On 3 October 1968 the conference of West German education ministers decided to introduce the “New Mathematics” in all types of school from the 1972/73 school year. The most spectacular change was in primary school. Mathematics no longer began with counting and arithmetic, but with set theory, the Mengenlehre. Parents and teachers resisted, and the reform was withdrawn after a few years. Der Spiegel headlined Große Verwirrung, great confusion, in 1972, and Mengenlehre: 3+5=5+3 in 1974.