Peter M. Michels 1941–2011

HfG Ulm 1962-1966
IUP Ulm 1971-1972
 

Peter Michels was the last student of the Information Department. He began his studies at the HfG immediately after his A-levels/high school diploma in the academic year 1962/63. He interrupted his HfG studies to study journalism in Berlin and completed it in 1971 at the Ulm Institute for Environmental Design (IUP) [the shortlived institute in which the remaining students could graduate after the HfG's closure]. His thesis, which he wrote together with Joachim Heimbucher, was titled "Bauhaus – HfG – IUP. Documentation and Analysis of Three Educational Institutions in the Field of Environmental Design." It was the first (albeit unpublished) scientific work that dealt with the then still young history of the HfG.

Peter Michels grew up in a Bauhaus-affine home and was attracted by the HfG's reputation as a "Bauhaus successor". The fact that he then decided in favour of the department that represented the greatest difference to the Bauhaus was due to his strong political orientation. The topics he adressed in his professional life, his radio broadcasts, and publications, testify to this political commitment. They deal with voting rights, freedom and domination, prisons without walls, and "women in the anti-imperialist movement". Later, it was about the black ghettos and the lumpenproletariat of the USA, resistance against the Vietnam War, labor struggles of farm workers, and repeatedly about the rights of ethnic minorities in the USA and the Caribbean. On his website, he described himself as "journalist, author, media worker" – thus exactly fitting the profile that Inge Scholl, Otl Aicher, and Hans Werner Richter had aimed for with the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule planned in the late 1940s: After the catastrophe of Hitler's fascism, the aim was to train holistically educated, critical-democratic publicists and journalists in Ulm. Peter Michels was exactly that.

 

Biographical note on Peter Michels' website

Due to the events of World War II, I was born in 1941 near Mainz on the Rhine. I grew up there without a father and graduated from high school in 1962. In the same year, I began my studies at the (no longer existing) School of Design in Ulm (hfg ulm) – founded in 1951 by Max Bill and the Geschwister-Scholl-Foundation to continue the Bauhaus tradition. Before I graduated from the Information Department there, I studied for several semesters at the Institute for Journalism at the Free University of Berlin. From 1973/74, I was an academic tutor for three semesters at the America Institute at the University of Frankfurt/Main.

I started working in my later professional field during my studies as an intern at Radio Bremen and Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. Due to my birth year, the circumstances of the time, and spontaneous interests, I was almost automatically drawn into the student movement before 1968. My curiosity about the American SDS [edito's note: “SDS” actually stands for Socialist German Student Union – probably he refers to a leftist student union in the USA.] and the then-current protest movement against the Vietnam War took me to the USA for the first time in 1970. I financed these and all subsequent trips by writing – until I realised that I had become a freelance writer.

My favorite domain became the one-hour radio feature, which at many ARD [German Broadcast] stations at the time had a similarly stable listenership as the more academic evening studio [Abendstudio] and the literary or experimental radio plays. It was only the wealth of documentary material that later led to the compulsion to produce a book on one topic or another. [editors note: Michels does not mention the Kurt Magnus Prize of the ARD, which he received in 1967 for his radio programmes, on his website.]

The themes arose from the contacts I had sought and established during my first trip to America: with nameless members, known representatives, and leaders of almost all coloured minorities and protest movements in the USA – in short with "the movement" of the seventies. Through Puerto Ricans in New York and Chicago, my desire to visit their homeland of Puerto Rico grew. From there, I began my personal discovery of the Caribbean, which on the one hand led to a marriage with a woman from Trinidad, and on the other hand repeatedly gave me new insights into a foreign coloured world whose social, cultural and political inconsistencies fitted in well with my own restlessness and search for an inner home.

 

From the foreword to the book "Black Perspectives

[…] These articles are intended to help younger readers in particular to look back on the situation and development of the diverse political and cultural movements in the USA and the Caribbean, which were influenced by the historically significant 1968 movement.

