Isabel Richter is in charge of the German Historical Institute, Pacific Office Berkeley, and one of the deputy directors of the GHI in Washington, D.C. Isabel worked on German cultural history (late 18th century to the present), National Socialism and its aftermath, resistance and countercultures in the 20th century, the history of life stages (youth, aging, end of life, and death), and on the global 1960s. Her most recent publications include “Psychonauts and Seekers: West German Entanglements in the Spiritual Turn of the Global 1960s and 1970s,” in Contemporary European History 33 (2024) 1, and “An Era of Value Change: The Long 1970s in Europe”, co-edited with Fiammetta Balestracci and Christina von Hodenberg (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Indigeneity and the Politics of Belonging in 1960s Countercultures

My paper focuses on the influence of Native American spiritual practices on countercultures and youth cultures of the long 1960s, specifically the way in which the latter received and understood Peyote cultures and the use of sacred mushrooms. The transnational reception of indigenous spiritual practices illustrates the extent to which countercultures in the global 1960s were influenced by international connections and by information that flowed over porous borders. Cultural encounters, expectations, fantasies, interactions, and conflicts between Native American practices and Western spiritual seekers in the global 1960s help show how Indigeneity and the politics of belonging were contested and challenged in the countercultures of the 1960s. Approaching contemporary German history from an international perspective helps show how knowledge about body-mind practices traveled from India, Amazonia, Mexico, and other parts of North America to West Germany, making West Germany an exemplary global-local intersection of the spiritual turn of the long 1960s.