 The turning point occurred in 1974 when the Social Democratic Party of Germany "Land" government of Hesse attempted to abolish history as a subject in the Hesse educational system and to replace it with "social studies".Stürmer played a major role in campaigning for the defeat of the SPD government in the 1974 elections.Starting in the early 1980s Stürmer became a well-known figure in the Federal Republic, with frequent contributions to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" newspaper, his editorship of a number of popular book series entitled "The Germans and their Nation" and holding a series of lectures for the general public.