Jens Litten
 Jens Litten    (student leader) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1944? |
| Nationality | German |
Verbally radical student leader who was in the process of choosing career over radicalism | |
Jens Litten was a radical student leader in 1968 who later switched sides and worked for Axel Springer - as editor in chief of the Springer magazine "Winners", targeting the demographic of 'the newly successful'.
Early life
Jens Litten had a bourgeoisie background. His father was a stock exchange lawyer.
During the late 1960s Litten was one of the heads of the student movement (APO) in Hamburg, and President of the General Students' Committee (AStA). During the 1968 rebellions, he became known for his vocal revolutionary rhetoric. He participated in violent demonstrations, throwing rocks against the HQ of the reactionary Axel Springer press empire after the assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke.
A surprising choice for the 1969 Bilderberg meeting, which was looking for fresh blood, the invitation might be explained by his book "A Missed Revolution?"[1], published in early 1969, which criticized the movement he himself had led for "hectic actionism” and “a lack of reality control". (One might also speculate that he had some sort of contact with the authorities when he was student leader, which would have helped making him approved).
The choice was justified a decade later, when Litten developed the concept of the "Winners" magazine for Axel Springer together with Zurich-based HR consultant Dieter Rickert. "Stories about successful people, enriched with easily digestible economic topics. All according to the motto that 'success is really no shame'."[2]
He also took work for the cigarette company BAT and their top brand "HB", where he developed the "HB-Bildatlas" - a colorful series of booklets in which beautiful landscapes are presented under the HB label'; lucrative PR work for Lufthansa; and finally as a property buyer on Rügen. As analyst Albrecht Müller pointed out "Such a career is not entirely untypical for some who appeared particularly verbally radical and who later adapted themselves to the system to a special degree."[3]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1969 | 9 May 1969 | 11 May 1969 | Denmark Hotel Marienlyst Elsinore | The 18th Bilderberg meeting, with 85 participants |
