were voices warning us, it would be dangerous. And maybe it was in the beginning, but only in theory. None of us has ever been even molested, let alone threatened. Most students just showed a subdued curiosity or outright indifference. Those who shared tables with us were simply surprised about our involvement and gained an insight new for them: cops are not necessarily uneducated idiots. And that was exactly the point of the whole thing. Calculating that every student who met us there and got to know us is a multiplier, the seminar couldn't have been more valuable in the long run. Instead of moving further on the confrontational path, we were all strengthened in our willingness to understand each other.
Copyright D e t l e f W u l f f 2008-2016 / English: P i e k e B i e r m a n n, Berlin Germany
68th Revolt
A banality nowadays, but an unheard-of step
forward then. We had both been through terrible
encounters with each other. Now we were talking to
each other, on eyes' height, without rancour and
without aggressiveness.
Instead of moving further on the confrontational
path, we were all strengthened in our willingness to
understand each other. A banality nowadays, but
an unheard-of step forward then. We had both
been through terrible encounters with each other.
Now we were talking to each other, on eyes' height,
without rancour and without aggressiveness.
Thus, students and cops together went through an
experience that might even lead to a more civilian
encounter with each other in future rallies and
teach-ins. But it also burdened us, the unit officers,
with a special role. In front of the students we de-
fended police attitudes and behavior and some-
times even the Berlin senate's politics – in our
private lives it was the other way round. Berliners
were sometimes so extremely hostile towards the
students' movement that we had to take up a clear
position against.
Violence is principally unacceptable, no matter by
whom it is used. For us the situation was not
easy to deal with, somehow chizophrenic. No
wonder that some time later a superior tried to
accuse me of organizing communist subversion
within Berlin police. It was a reproach as stupid
as it could be, but it clearly shows the different
way of thinking and the pre-vailing attitude
within the police of those days.
We also had courses outside Berlin, the most
popular among them at the Osteuropa-Seminar
in Cologne and in tutorials at the Evangelische
Bildungsakademie in Loccum (Lower Saxony).
A Police democratises itself
