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University of Wisconsin–Madison
October 1967
A Turning Point

The Day in Photos

Graduate students John Wolf and Heiner Giese, friends since high school, witnessed the events of Oct. 18, 1967, as neutral observers armed with two cameras. Wolf, a freelance photographer, gave Giese one of his cameras, and the two shot 144 frames, capturing scenes inside and outside the Commerce Building.

Portrait of John Wolf

PhotographerJohn Wolf

John Wolf earned a master’s degree in the history of science from UW–Madison in 1971. He worked as a science writer and communications specialist for UW–Madison for 35 years, retiring as a campus editor in 2006. He resides in Madison.

Portrait of Heiner Giese

PhotographerHeiner Giese

Heiner Giese earned a law degree from UW–Madison in 1969. He resides in the Milwaukee area, where he continues to practice law.

Click through the slideshow below to view some of these previously unpublished photos and to hear the two discuss their memories of the protest. See more photos taken by John and Heiner in the Timeline.

Slideshow

Students confronting police
A woman confronts a police officer after protesters had been forcibly removed from the Commerce Building. Credit: John Wolf and Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “This was right after the corridor had been cleared, and there was a crowd already forming outside, wondering what the heck was going on.”

Heiner Giese: “Well, the protesters had been removed and the police were still guarding the entrance. And the students are sort of confronting them, saying, ‘What did you do? What have you done here? Why are you here?’”

John Wolf: “And from there on the crowd got larger and things started getting thrown. I was standing right next to a policeman who got hit in the face with a shoe that was thrown at him.”

University Police Chief Ralph Hanson tries to make his way through seated student protestors in the hallway of the Commerce Building.
UW–Madison Police Chief Ralph Hanson wades through student protesters inside the Commerce Building. The students had staged a sit-in to block recruiters from the Dow Chemical Company from being able to interview students that day. Credit: John Wolf

John Wolf: “This is inside, and this is University of Wisconsin Police Chief Ralph Hanson, who always tried to maintain a friendly attitude with the students, and he tried for a couple of hours to defuse the situation before he finally had to declare it an unlawful assembly.”

A police officer moves to strike a student on the floor, protecting his head, in the hallway of the Commerce Building.
A Madison police officer clubs a protester in a corridor of the Commerce Building as authorities begin forcibly removing demonstrators. Photos such as this one were later used in court to show that police had used their riot sticks against protesters. Credit: John Wolf

John Wolf: “Well, the police started to clear the hallway in the Commerce Building. The thought was, I think, that the police were going to drag the students out because most of the students were sitting on the floor or lying on the floor. But this student, who is clearly sitting, is getting clubbed before he gets dragged out. It wasn’t exactly the way it was supposed to go.”

A police officer uses his billy club to strike the back of a protester as members of the crowd look on in disbelief and anger.
A police officer uses his billy club to strike the back of a protester as members of the crowd look on in disbelief and anger. Credit: Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “OK, this is Heiner’s famous shot of the club coming down on the back of the demonstrator with the crowd in the background looking rather horrified. And there I am, popping my head.”

Heiner Giese: “Top of John’s head in the foreground, here, plus getting the expressions of the people’s faces is very telling. Of all these pictures this is the one that, over the years, has led to a lot of jokes about my expert photography since he’s of course actually the photographer and the expert and he just gives me a camera and I go ahead and take some shots and hope I hold the camera right.”

John Wolf: “Well, he’s the tall one, so he cheats.”

Heiner Giese: “Yeah, and I got that great shot there.”

After demonstrators had been cleared from the Commerce Building, a protester faces police officers outside with an open hand, as if to say, “What’s going on?”
After demonstrators had been cleared from the Commerce Building, a protester faces police officers outside with an open hand, as if to say, “What’s going on?” Credit: John Wolf and Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “After the demonstrators had been cleared, a row of people who are worried about what’s going on are facing the police outside the Commerce Building. This picture happens to show one of the people with his hand open, like, ‘What’s going on?’ And right next to him, partially blocked, is another protester who shows up more clearly in one of the more famous photos from the day, who also is looking very anguished and upset about the whole situation.”

A student carrying books, perhaps on his way to or from classes, comes upon a scene of police officers attempting to handcuff a demonstrator.
A student carrying books, perhaps on his way to or from classes, comes upon a scene of police officers attempting to handcuff a demonstrator. “It’s an interesting juxtaposition,” says photographer John Wolf. “It was just kind of a normal day on campus with classes going on, but there’s this little riot going on at the same time.” Credit: John Wolf and Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “These are apparently people who were going from class to class. A lot of them probably had no idea that there was a demonstration going on at the time and just stopped to see what was going on. So it’s an interesting juxtaposition. It was just kind of a normal day on campus with classes going on, but there’s this little riot going on at the same time.”

A group of policemen cover their mouths as they walk through a tear gas-filled haze.
Police officers react to the tear gas they used to disperse protesters during the demonstration against the Dow Chemical Company. It was the first time tear gas was used on the UW–Madison campus. Credit: John Wolf and Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “There were definitely some people hurt during the demonstration, and some of the police, too. So yeah, it was a little frightening to be in that, and feeling bad about the people getting injured, yeah, although we were running around so much and trying to keep ourselves out of harm’s way and get pictures at the same time that we weren’t as empathetic as we perhaps should have been.”

Heiner Giese: “There’s a shock element to it. You’re not processing it much, you’re processing it in the immediate moment and you’re not thinking that much, I think, of, ‘Well, what’s going on here? What is the deeper meaning?’ Although the deeper meaning of ‘This is really terrible’ does impinge on you.”

On the evening of the Dow protest, thousands of students regrouped on Library Mall and decided to boycott classes the next day to show their disgust at what they considered police brutality. The prominent building in the background houses the Wisconsin Historical Society.
On the evening of the Dow protest, thousands of students regrouped on Library Mall and decided to boycott classes the next day to show their disgust at what they considered police brutality. The prominent building in the background houses the Wisconsin Historical Society. Credit: John Wolf and Heiner Giese

John Wolf: “I think that was the same night. This is Library Mall. It drew a big crowd of demonstrators, too. And then the next day there were continuing demonstrations: ‘Cops off campus,’ ‘Troops out of Vietnam.’”

Heiner Giese: I remember a gathering — I wonder if it was that same night, it was soon thereafter — at the Terrace. It was a very quiet, discussion-kind of thing, and I remember the phrase this one professor used, ‘The fabric of the university has been torn.’ That just stuck with me for some reason.”

In the summer of 2017 John and Heiner revisited the halls of the Commerce Building and campus, remembering how the day unfolded. Listen to their commentary and see more of their images.

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A crowd of students is held back by police at the Anti-Dow Chemical protest, as seen through a broken window at the Commerce Building.