The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Students' Union or Socialist German Students' League — was founded in 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the collegiate branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
In late 1966, it became active when the SPD and Christian Democratic Union formed a grand coalition, which left Germany without a strong opposition inside parliament, since members of those two parties represented more than 90% of the seats in the Bundestag.
In May and June 1967, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visited West Germany.
The students involved used the same methods of protest as the anti-war movement in the United States at that time, for example sit-ins and demonstrations.
The student movement reached its height in 1968 (its membership peaked at 2,500 at that time); after that the influence of the SDS declined.