Many of the topics and contributions presented here I had worked up in other forms 10 to 25 years ago, mainly into one-hour radio programmes. My interest in the political protest movements in the New World began as a student who was influenced by the arising '68 movement, which then largely determined my career as a freelance journalist. At that time, the ARD broadcasters had an established and popular series of radio features, which in its one-hour form was ideal for presenting informative, documentary and dramaturgically entertaining reports that did not have to be limited to current affairs, but could rather describe, analyse, and interpret current events in an exemplary manner. Thanks to the response of the very grateful audience, which had made the feature one of the most popular radio genres alongside the radio play, I was able to repeatedly go on new exploratory trips to the USA and the Caribbean over many years, from which I was able to refresh my collections of material and knowledge on the topics that interested me.

My first two long trips to the USA at the beginning of the seventies were incomparably impressive. They resulted in contacts with practically all the important minorities in the USA, including their most important organisations at that time. In addition to various radio broadcasts, the results of this research were also reflected in my first two books, which dealt with the organisation of the lumpenproletariat and resistance to the Vietnam War within the US armed forces.

During my first stays in New York and Chicago, I also came into contact with the Puerto Rican movement in the form of the "Young Lords". It was this that sparked my interest in visiting their home island of Puerto Rico, through which my personal preference for the world of the Caribbean then began. The historical connection between Puerto Rico and Cuba through their common liberation struggles alone made me want to travel to Cuba soon after my first visit to Puerto Rico in 1973, which I managed to do in 1976, when individual trips there were still almost impossible, even for journalists. During the same period, I "discovered" the rest of the Caribbean in my own way, which resulted in a very special relationship with Trinidad. This also resulted in a nine-year marriage to a Trinidadian woman.

The accumulated knowledge and my experience led to a three-semester part-time job as a tutor at the American Institute of the University of Frankfurt in 1973. The end of this activity was determined by the dismantling of the one-third parity in the university appointment committees [editor's note: parity of votes between professors, employees, and students]. This was decreed in 1975 under the zeitgeist against the achievements of the 1968 movement, when a proof of loyalty to the constitution became mandatory which allowed neo-conservatism to find a new foothold in German universities. I started a new part-time job in 1982 as a tutor for regional studies of the English-speaking Caribbean at the German Foundation for International Development, which prepares development workers and experts for their overseas assignments. The steadily decreasing number of experts travelling to the Caribbean is a measure of the relative insignificance of this region in recent years, which, as the declared backyard of the USA, was considered a special crisis region of the world until the 1980s. The US invasion of Grenada in 1983 was the peak of the ideological and power-political confrontations in this disparate Caribbean region, which then began to suffer only from party-politically alternating economic reforms as a result of the East-West détente under the imperative of globalisation.

 

Books

Aufstand in den Ghettos – Zur Organisation des Lumpenproletariats in den USA [Uprising in the Ghettos – On the Organisation of the Lumpenproletariat in the USA], Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt, 1972

 

Bericht über den politischen Widerstand in den USA – Zur politischen Organisation in Streitkräften gegen den Vietnam-Krieg [Report on political resistance in the USA – On political organisation in the armed forces against the Vietnam War], Edition Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, 1974

 

Wetbacks, Kojoten und Gorillas – Arbeits­kämpfe der Farmarbeiter in den USA [Wetbacks, Coyotes and Gorillas – Labour Struggles of Farm Workers in the USA], Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt/Cologne, 1976

 

Rastafari – Religion und Revolution in Jamaica [Rastafari – Religion and Revolution in Jamaica], Trikont Verlag, Munich, 1979

 

Black Perspectives – Berichte zur schwarzen Bewegung, Band 1: USA [Black Perspectives – Reports on the Black Movement, Volume 1: USA], Atlantik Verlag, Bremen, 1999

 

Black Perspectives – Berichte zur schwarzen Bewegung, Band 2: Karibik [Black Perspectives – Reports on the Black Movement, Volume 2: Caribbean], Atlantik Verlag, Bremen, 1999

 

 

Radio programmes (selection)

