The Spontis or Sponti movement was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

movement in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in 1970s-1980s. The name is an abbreviation for the word "spontaneous", in reference to their preference of "

revolutionary spontaneity Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolu ...

of the masses" over theoretically- and party-based movements. A significant force of this movement were university students.

Sponti-Sprüche

A notable feature of the Spontis was their ("Sponti-Sprüche") - slogans and adages, often humorous and sarcastic, parodying various political slogans and mottos or twisting well-known proverbs and sayings. For example: "Yesterday we were on the edge of the abyss. Today we are stepping forward," or " Liberté, Égalité, Pfefferminztee". Some Sponti sayings, such as "Wissen ist Macht, nichts wissen, macht auch nichts" ("

Knowledge is Power The phrase "" (or "" or also "") is a Latin aphorism meaning "knowledge is power", commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon. The expression "" ('knowledge itself is power') occurs in Bacon's ''Meditationes Sacrae'' (1597). The exact phrase "" ( ...

, (but) knowing nothing does not matter anyway") survived for many years after Sponti times, sometimes acquiring different meanings. Ulrike Rechel says that it "probably belongs to the top 5 of all slogans on toilet walls in universities or schools". She further comments that not knowing something seems to be not critical today, in the time of Google and Wikipedia, and smartphones, when any piece of knowledge is a couple of keyboard clicks away, in contrast to the times of

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

, when gaining knowledge was associated with much effort. But this attitude eventually leads to various social problems.Ulrike Rechel
"MACHEN WISSENSLÜCKEN UNS IMMER DÜMMER?"
("Do knowledge gaps always make us dumber?") (See also ''Wissen ist Macht'' in Germany.)

Notable members

Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German former politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 200 ...

Daniel Cohn-Bendit Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (; ; born 4 April 1945) is a French-German politician. Born stateless to a German-Polish Ashkenazi Jewish family, Daniel Cohn-Bendit obtained German citizenship in 1959 and French citizenship in 2015. Cohn-Bendit was a ...

Sponti-Sprüche

Notable members

References

Further reading