ChicagoHamburg30

ChicagoHamburg30

The Democratic National Convention: Chicago 1968

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The Democratic National Convention in Chicago 1968 was one of the most important political events in the twentieth century.

It was preceded by a number of earth-shaking crises, including the devastating Tet Offensive in Vietnam in January, President Lyndon B. Johnson's shocking announcement that he would not run for a second term in March, the assassination of beloved civil rights leader Martin Luther King in April, and then the assassination of popular presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in June.

In the midst of this turmoil, all eyes turned to the DNC in Chicago in August.

The cast of colorful characters includes the all-powerful Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, segregationist candidate Governor George Wallace, journalists Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, author Norman Mailer, activist leaders Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffmann, as well as hippies, yippies, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Mobe (the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam), the Poor People's Mule Train, and the Chicago Police.

Our expert guests include Dr. Charlotte Lerg (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich) and Prof. emir. Gary Kissick, who attended the protests in Chicago in August of 1968.


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About this podcast

The year 2024 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Chicago-Hamburg Sister-City Partnership. Join us in celebrating the special relationship with this 30-episode podcast series about the history, culture, literature, music, and people of Chicago. Guests will include scholars, journalists, writers, musicians, and thinkers who all have a special affection for Chicago, Hamburg, and the transatlantic relationship. We will launch our first episode in January 2024.

The podcast is sponsored by the Amerikazentrum-Hamburg, a non-partisan, not-for-profit institute dedicated to increasing transatlantic understanding and strengthening transatlantic relations. The podcast is produced by Andrew Sola. The hosts are Andrew Sola and Douglas Cowie. Wouter Verhulst of The Soundary composed the theme song. Henning Christiansen designed the logo.

The podcast logo evokes an enduring symbol of Chicago, the Ferris wheel, the first of which was built for the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. The Ferris wheel is also the centerpiece of the Hamburger Dom, Hamburg's carnival, held three times a year in the heart of the city. The stars on the wheel represent the stars on the city flags of Chicago and Hamburg.

by Amerikazentrum-Hamburg and Andrew Sola

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