Der 20. Juli 1944 – Der Widerstand gegen Hitler [The 20th July 1944 – The resistance against Hitler], 1965

 

Anschluss oder Konföderation – Bericht über die Versuche, die deutsche Frage zu lösen [Annexation or Confederation – Report on the attempts to solve the German question], 1967

 

Die Qual mit dem Wahlrecht – Erkundungen eines innenpolitischen Problems [The trouble with voting rights – explorations of a domestic political problem], 1967

 

Freiheit oder Liberalität – Porträt der westdeutschen Nachkriegseliten [Freedom or Liberality – Portrait of the West German post-war elites], 1968

 

Die neuen Herrscher – Aufstieg, Funktion und Gesellschaftsbild der Manager [The new rulers – the rise], function and social image of managers], 1970

 

Sozialrebellen oder Gangster – Zur Geschichte und Arbeitsweise der Mafia [Social rebels or gangsters – on the history and working methods of the Mafia], 1970

 

Über Leichen an die Spitze. Geschichte, Praxis, Erfolge der Mafia [Over dead bodies to the top. History, practice, successes of the Mafia], 1971

 

Auf dem Weg zum Gefängnis ohne Mauern – Vollzugsgruppenarbeit in Hannover [On the way to a prison without walls – prison group work in Hanover], 1971

 

Die Schüsse von Kent, Dokumentarbericht zur Studentenbewegung in den USA [The Kent Shots, documentary report on the student movement in the USA], 1971

 

Schule der Nation oder Schule des Widerstands, Dokumentarbericht zur Anti-Kriegsbewegung in den USA [School of the Nation or School of Resistance, documentary report on the anti-war movement in the USA], 1971

 

Vom Sexualobjekt zur Revolutionärin – Die Frau in der antiimperialistischen Bewegung [From sexual object to revolutionary – The woman in the anti-imperialist movement], 1972

 

Young Lords – Die Partei der Puertoricaner in den USA [Young Lords – The Puerto Rican Party in the USA], 1972

 

Lumpen oder Proletariat – Organisationsversuche revolutionärer Minderheiten in den USA [Rascal or proletariat – Attempts to organise revolutionary minorities in the USA], 1972

 

Soziales Elend in einem reichen Land – Zum Alltag der Minderheiten in den USA [Social misery in a rich country – On the everyday life of minorities in the USA], 1972

 

Menschen ohne Menschenrechte – Zur Situation der Indianer in den USA [Humans without Human Rights – On the Situation of the Indians in the USA], 1973

 

Irland-Report I, II, III – Geschichte und Entwicklung eines Problems [Ireland Report I, II, III – History and Development of a Problem], 1973

 

Die Chicanos – Zur Rolle der mexikanischen Minderheit in den USA [The Chicanos – The role of the Mexican minority in the USA], 1973

 

Des roten Mannes Hüter – Das Verhältnis der Indianer zum BIA [The red man's keeper – The relationship of the Indians to the BIA], 1973

 

Acht Jahre Streik in Coachella – Arbeitskämpfe der Farmarbeiter in den USA [Eight years of the Coachella strike – Farm workers' industrial action in the USA], 1973

 

Vierundsiebzig Cents für einen Morgen – Der Kampf der Pit River-Indianer um ihr Land [Seventy-four cents for an acre – The struggle of the Pit River Indians for their land], 1973

 

Blutige Kohle – Zur Situation der Berg­arbeiter in den USA [Bloody coal – The situation of miners in the USA], 1974

 

Spanish Harlem – Bericht aus einem New Yorker Ghetto [Spanish Harlem – Report from a New York ghetto], 1974

 

Puerto Rico – Schaufenster der USA in der Karibik [Puerto Rico – Showcase of the USA in the Caribbean], 1975

 

Jamaica: Zwischen Sklaverei und Revolution – Eine Zustandsbeschreibung [Jamaica: Between slavery and revolution – A description of the situation], 1976

 

Der Krieg, der nie statt fand – Bericht zum Konflikt um die Westsahara [The war that never took place – Report on the conflict over the Western Sahara], 1976

