After its exclusion from the parent organization Social Democratic Party of Germany, the SDS became the leading element in the
Außerparlamentarische Opposition (APO; English:
Extraparliamentary Opposition). In late 1966, it became active when the SPD and
Christian Democratic Union formed a grand coalition, which left Germany without a strong opposition inside parliament, since members of those two parties represented more than 90% of the seats in the
Bundestag. The group consisted mainly of college and university students. The SDS opposed the
Vietnam War and Germany's political involvement in it, as well as the use of
nuclear weapons; and objected to the fact that many former
National Socialists (or Nazis) still held influential positions in West Germany. They also wanted to advance democratic structures in all institutions, for example in schools. In May and June 1967, the Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visited
West Germany. On June 2, 1967 in
West Berlin, Iranian and German students (including the Socialist German Student Union and
Confederation of Iranian Students) protested the Shah's visit, and it resulted in one student being killed. Alternative lifestyles and more tolerance for
same-sex couples, a more open treatment of sexual topics, the right to
abortion and equal rights for women are also associated with the APO, and the SDS as its best known representative. The students involved used the same methods of protest as the
anti-war movement in the United States at that time, for example
sit-ins and demonstrations. The student movement reached its height in 1968 (its membership peaked at 2,500 at that time); after that the influence of the SDS declined. In 1970 it disbanded. A resurrection of the SDS in 1988 proved of no importance. Important members of the SDS were
Helmut Schmidt, later
Chancellor of West Germany (he was a member while the SDS was still part of the SPD); the later
Red Army Faction member
Ulrike Meinhof; and
Rudi Dutschke. In 2007, the student organization of the recent German
Left Party, Die Linke, adopted the name Die Linke.SDS (Sozialistisch-Demokratischer Studierendenverband) at its founding congress. == Members ==