The late 1960s saw the publication of underground magazines almost everywhere in Germany. They were part of a broad cultural tendency that was seen as revolutionary—a “great social happening” (Rolf Lindner) that originated in the USA and encompassed film, literature, theatre, and music. In her book, Anja Schwanhäußer examines a broad archive of these dazzlingly diverse underground publications, whose designs were often wild and unruly. She analyses their style and the interplay of aesthetic and cultural practice, which made the subculture the catalyst of postmodern society. A unique and methodologically precise introduction to the German underground, the book appears in collaboration with the Archive of Independent Publishing at the HfK Bremen.
Anja Schwanhäußer works at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology at the University of Göttingen. Her research focuses on youth and subcultures, cultural studies, and urban anthropology.