 

Dreadlocks in Babylon – Die Rastafari-Bewegung in Jamaica [Dreadlocks in Babylon – The Rastafarian movement in Jamaica], 1976

 

Cuba Libre – Sechs Kapitel über den kubanischen Sozialismus [Cuba Libre – Six chapters on Cuban socialism], 1977

 

Eritrea und die Folgen, Bericht zu einer ­Reise ins östliche Afrika [Eritrea and the consequences, report on a trip to East Africa], 1977

 

Souverän im Jahr 2000, Bericht über ­Panama und den Kanal [Sovereign in the year 2000, Report on Panama and the Canal], 1977

 

Guyana: Zwischen Unterentwicklung und Sozialismus – Eindrücke aus einem vergessenen Land [Guyana: Between underdevelopment and socialism – Impressions from a forgotten country], 1978

 

Das Volk mit den Mondkindern – Bericht über einen Indianerstamm in Panama [The people with the moon children – Report on an Indian tribe in Panama], 1978

 

Sandino – Ein Porträt [Sandino – A portrait], 1978

 

Haiti – Im 8. Jahr der Liberalisierung [Haiti – In the 8th year of liberalisation], 1979

 

Pan – Musik aus Trinidad [Pan – Music from Trinidad], 1979

 

Traumwelt Karibik – Kontrastprogramm oder Profile einer Krisenregion [Dream World Caribbean – Contrast Programme or Profiles of a Crisis Region], 1979

 

Karibische Frauen – Zwischen Sklaverei, Selbstbefreiung und Black Power [Caribbean Women – Between Slavery, Self-Liberation and Black Power], 1980

 

Black Power – Black Consciousness – Das schwarze Denken in der Karibik und den USA [Black Power – Black Consciousness – Black Thought in the Caribbean and the USA], 1980

 

Afrika im Herzen – Der Kampf der schwarzen Amerikaner gegen die Integration [Africa in the heart – The struggle of black Americans against integration], 1981

 

Kolumbus kam zu spät – Zur Entdeckung Amerikas durch Schwarzafrikaner [Columbus came too late – The discovery of America by black Africans], 1982

 

Mitbürger oder Sündenbock – Bericht über die Unsicherheit der Ausländer unter uns [Fellow citizen or scapegoat – Report on the insecurity of foreigners among us], 1982

 

Die Heimkehr der verlorenen Stämme – Über schwarze Juden und Falaschen [The Return of the Lost Tribes – On Black Jews and Falash], 1986

 

Reise durch das Land von Kunta Kinte – Bericht aus Gambia, dem kleinsten Staat Afrikas [Journey through the land of Kunta Kinte – Report from Gambia, the smallest state in Africa], 1987

 

Wie man die Fässer zum Klingen brachte – Geschichte und Entwicklung der Steelbands in Trinidad [How to make the barrels ring – History and development of steelbands in Trinidad], 1987

 

Rentnerland oder Einwanderungsland? – Die BRD nach dem Jahr 2000 [Land of pensioners or land of immigration? – The Federal Republic of Germany after the year 2000], 1988

 

Kampf für die „Carpet Boys“ – Kinderarbeit und Schuldknechtschaft in Indien [Fight for the "Carpet Boys" – Child labour and bonded labour in India], 1990

 

Pestizide, der giftige Segen – Fortschritt und Gefahr durch Pflanzenschutzmittel [Pesticides, the poisonous blessing – progress and danger through plant protection products], 1992

 

Sklaverei ist verboten – Bericht über Formen und Ausmaß der modernen Sklaverei [Slavery is forbidden – Report on the forms and extent of modern slavery], 1993

 

Book cover Aufstand in den Ghettos – Zur Organisation des Lumpenproletariats in den USA [Uprising in the Ghettos – On the Organization of the Lumpenproletariat in the USA], 1972
Book cover Bericht über den politischen Widerstand in den USA [Report on political resistance in the USA], 1974