How and why was the intelligentsia important fpr the West German student movement?

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Sociology - Individual, Groups, Society, grade: 1.0 (A), Lancaster University (Department for European Languages and Cultures), course: Youth and Political Culture in the 1960s., language: English, abstract: The following essay is supposed to follow the question "e;How and why was theintelligentsia important for the West German student movement . It is primarilyessential to clarify two significant points in order to answer this question. Firstly, incontrast to popular thought there was never such thing as one solid West Germanstudent movement. There were always different partly opposite- student groups. The spectrum of the student movement embraced groups of various politicalpersuasions, ranging from the [conservative, R.E.] Christian Democrats, to theLiberal students, the more moderate socialist students (S.H.B.) and the radicalsocialist federation of students (S.D.S.). 1To simplify matters it is necessary to reduce the complexity of all these groups. TheSDS (Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund) was undisputedly the most importantgroup of the student movement, having occupied the leading role in the studentprotests. Besides, most discussions and intellectual approaches started within theSDS or within its numerous organisations.2 Though, it offers to reduce the concept ofWest German student movement to the SDS for reasons of practicability. [...]1 Weller/Will v.d., 522 Langguth, 36