Kommune I: Quellen zur Kommune Forschung

This is a document published by Kommune I in May 1968, and as stated in the editorial statement, intended to provide a look back at the activities of the commune since its inception, through material published by and about them in the media. The compilation contains 26 of the fliers produced by the commune to further their ideas and intentions, including the infamous no.8, posing the provocative question, ‘When will the department stores in Berlin burn?’, and calling on German students to follow the example of the burning Belgian department store in May 22 1967 as a protest against the war in Vietnam.[1] The publication also includes among other paraphernalia, a poster protesting ‘Murder’ in Vietnam, reproductions of articles published in Berliner Zeitung and Oberbaum blatt, information on Vietnam and other third world countries, articles tracing the inner workings of the commune, SDS correspondence in 1966, demonstration and campaign reports. An article from Dieter Kunzelmann on ‘Notices for creating revolutionary communes in metropoles’ and one from Rainer Langhans on ‘What happened here in Berlin- for newspaper readers’, were also included as well as a large number of photographs of commune members and events in Berlin. The pamphlet is one of the few documents published on Kommune I by the group themselves, and is not only a record of the trajectory of the group’s ongoing development and its reception in the media, but also instructional, to a degree, in the ways of commune culture in Berlin and its intended methods of propagation.